Video: A delicious sound above the din of Mexico City
MexicoReporter | Nov 23, 2008 | Comments 3
The sound of street-sellers peddling their wares is a constant in Mexico City, and none more so than the seller of tamales – a traditional, Mexican corncake.
I managed to catch one of my local tamale-sellers on camera.
This video was made to accompany this Dispatch, written by Ken Ellingwood for the Los Angeles Times.
You hear it from a block away: an amplified, singsong call with an uncanny power to slice through the urban din. The tone is cheap and tinny — as kitschy as a sound can be.
And it’s my favorite in Mexico City.
Listen now, as it nears, the nasal-toned male voice stretching out syllables and pauses, again and again, into a verse so familiar it could be the unofficial anthem of this vast city, a kind of culinary call to prayer.
“Ri-costa-ma-les oaxa-que-ños!” blares a loudspeaker on the vendor’s tamale cart. “Tamales oaxaqueños!” “Tamales calien-ti-tos!”
Filed Under: ciudad de mexico • culture • mexicoreporter.com • video
About the Author: MexicoReporter.com is the personal website of Deborah Bonello, a multi-media journalist based Mexico City. Deborah is a freelance journalist who spends the majority of her time working as a contract blogger, news assistant and video journalist for the Los Angeles Times Mexico City bureau.
The views presented here do NOT represent those of the Los Angeles Times.





I love this! Will send to Mexican friends living abroad who are homesick for all sorts of things including the “delicious sound” of Tamales Oaxaqueños!
A tamale vendor rides by my apartment in El Centro every night, as regular as the chimes from El Torre Latinoamericana as well as the canon fire from Parque de la Plaza de la Ciudadela. Everyone knows the boy(s) on the bicycle, but does anyone know the man behind the voice?
“…it could be the unofficial anthem of this vast city”. Your comment is cheap and mindless.