Culture, community and 200 tamales

A group of students and community members work together in a commercial kitchen to make tamales, standing around a large stainless steel counter covered with masa, corn husks, fillings, and jars of ingredients during a hands-on workshop.

Sam Burchett, left, leads a group of students in the Department of Health and Human Performance’s Food Science Lab during a “Let’s Make Tamales!” workshop. Photo courtesy of Hilary Browder-Terry.

In Mexico and parts of Central America, Día de los Muertos is a day to welcome back loved ones who have passed. The tradition predates European arrival in the Americas and blends Indigenous observances with Catholic influences.

For Dr. Nikolasa Tejero, associate dean of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Arts and Sciences, the holiday’s meaning is both cultural and personal.

“It is believed that on this day, the souls of those who have passed before us are able to venture back into the land of the living,” she said, “so we make special preparations to welcome them.”

Tejero described the holiday’s purpose as a way “to stop and reflect on your heritage, your lineage, those that came before you, the love and the respect and the honor that you feel for being a part of this larger family.” It’s also a moment “to demystify death and see it as a natural part of life.”

That perspective became the foundation for two student-centered events held on Oct. 30-31: a hands-on tamale-making workshop and a Día de los Muertos celebration in Lupton Hall sponsored by three of Arts and Sciences’ Residential Learning Communities (RLCs)—Life Out Loud, Music Row and Helping Hands.

The concept took shape when Tejero and Senior Lecturer of Spanish Hilary Browder-Terry realized that their courses and students aligned.

Tejero teaches “A Moc’s First Year” class titled Cuisines of Latin America—which is paired with an Introduction to Latin American Studies course taught by Professor of Spanish Edwin Murillo—and had recently held a tamale-making day for her students. Browder-Terry oversees the Life Out Loud RLC and teaches Spanish Language and Culture I, as well as World Cinema: Heroes and Villains.

Both wanted their students to learn about Día de los Muertos, but they also wanted them to feel the meaning behind it.

Browder-Terry remembered how successful a previous student-run gathering had been.

“I’ve always thought that just the whole idea of Day of the Dead is a really cool thing that everyone can sort of relate to,” she said. “I wanted a way to bring that experience back.”

With their ideas in alignment, one student stood out as the ideal person to lead the cooking.

A group of students sit around a table talking in a classroom at dusk, with a large tray of freshly made tamales in the foreground out of focus.

Students and faculty relax after the tamale-making workshop. Photo courtesy of Hilary Browder-Terry.

Sam Burchett is not your typical UTC undergraduate.

Before enrolling at UTC, he spent years cooking in New York City kitchens, including some of the most competitive in the world.

A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Burchett moved to New York in 2012 to go to culinary school.

“I worked at a three-Michelin-star restaurant called Per Se, owned by a gentleman named Thomas Keller. He’s probably the most important American chef ever,” Burchett said.

From there, he cooked at several other top restaurants, including Cosme—then the only Michelin-starred Mexican restaurant in the U.S.—before going into business as a private chef for “wealthy and high-profile clients.”

During those years, he would often travel to Mexico—especially to Oaxaca and Juarez—where he learned from home cooks whom he now considers family.

“I have a network of several grandmothers who have more or less adopted me,” he said with a laugh. “We hang out and we cook together, and they have me over for dinner and things like that.”

Burchett eventually felt the pull toward the other career he had often considered: medicine. He returned to his native Tennessee, enrolled at UTC as a double major in Spanish and biology, and started selling homemade tamales on the side.

When Browder-Terry and Tejero approached him about leading a “Let’s Make Tamales!” student workshop, he immediately said yes.

They scheduled an afternoon session in the Department of Health and Human Performance’s Food Science Lab, with a maximum of 16 students per shift. By the end of the three-hour window, more than 40 students had rolled, filled and wrapped over 200 tamales.

Students picked up new skills quickly, including “nappe”—a French culinary term for coating food with sauce that Tejero joked she had never heard until Burchett explained it.

He wasn’t surprised by how fast the students caught on.

“I couldn’t believe how many tamales they made,” he said. “This would’ve taken me an entire day and they just crushed it.

“I think this just reinforces the fact that cooking is important. Food is important. There’s something incredibly human about cooking and cooking with other people.”

Tejero said she found it meaningful watching Burchett guide students through something that required patience, technique and collaboration.

“He embodies this idea of a lifelong learner,” she said.

Burchett said he hopes to work in global health after completing medical school, ideally through an organization like Doctors Without Borders. His long-term goal is to live in Mexico and continue working in communities that first shaped his culinary perspective.

“Education and health care go hand in hand,” he said. “Both are an opportunity to enrich the lives of others.”

A Día de los Muertos ofrenda display features colorful papel picado, decorated sugar skulls, candles, family photos, flowers and small personal items arranged on vibrant cloth-covered tables.

A Día de los Muertos ofrenda created by students includes photos, candles, and traditional decorative items honoring loved ones. Photo courtesy of Hilary Browder-Terry.

The next day, the tamales made in the kitchen became lunch at the Día de los Muertos celebration in the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Language Lab in Lupton Hall.

Students watched short films, discussed the cultural and historical roots of the holiday, and built ofrendas—altars honoring loved ones—complete with photographs, marigolds and favorite foods.

Tejero said the event brought together students from multiple RLCs, “A Moc’s First Year” classes, the Spanish Club and HOLA. Faculty and staff from Latin American Studies, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, and the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office came by as well.

Browder-Terry said she could feel the energy when students arrived.

“I was a little nervous when I first walked in the room and everybody was there and I’m like, ‘Oh no, but oh yay,’” she said.

Students from the workshop stopped by to taste the tamales they helped make. Others came out of curiosity.

One moment stuck with Browder-Terry: A student who had met a classmate for the first time while wrapping tamales arrived at the celebration asking, “Hey, where is this person? They had already become friends.”

Tejero witnessed the same result.

“It was really, really cool,” she said. “There were people around the table talking, talking about the tamales, talking about other things, making friendships.”