Corpus Christi (KIII News) — For many Coastal Bend residents, a holiday tradition during Thanksgiving and Christmas is tamales but come Dec. 31 one local tamale kitchen will be closing its doors.
On Wednesday business was busy at Huerta's Tamales on Staples with residents wanting to pick up a few dozen tamales.
"I just came visit family from California, haven't seen me in a couple of years," visitor Mike Valle said. "And I heard about the little demise here, ending of this long tamale restaurant and all that so, ending the end of the year and so I had to come by and visit to see what's going on."
From some residents word of the tamale restaurant's closing came as a total surprise.
"Wow, I didn't know, I didn't know that. Oh well, I guess I'm gonna have to start searching," visitor Rober Fonseca said.
One can understand having to get one's tamale fix elsewhere since Huertas has been a tradition for over 25 years.
"They received a letter about a month ago saying that the lease wouldn't be renewed here, so we've been asking them for many years already to slow down, so we took it as a sign that it was time for them to just close," said owner's daughter Lourdes Huerta.
It was Jose and Maria Huertas dream to build a business with one goal in mind, to assure their ten children would get an education.
"We've all been through school, we all have different careers right now. Also, I think what they wanted to see, was us be successful in our own careers," Lourdes said. "Its all due to you know my parent's hard work."
"Our rewards come from seeing our children succeed in life, and the youngest of the family continues to move forward," Jose and Maria said,
The reward for the Huertas is to see their children succeed in life and the youngest of the family continue to move forward.
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