One of the most common dishes in Latin American gastronomy is a dough filled with various ingredients and wrapped in leaves, usually banana or plantain leaves. But what you call that dish depends on your country of origin—or your family’s.
Specifically, in Mexico they’re called tamales; in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, pasteles; in Venezuela, hallacas; in Nicaragua, nacatamales; in Bolivia, humintas; in Guatemala, chuchitos; and in Brazil, pamonhas.
These dishes are not only part of each country’s local culinary variety. In some places, they’re considered national symbols—like the flag or the national anthem—and confusing one for another can lead to awkward moments and even offend some people.
With so many variations of a dish that might look similar, it’s worth asking: are any of them the original? And if so, which one?
John Masi, a professor in the Lead Culinary Faculty at Florida International University (FIU), explains that “with apologies to my Venezuelan and Caribbean friends, that the original tamal was first.”
“There is some history that suggests that it goes back to B.C. several thousand years before B.C., but the first archaeological digs were like 100 A.D., where they see evidence of recipes and such,” he adds.
Masi notes that corn was a fundamental part of the Mayan and Aztec diets, and that developing its use alongside other local ingredients gave rise to the first corn dough used for Mexican tamales.
“We are children of corn.”
Culinary expert and food writer Miro Popic doesn’t entirely agree. He says this dish is deeply linked to the history of the American continent, although the specific method of cooking may indeed be tied to Mexico after the Spanish conquest.
“All pre-Hispanic cultures in the Americas—from Canada to Patagonia—are children of corn as a cereal… and in all of them, there are preparations made from a corn dough, ground on stone, and wrapped in a plant leaf,” he explains.
“In one place it takes one name, in another it takes another name,” he adds, emphasizing: “There has always, I repeat, always been a cooked corn dough wrapped in a leaf, which was originally the corn leaf itself.”
Popic explains that with the arrival of the Spanish in the Americas and their exports from Mexico to other Latin American countries, the use of meat-based stews spread, and local pantries expanded as they gained access to ingredients that weren’t native—like onions, olives, raisins, and more.
“The invention of a leaf-wrapped pie is collective among the different pre-Hispanic cultures. They are all original in their own way… but it’s in the preparation that the differences arise,” he summarizes.
As a Venezuelan, Popic believes “that this concept of tamal was incorporated into our culture, and thanks to that, we began adding to the hallaca an inner stew—a filling made with hen, pork, and beef, which didn’t exist here before Columbus arrived.”
The same thing happened in other Latin American regions.
“The concepts are similar, but the ingredients that were added varied from one place to another. Why? Because cuisine is a child of its land and geography. You begin to cook with what you have around you.”
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More than just a dish, it’s culture
On the outside, these dishes can be recognized by their wrapping in a leaf (which is not eaten). But on the inside, they can vary as much as their names.
Some are made from corn dough, others from cassava dough. Some can be savory, others sweet. Some are spicy, while others are seasoned with a wide array of spices. Some contain no meat, while others do—and the type of meat used adds even more variation.
But there’s another thing they all share: they’re special, according to Professor Masi.
In Venezuela and Puerto Rico, hallacas and pasteles are typical of the Christmas season. In other countries, tamales and similar dishes aren’t tied to a specific time of year, but they’re still a celebration.
“My friends—either they make them or their mothers make them—and they are sharing. They’re going to make a very big batch and they are going to share them with friends and family. And that’s really one of the things that I think makes the dish very special,” said Masi.
“It’s very communal… These are dishes that take time. We put a lot of love into the food, and that’s, I think, one of the things that makes them special,” added the FIU professor.
