A December Danvurian Tradition : Making biscochitos and tamales

Christmas is around the corner and if you are a Danvurian, you know it's time to make truck loads of biscochitos and tamales with family. I am not too far off by saying "truck loads" believe me, Danvuian families usually roll deep!

Every year in December Danvurians get together (usually with mom, aunties and grandma) to make biscochitos and tamales. The good ol' days of all the little cousins running into the kitchen to help grandma and aunties roll out the masa for the tamales, and gramps and the uncles in the other room, watching college football and the Broncos on the tube. The older cousins were usually outside, in the garage smoking a "fatoljay" with the neighbor kids. I remember on one occasion running into the garage to get a basketball. I saw four of my older cousins and two neighbor kids standing in a circular formation facing each other, with a cloud of smoke over their heads. As I barged in uninvited they all turned their heads in a synchronized fashion with their cheeks puffed out from holding in the smoke. They actually thought by doing this that I couldn't smell anything. HA!

Cousin: "Aye (hey), what you doin' in ear (hear) buuud!"

Me: "Just came to get a basketball?!"

Cousin: "WHHhhoooooooo (exhales), better not tell grams were out here! Psssh, cuz I'll beat your ass bud!"

Me: "what are you guys doin'?" (I knew damn well what they were doing, I was just so cynical I had to hear it from them.)

Cousin: "Tssss, don't worry about it. hey when are them tamales gonna be done?! cuz we're All-hungry out here!"

Me: "Don't know, I'll check."

Cousin: "And Hey! better keep your mouth shut puss, and I'm "not-even" lying!"

I ran back into the house to ask grandma when we can eat. she replied with:

Gramz: "Oh poody (pretty) soon hito, where are your cousins?"

I didn't dare tell gramz that they were in the garage, leaning on Gramp's Caddy puffin' on the tweeds! This is just one of many fond memories I have of December family gatherings around the holidays.

Making biscochitos and tamales has been a Danvur tradition as far back as I can remember, and is sure to be passed on to the new generation. Hopefully the new generation will respect tradition/culture and continue this beautiful annual gathering. But todays generation of Danvurians are becoming more diverse, and I see a decline in the old Danvur chicano traditions, which is all good because they're making new traditions. For instance, my Gramz (grandmother) is close to 100 years old and can't quite continue the rigorous tasks of making masa, red chile and biscochitos from scratch. Thanks to my Momz, my mother stays with my Grams and helps keep the tradition by making biscochito & tamale care packages for my ginormous/multi-cultural family. If my mother had not taken the initiative this year, I would have been without the comforts of my Danvur Family tradition: The spicy, wholesome goodness of a warm tamale and the taste of black licorice from the anise seed baked inside the biscochitos.

Who knows, the vast majority of future Danvurians will be more diversified, and will create their own traditions. They'll probably create a fusion tamale that contains; plantains, black beans and Sriracha infused pork butt. And instead of biscochitos, it will be chicken apple empanadas with a rich demi-glaze (I know what a weird combination, but have you seen some of the new restaurants popping up around North Denver.) Davurians are no longer being influenced by a single cultural background. Danvurians are now catching on to the East coast "European influences and way of life" maybe the new tradition will be: riding to Grandma's house in a Vespa to make topas and drinking a good "porto" (port)?

All kidding aside, whatever new traditions you may have, any tradition is great as long as family sticks together.

Happy Holidayz!
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