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My cultural group is Chicano’a, a term many Americans born in the United States but having Mexican descents use to identify. The term was popularized during the Chicano Movement of the 1960s by many Mexican Americans to express a political stance founded on pride in a shared cultural, ethnic, and community identity. Chicanos are one of the largest ethnic minority groups in the United States. Tamales originated in Mesoamerica as early as 5,000 – 8,000 B.C.E. It’s possible that the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incans first developed tamales as a way to keep and carry food made from corn.
The tamales became part of rituals and ceremonies, feasts, and fiestas. The word tamale derives from an Aztec word of the Nahuatl language, tamale. We’ve been eating tamales in the U.S. since the turn of the 20th century when African Americans (working alongside Mexican migrant workers in the cotton fields) learned the craft. Vendors hawked them as “Red Hots” on the streets of Mississippi, New York, and Chicago. My cultural artifact is tamales because they symbolize many things in the Chicano culture like family and when with food the family comes together, especially during festive times like Christmas. The tamales originate as far back as 5000 BCE, the name itself is even rooted in the Nahuatl word tamale, meaning wrapped. The tamales are a very long process with many steps which is usually made with the family, and starts with the corn-based dough being wrapped around the corn husks but not before adding the spicy salsas drizzled over the chicken or you can have other options of pepper with cheese or some sweet dough of pineapple.
The reason I choose tamales is because for every Christmas I help to make tamales with my grandmother and mother. Since I was a little girl one tradition that we have kept in my family and that I remember is my grandmother teaching me how to do tamales, it was a very long process that I am still learning from today. The tradition goes back to a generation where women were taught by their mothers and grandmother. I loved helping to do the tamales because it was more than just cooking it was about having the family bond and talking and being with one another. It brings so many family memories and it is a way I connect with my grandmother where she talks about stories about her life and we gossip about what is going on in our lives. The making of tamales is for the women in the family only so when the extended family comes for the holiday, everyone has a task to do from huskers, spreaders, fillers, baggers, and cleanup. The tamales are an example of Mexican culture because this special food is only made during special holidays to celebrate and bring the family together. In the Mexican culture, we have a strong family foundation where we are all very close. When the holidays come around the extended family all come together and celebrate. The making of tamales is to pass down the values and traditions from generations. Like my grandmother who we must ask for help with her delicious and famous dish when we are not sure how to do the meal. My grandmother is the staple of the family because she already knows everything.
My grandmother’s recipes are passed down to my mother, and I was raised on them; they were a way for me to hold onto a little piece of her, of my heritage, and of my history even though I grew up thousands of miles away. The tamales are sold at every Mexican restaurant and on the weekends, I can hear the lady with her little cart coming in the mornings calling out “tamales” The store that sells the tamales are packed full asking for tamales. Mexican American are hardworking and are always looking for ways to succeed and have a better life. Through the structural functionalism of my cultural artifact, the tamales are connected to the family culture of Mexican Americans. When structural functionalists see the way socialism focuses on the structure see that tamales are the staple of families when they come together. For example, my Mexican culture values and enjoy food so when we make food, we have family and we come together, and show are enjoyment to be together. When we have a group of people that identify as one, we see that we are a society and when we have a society, we need a culture where we share values.
The structural-functional approach is a perspective in sociology that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. It asserts that our lives are guided by social structures, which are relatively stable patterns of social behavior. Social structures give shape to our lives – for example, in families, the community, and through religious organizations. And certain rituals, such as a handshake or complex religious ceremonies, give structure to our everyday lives. Each social structure has social functions or consequences for the operation of society as a whole. Education, for example, has several important functions in a society, such as socialization, and learning. How does the Mexamerica culture connect to the structural-functionalist? The tradition of tamales dates back to Meso-American times when long before the Spaniards arrived, Mesoamericans believed that God crafted humans from corn and the tamales dough is made from corn as well as the husked the tamale is wrapped in. Corn is a very important crop in Mesoamerica. Pilcher (2014), explains how Mexicans often think of their nation and cuisine as a mes- tizo mixture of Spanish and Indian influences, and these mixtures were particularly complicated in the Southwest. Although celebrated in modern nationalist ideology, mixed-race mestizos ranked low within the colonial racial hierarchy known as the Sistema de castes (caste system).
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