[We use a transcribing service to generate our transcripts. In this story, we did not rely on the Spanish transcriptions. Instead we rely on Mayra Aguilar's translation].
Mark Munger
But first, I want to honor the life of a dear friend of so many people in our community, Lupe Curio Torres. A couple years ago, she allowed me into her kitchen at La Fogata to teach me how to make tamales. Her daughter Mayra Aguilar translated.
Lupe Carillo Torres
Esta sonos a demais y es para ser el tamal de puerco de ponemos una...
Mayra Aguilar
So these are going to be your corn leaves, and we have your corn masa, and then you have your meat, which is pork smothered in a red sauce. It's not spicy, but it's very tasty.
Lupe Carillo Torres
My name is Lupita Carrillo.
Mayra Aguilar
Primero doros los chiles y luego los los convoy remojar con agua que se hidraten se So first she starts off bySo first she starts off by putting the chile guajillo on the grill and kind of toasting them a little bit, and then after they get toasted, she puts them to soak in water, so they can kind of, you know, hydrate and get a little bit softer, and then she puts them in the blender with a little bit of water, and then she blends them with different spices: garlic, pepper, salt, and then there's these little round little balls. They're called clavos. So she uses the flour, obviously the corn flour, and then she puts in the flour the masa, she puts what we call, it's almost like butter, but it's fat. It's yep, lard. There you go. That's what it is. And so she puts a little bit of lard in that, and after the lard, she puts a little bit of salt, and she uses cooking powder or baking powder, baking powder, and then she just mixes that up. She just mixes that up, and then that's how she makes that one.
Mark Munger
While the tamales steamed in their husks, I convinced Lupe to sit down for a moment. Her food is so delightful, flavorful, delicious, and she seems to take such joy in seeing others eat. I wanted to know where this came from.
Mayra Aguilar
She was seven years old when she first did tamales with my grandma, her mother. She told her that the first time that she did them with her that she didn't like tamales because it was a lot of things to do, and she, my grandma, told her that they weren't called tamales; they were called tamalongos, just to be funny. Oh, the first ones she ever made were actually pig head, so that's why she said she didn't like it. She saw the eyes, the mouth, the whole head, basically, you know. So she said she didn't like it. Imagine being seven years old and having a whole huge pig head. She said that she was so small that her hands were so tiny as well. And you know, she remember how I told you that that's how I did. Mine were like that too. I couldn't even pull the the the leaf. But she says that she was tiny and her hands were so even tiny that she couldn't even put the leaf... you know, the leaf didn't even fit in her hand because it was so big that she got she struggled with it. But she said that's how she learned how to do tamales and make tortillas at seven years old and with my grandma. Yeah, she had to take care of her other siblings. You know, being the oldest out of 11.
Mark Munger
Lupe Carrillo Torres passed away on October 17, 2026. She brought so much joy to my life and so many others. We recorded together in her kitchen at La Fogata in 2024.
