It's ¡Tamalada! time @ the Library!

UPDATE: All tickets have been distributed and are no longer available.

Tickets for the San Antonio Public Library’s popular annual holiday celebration ¡Tamalada! will be available at the Central Library, 600 Soledad, beginning Monday, November 1, when the library opens at 9:00 a.m.

¡Tamalada! gives San Antonians a chance to enjoy the long-standing tradition of getting together at the home of a friend or relative to make tamales for the upcoming holiday season. The Library’s version offers two classes on how to make tamales, with a choice of times, 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m., or 12:00 noon-1:30 p.m., followed at 2:30 p.m. by a preview presentation of the hilarious bilingual play Las Nuevas Tamaleras, a San Antonio holiday tradition in its own right.

This year’s ¡Tamalada! is scheduled for Saturday, November 20. All activities are free and open to the public, but seating is limited, and tickets are required for admission. Each customer may pick up two tickets for a tamal class and two tickets for the Las Nuevas Tamaleras performance, while supplies last.

The cooking classes are presented by Sandra Vásquez, the inventor of the Más Tamales masa spreader. Sandra offers glimpses into the long tamalada tradition while giving tips on short cuts and time-savers to help busy families make their own tamales.

A comedy which can be enjoyed by English-speakers and Spanish-speakers alike, Las Nuevas Tamaleras follows the adventures of three modern Hispanic women as they try their hands at making tamales for the first time. During their “ordeal” they are guided by the spirits of traditional Hispanic women who have been allowed to return as invisible angels to oversee the project.

Las Nuevas Tamaleras was written and is directed by San Antonio author and playwright Alicia Mena, and first opened in Houston at El Teatro Bilingüe’s First Annual Latino Playwright’s Festival. Its first San Antonio performance was in 1993 at the Guadalupe Cultural Center, and it has since become an annual tradition.

¡Tamalada! is presented by Bolner’s Fiesta Products, Burras Finas Productions, Mex-Sales Company, the San Antonio Public Library Foundation, the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department, and the San Antonio Public Library.