It looked like business as usual on the assembly line.
Four men behind the counter of Tamales Liliana’s in Boyle Heights were scooping up masa with their hands and smearing it on opened corn husks. Six women then filled them with slits of green chile and cheese before folding and wrapping them in baking paper. Nearby, Juan Manuel Santoyo took stock of the ritual.
“I spend a good amount of time making tamales to sell during the week of Christmas,” the 67-year-old restaurant owner said. “It’s what we rely on to get us through the year.”
For many Mexican and Central American families, a Christmas without tamales feels like culinary heresy. The last month of the year is filled with Latino holiday traditions and festivities such as
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom once again sounded notes of hope and alarm as he addressed Californians on Tuesday morning.
Yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel, with California standing to receive at least 1 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the month. “But we’re still in the tunnel, going through the most challenging and difficult surge we’ve experienced since the beginning of this pandemic,” Newsom reminded Californians.
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With case numbers, hospitalizations and now deaths continuing their brutal surge, the state is scrambling to find enough nurses, doctors and other medical staff to meet the unrelenting demand, as my colleague Melody Gutierrez reports.