Circus Tamales

Reading your section on tamales brought back wonderful memories of my childhood. The first tamales I remember were made by an English woman named Emma Harris Galindo. Emma met her husband when he played the part of an American Indian and she was a bareback rider in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Circus. I presume he taught her to make these delights. Parties at their home always seemed exotic to me with a lot of show-business people.

The other good tamales were made by a black man in Gary, Ind., named Mr. Dobbins. Dad would drive us in our new 1929 Essex from Chicago to Gary just for these treats.

MARY C. THOMAS

Garden Grove