Christmas Also Means Tamale Season in the Southland

Before sunup on Tuesday, Celia Gomez’s fingers were already cramped as she kneaded pounds and pounds of masa.

Then she packed cheese, green sauce, pineapples and even coconuts into the dough and rolled the mix into corn husks. Gomez fired up the stove top, put the creations in industrial-sized steamers and monitored them for two hours.

This is a daily routine during the holidays for the Southland’s hundreds, perhaps thousands of tamaleras -- part-time tamale makers whose business soars during Christmas, with demand coming from both Latino and non-Latino customers.

While county health departments frown on the underground trade, these home-based businesses thrive all the same.

Gomez, who works in her Santa Ana kitchen, woke early every day in the weeks before Christmas. She’ll earn about $1,700 in two weeks selling 2,000 tamales.

“I like making them, and I like making my own money,” said Gomez, a 46-year-old mother of four. She sells tamales all year -- about 200 a week -- to 30 regular customers who are friends from church or from her native Jalisco, Mexico. She has a few non-Latino customers too.

“I keep coming back because they are just plain good,” said Guadalupe Chavez, 55. She bought four dozen tamales Tuesday, two weeks after purchasing seven dozen for the Virgin of Guadalupe’s feast day.

With Christmas, however, Gomez’s business increases dramatically. Tamales have become as much a staple in the Christmas meal as turkey.

“Christmas is the one time that is recognizable for non-Mexicans or Latinos who don’t know tamales to get a taste,” says Fresno poet Gary Soto, author of “Too Many Tamales,” a children’s story.

Gomez began selling tamales to make extra money.

She wanted a job that would allow her to take care of her son, who has Down’s syndrome.

Women like Gomez abound in Latino neighborhoods, even though their sales are illegal. Under county regulations, food prepared in a private home cannot be sold.

But health officials say it’s difficult to crack down on the practice since vendors do not operate out of stores.

In the Riverside County city of Romoland, a woman was cited last week after a health inspector saw fliers advertising her tamales, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. Wendy Taylor has a disabled daughter and an injured husband who is not working, and thought this was a way to earn money.

Gomez is aware that her operation is illegal. But one of her New Year’s resolutions is to seek a permit from the city.

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Times staff writer Jeff Gottlieb contributed to this report.