{"id":108312,"date":"2025-12-25T00:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T00:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/108312\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T00:24:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T00:24:14","slug":"in-a-boyle-heights-kitchen-a-tamalada-becomes-a-space-for-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/108312\/","title":{"rendered":"In a Boyle Heights kitchen, a tamalada becomes a space for healing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sounds of holiday music, laughter and clanking dishes filled the bustling kitchen at Proyecto Pastoral on a recent December morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About half a dozen community members shuffled in, tying red Christmas aprons around their waists, sliding on light-up Santa hat headbands and slipping their hands into disposable gloves.<\/p>\n

They found their spot on the assembly line, ready to spread, stuff and fold more than 200 tamales for the group\u2019s holiday community convivio that evening.<\/p>\n

For organizers at Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission, a local social justice and community-building nonprofit, the tamalada is more than a holiday tradition. It\u2019s a chance for Boyle Heights community members to connect, find a little relief from mental health stresses and support each other as a difficult year comes to a close.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the head of the table, Martha Sifuentes meticulously slathered masa onto a soaked corn husk. \u201cParece que se ve bien suave, pero es muy cansado,\u201d she said. This looks easy, but it\u2019s tiring.<\/p>\n

\"people<\/a>Proyecto Pastoral\u2019s Comunidad en Movimiento group gather to make more than 200 tamales for the group\u2019s holiday community convivio on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Laura Anaya-Morga \/ Boyle Heights Beat)<\/p>\n

By 10:15 a.m., the group had reached a steady rhythm as they stuffed the hojas with shredded chicken, red or green salsa, cheese and jalape\u00f1os. The tamales were carefully folded and wrapped in a thin sheet of parchment and handed to Angela Gutierrez, the architect behind the community tamalada, who placed them in a pot to steam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year, the phrase \u201csolo el pueblo salva al pueblo\u201d resonated deeply with Gutierrez. She watched communities rally to support each other as ongoing immigration raids swept through Los Angeles, tearing apart families and stoking fear in immigrant communities like hers in Boyle Heights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gutierrez, coordinator for Comunidad en Movimiento<\/a>, Proyecto Pastoral\u2019s organizing and civic engagement component, knew she wanted to do more to bring her community together this holiday season.<\/p>\n

As the phrase declares, only the people can save the people, and in that kitchen, the community was demonstrating just that, taking care of each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Angela<\/a>Angela Gutierrez shows off the tamales she helped make during the tamalada for a holiday convivio at Proyecto Pastoral on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 (Laura Anaya-Morga \/ Boyle Heights Beat)<\/p>\n

\u201cEstamos sufriendo en la comunidad de depresi\u00f3n, ansiedad, salud mental por todo lo que est\u00e1 sucediendo\u2026 Aqu\u00ed tenemos la comunidad haciendo tamales para la misma comunidad,\u201d she said. Our community is suffering from depression, anxiety and mental health due to everything going on. Here we have the community making tamales for the community itself.<\/p>\n

It was Martha Veliz\u2019s first time making Mexican tamales but her fellow community leaders showed her the ropes and made her feel at home, she said. Veliz is from Nicaragua, where traditional Nacatamales are much bigger, steamed in a banana leaf and stuffed with items like meat, potatoes, onion, tomato and olives.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrimera vez que me pongo a hacer eso,\u201d Veliz said. \u201cAparte de que me gusta porque me estoy familiarizando con Proyecto Pastoral\u2026siento que me han acogido mucho y me ha ayudado mucho a conectar,\u201d she said. Besides the fact that I like it because I\u2019m becoming familiar with Proyecto Pastoral\u2026I feel like they have welcomed me and it has helped me to connect more, she said.<\/p>\n

Veliz joined Comunidad en Movimiento just two months ago and said that attending regular mental health classes with the group has transformed her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPara mi eso fue volver a la vida, osea, darte cuenta de que tu vales mucho.\u201d For me, it was like coming back to life, realizing that you are worth a lot.<\/p>\n

\"Angela<\/a>Angela Gutierrez (left) and another community leader pose for a photo with Santa at Comunidad en Movimiento\u2019s holiday convivio on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Laura Anaya-Morga \/ Boyle Heights Beat)<\/p>\n

Community spaces, no matter how small, are essential to finding collective healing, said Raquel Roman, executive director of Proyecto Pastoral.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, especially, there\u2019s been so much hurt in our community, so much trauma so if we could create a space where we could come together for just a few hours to cook and be in each other\u2019s company then that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do,\u201d Roman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That evening, Gutierrez watched her hard work pay off as dozens of community members and their families gathered inside of Proyecto Pastoral to take photos with Santa, participate in a White Elephant gift exchange, dance and feast, enjoying the tamales and community that they worked hard to cook up<\/p>\n

\u201cSe que todav\u00eda est\u00e1 el miedo pero vamos a continuar juntos. S\u00ed podemos y el pueblo salva al pueblo,\u201d said Gutierrez. I know the fear is still there, but we will continue together. We can and the people will save the people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sounds of holiday music, laughter and clanking dishes filled the bustling kitchen at Proyecto Pastoral on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[179,58237,58238,48,52,51,47,50,49,58239,35877,28141,54463],"class_list":{"0":"post-108312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-community","9":"tag-dolores-mission","10":"tag-holidays-2025","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-headlines","13":"tag-la-news","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","16":"tag-los-angeles-news","17":"tag-promotoras","18":"tag-proyecto-pastoral","19":"tag-tamalada","20":"tag-tamales"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}