Before we moved to Maine we lived in Avalon, Santa Catalina Island for a few years. The town has had a history of hispanics living there year round from the earliest days when the Wriggleys first built the town.

My wife worked for the owner of a string of 3 restaurants there which naturally employed quite a few hispanics. Some old time island families, some newcomers trying to get a leg up and some recent arrivals from Mexico just passing through. As the payroll clerk, she got to know and became friendly with nearly all of them. Especially in the off season when the town population drained from 10K to about 2K.

We learned she had been accepted, or at least appreciated by some of them our first Christmas on the island when she would frequently find a box of fresh home made tamales on the seat of her golf cart after work, sometimes with a note, others totally anon.

The last few days before Christmas we could pretty much count on some cute young kids knocking on our door with a bag of fresh tamales, giggling and saying Feliz Navidad nearly every day.

They were amazingly good but OMG, so rich and filling. We've never had any that good since moving off the island and really miss them, but by the second Christmas we had to start giving them to other Anglo friends.

Man, nor woman, can not live by tamales alone. Try as we might!