While tamales — the traditional Mesoamerican dish made of masa and filled with meat, vegetables, cheese, and seasonings, then wrapped typically in a corn husk and steamed to delicious perfection — have been around since they were eaten by the Aztec and Mayan people thousands of years ago, National Tamale Day was actually created less than a decade ago by one of Santa Barbara’s own tamale experts.
It was back in 2014 that Richard Lambert, a fifth generation Santa Barbaran who initially learned to make tamales as a hobby, trained with Mexico’s “Tamale Queen” Beatriz Ramirez in Coyoacán, and later opened the Santa Barbara Tamales-To-Go business, found out that there was no National Tamale Day and set out to change things. He soon found himself gathering hundreds of signatures from tamale fans in order to submit an application to Chase’s Calendar of Events, the global decision-making authority on such things.
That application was accepted, and National Tamale Day was celebrated for the first time in Santa Barbara and across the country on March 23, 2015 — and remains an annual celebration to this day.