Awakend by a Dream of A Foreign Land with Mississippi Hot Tamales

This morning around 5:00am a vivid dream awoke me.

I think it meant me no harm, and in fact was a positive harbinger

that also connected me with some history of my past and my culture.

But first, I'll start with the dream.

I dreamt I was in a country

some where in the tropics

walking through a heavily

populated urban area and
 came upon three men standing 

along side a broken metal fence.

They began speaking to 

me in friendly but ominous

voices and it became clear

that they were going to 

robe me.

I was worried, but calm as could be 
for an experienced, tested, and in shape

world traveler facing immediate danger, 
far from home. 
And although they were much bigger

and taller, they were also much

older than I.  And, although I was

in their country, they were still

Black, which gave me

the confidence of familiarity in

dealing with my people from

all branches of the African

Disporia.

Therefore, I felt I could handle

myself. I just needed to be careful

not to let them get to close to me 

But they began to follow me

while keeping the conversation

going. Somehow I convinced them

that I wasn't going to be their victim

and we began to speak easily and

 earnestly, as I do with Black folks

from other countries, about who we are

and how we came to be in this

space and time.

One of the men, the leader of the group

who was also the only one employed,

worked as a street vendor preparing

and selling meals on the street. He

began cooking the most popular dish

that he sales while talking to me

about the poverty of their country,

their traditions and how it relates 

to their food. 

In a huge rusted tin vat

over an open fire on the side of a 

busy and dirty street he prepared

some sort of spicy redish cabbage

while stirring( with a huge wood

paddle) in some round cylinder 

shaped yellow corn tamales

When it was done, he offered me some 

as a long line of hungry poor people formed, replacing the mangy stray dogs that had gathered around.

I didn't want any but ate 

some any way and

understood why it was

so popular, because it was

very cheap, filling, and some what 

flavorful.

When I awoke I remembered how my Mom use to serve those tamales to us for dinner, and how they were sold at every hot dog stand and fast food joint in the ghettos of Chicago

I always had assumed that they were of Mexican origin, even though I never see them in Logan Square

or at any Mexican restaurant.  And because I wasn't able to go back to sleep. I googled these tamales by first finding their picture online. I was surprised to find out that these tamales were not brought to Chicago by Mexican immigrants, but by Black folks around the turn of the century who migrated from the Mississippi Delta. This is why they're made from the same cornmeal as southern cornbread, as opposed to Mexican masa used in "standard" tamales. And in fact, the original roving tamale sellers in Chicago where actually Black men called "Molly Men"

These Molly Men were such a fixture in the Black North that several popular songs memorializing the "Molly Men" were record, including an early rag time one called " The Hot Tamale Man" published by Herbert Ingraham in 1909 and sang by Pearl Hunt.  Around that time Arthur Collins who was the most popular vaudeville minstrel actor of that time rerecorded a more uptempo version for Columbia and Victor Records.

"Just see the bucket steam'n

hear the folks screaming

here come the Hot Tamale Man

watch him charleston down the line

come on folks get your money

Tamale man needs shoesis for his honey

Here come the Hot Tamale Man!"

Then in 1928, Red Hot Ole Moses recorded the song "Molly Man" set in the cotton fields of the South

Molly Man comin, I hear his voice

He got mollies, and it's my choice

Don't wait too long

cause the mollies be gone

I judge by the way you act

Somebody around her had

a cotton pick'n feeling tired

sore shoulder.

Two for a nickel, four for a dime

white folks standing round spending

many dimes, 

so I can't wait to get mine

In 1936 Robert Johnson who first recorded and sang the famous song "Sweet Home Chicago, sang

 "They're Red Hot" about a Tamale Women. 

"Hot Tamales and they're red hot, 

yea she got em for sale, yes,  yea yea"