Manuela gave birth to Fatima at sixteen. Fatima gave birth to Blanca at fourteen. Blanca gave birth to Carmel at sixteen. Carmel gave birth to Destiny at fifteen. Now Destiny is fifteen, and Blanca wants more for her granddaughter than making tamales in the same small house as five generations of her abuelas. Can she change her family’s destiny before there’s another mouth to feed, or is the cycle of poverty too crushing for one woman to take on? Filled with laughter through tears, The Tamalera’s Daughter explores the small joys and painful traumas of a far too common family of strong Latina women who, like mesquite trees, find ways to plant their roots in the desert dirt and flourish in the harshest of conditions.