The Tamale Guy: A Chicago enigma

Who is he? Where is he from? Does he have a day job? Or does he make enough money of his bar-to-bar tamale sales to pay the bills? Who makes his tamales? Where are they made? Is he part of a larger tamale-selling conglomerate or is he a solopreneur?

I've seen only one other tamale peddler, a younger fella who looked a bit unseasoned in the ways of tamale selling. Who is he? Is he part of Tamale Guy's posse? Or are they bitter tamale selling rivals? Was he Tamale Guy's protege, but grew frustrated with Tamale Guy's technique and demanding schedule and decided to go out on his own? If so, do they purposefully avoid each other when they hit the streets? What happens when they do bump into one another? Is there a bar-clearing showdown? Do they have a tamale drawing contest?

Some random observations on Tamale Guy and his routine:

He’s sort of like a panhandler, only instead of asking you to give him something, he's asking if he can give something to you. However, like a beggar, he'll ask you if you want one, you'll say no, then he'll come back to your table less than a minute later and ask if you want one again. Just like when a bum will ask you for money as you walk into a convenience store, you'll say no, then he'll ask you for money again when you walk out of said convenience store moments later.

I mean, if you’re going to take the time to ask me for something, you could at least have the courtesy to remember my face 30 seconds later.

Also, Tamale Guy works with complete disregard of what's going on around him. I've seen him at concerts literally walk through a crowd, and mid-song, will bark out "Tamales! Tamales!" in everybody's faces, often out-screaming the band. When it comes to selling tamales, this man has no scruples. If Latinos didn't hold Catholicism so sacred, I wouldn't put it past this guy to hawk tamales in Mass.

Can you imagine:

"And now, we give to you oh Lord, thy daily bread..."

"Tamales! Tamales!"

He's got a lot of gumption, I will give him that. You hang out at the same place long enough you'll likely see him twice in one night. And I've seen him as far north as Irving Park, far west as Western and as far south as Grand, which leads me to believe this guy covers damn near the entire north side on a given night, sometimes twice over.

Which leads me to another batch of questions: What kind of car does he drive? How many miles are on it? Does he have a driver? Where does he park when he hits all these bars?

Since it's doubtful his English vernacular stretches beyond what's necessary to sell tamales, we'll probably never know...