Photos by Mary Alice Murphy
The annual Tamal Fiesta y Mas, hosted by the village of Santa Clara, took place at Fort Bayard on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025.
The sale of tamales formed a small part of the event, whichstarted with a disc golf tournament at 8 a.m., leading to the large Norman Car Show and High Desert Classic Motorcycle Show. Films showed at the Fort Bayard Theatre, and the event continued with Mariachi music from Mariachi Luna Llena de Las Cruces, a cornhole tournament, and traditional dancers from Sophia's Dance Studio in Deming. The event, emceed by the inimitable Raul Turrieta, who later showed up in costume as a tamal, honored the late Bill Acosta and the current Fort Bayard Historic Preservation Society President Doug Dinwiddie.
Starting at noon, kids, teenagers and adults took multiple swings at quite-difficult-to-bust piñatas, but the candies that fell out as a result of a great deal of beating the piñatas, kept the kids scrambling and happy. Two Chancla toss competitions featured the throwing of flip-flops at a female dummy for accuracy and then tosses as far as possible for distance. The Illusion Band joined in to entertain the hundreds of folks attending the event before the car and motorcycle show awards and the closing ceremony.
Vendors selling food and all sorts of other items stayed busy the entire time of the event from 8 a.m. -4 p.m. Several food vendors sold out of tamales and baked goods.
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