Chicken, pork and rajas con queso are just some of the tamale variations you’ll find at La Gran Tamalada cultural culinary festival this weekend at the Historic Market Square.
The free family-friendly event takes place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and features not only plenty of tamales but also Mexican hot chocolate, buñuelos, live music, local vendors and tamale-making workshops.
The festival celebrates the history and tradition of tamales, which dates back to the times of Mesoamerican civilizations. Passed down through generations, the corn-based dish remains a staple of Mexican and other Latin American cuisines.
Though there are hundreds of varieties across different cultures in Latin America, the Mexican version most popular in San Antonio contains shredded pork cooked inside corn masa and wrapped tightly in corn husk leaves.
The husk, which President Gerald Ford famously bit into while in San Antonio to visit the Alamo in 1976, is not meant to be eaten, but kids attending the Gran Tamalada can learn how to make dolls out of the husks with kits distributed at kids craft tables at the festival.
This year’s event will kick off Saturday at 10 a.m. with a spoken word poem about the history of tamales. Until 6 p.m., local artists will perform live music along the plaza, while more than a dozen vendors sell their tamales. Vendors include Plantaqueria, Corina’s Tamales and Don Jordy Tamales.
Isela Hernandez of Hernan Mexico will be teaching the public how to make Mexican hot chocolate and champurrado, and while supplies last, learn how to make tamales and take home up to three free tamales at a live demonstration hosted by Mi Tierra outside La Margarita Mexican Restaurant & Oyster Bar.
“It’s a fun way to learn what you should be doing, what’s the right way to fold them,” said Mayra Hinojosa, general manager at Mi Tierra.
La Gran Tamalada started at the Guadalupe Arts Center in 2008 but quickly outgrew that space. Ellen Riojas Clark, who led the festival for several years at the Guadalupe Center, partnered with Chef Cariño Cortez to hand the event off to the Historic Market Square and La Familia Cortez in 2017.
Mi Tierra at the Historic Market Square has been preparing for tamale season for about a month now. Inside the kitchen at the restaurant, corn husk leaves lie next to a bowl of prepared masa with ancho and guajillo chiles.
“It carries our culture,” Hinojosa said. “Being that tamales have always been our go-to snack, our go-to item, you can make it stretch.” She said it was a way for people to feed large families and groups of workers.
Along with food and entertainment, the weekend festival will also host an artisan market along Concho Plaza, perfect for holiday gifts from local vendors.
This article has been updated to correctly identify the year in which La Gran Tamalada started.
