Famous tamales: Widow opened a popular restaurant and sent tamales to our boys overseas
Published in the Kerrville Daily Times on November 26, 2025
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| Delphina and her two daughters |
My last column about Martha Johnson and the Raleigh House led me to discover another inspiring woman who also founded a Kerrville eating establishment. Delphina Torres was a woman of strength who took pride in Mexican culture and shared that love with her community in many different ways.
Delphina Gomez Anderson was the youngest of eight children born to Cosme Gomez and Alfonsa Anderson. She was born Dec. 25, 1885, in Coahuila, Mexico. Her father was a colonel in the Mexican Army, and her mother was a native of Missouri and the daughter of a mining engineer.
As a young woman, Delphina moved to San Antonio, where she lived with an older sister. In San Antonio, she fell in love with Mexican folk dancing and music. She befriended many performers, several of whom she kept in touch with throughout her life. She met her husband, Ambrocio Pedro “Pete” Torres, a skilled auto mechanic, in 1906. They were married that same year and came to Kerrville when Pete was hired by a car dealership in town.
While Delphina took a traditional role as housewife, raising the couple’s two daughters, Maria and Carmen, she was not content to sit at home. As a devout Roman Catholic with an outgoing personality, it wasn’t long before she was active in both her church and community.
Dephina took the lead role in organizing the women in the Society of Guadalupe, a service organization, and was involved in her church’s annual fundraisers and Easter Community Picnic. When the Spanish flu hit Kerr County in 1918, Delphina was involved in transporting the sick from the rural areas of the county to Our Lady of Guadalupe School and Church in Kerrville. The large building, which no longer exists, served as a hospital during the pandemic, and nuns from San Antonio served as nurses.
To augment her husband’s income, Dephina sold home-prepared tortillas, tamales and other Mexican foods to her friends and neighbors. Not only did this sideline business allow Dephina to provide an excellent education to her two daughters, but the connections she made within the community provided her a way to support her family when tragedy struck.
In January 1928, Pete was shot during an altercation at a juke joint, leaving Delphina a widow with two daughters to raise. She met the challenge of becoming a single mother head-on, deciding to establish a Mexican food catering service from her home. She installed a corn-graining machine, powered by a Model T engine, and a professional cooking stove in her kitchen.
Delphina’s catering business became popular and, before long, she found herself catering parties for the Kerrville elite. She would get orders from the summer camps in Kerr County as well as from the working ranches of the Peterson, Real and Schreiner families.
From 1928 to 1944, Delphina and her daughters worked hard, living on a tight budget. Every extra penny made from the catering business went into a savings account that would one day enable them to establish their own restaurant.
In the winter of 1944, the dream of a restaurant was realized, and the Torres Tamale Factory was open for business at 228 Jefferson St.
During World War II, the Torres women were active with the Red Cross. To raise funds for the Red Cross, Delphina came up with the idea of presenting “A Night in Old Mexico” — a musical show featuring traditional Mexican folk dancing and music with Mexican food dinners. She contacted her friends in San Antonio and asked them to be a part of the event; they agreed and the event was a rousing success.
Another way Delphina supported the troops during World War II was providing canned tamales that Kerrville families could mail in care packages to their sons serving overseas. Delphina convinced the owners of the Gebhardt Mexican Food Company in San Antonio to can her restaurant-made tamales. The Gebhardt family agreed to donate the cost of canning, and Delphina contributed the tamales to the families, free of charge.
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| Night in Old Mexico Celebration at the Bluebonnet Hotel in Kerrville |
Thousands of tamales were canned and shipped to the European and Pacific war theaters. The effort caught the attention of Admiral Chester Nimitz, who eventually became a personal friend of the Torres family and would dine in their restaurant every time he visited Kerrville.
After the war ended, Delphina continued to produce her “Night in Old Mexico” celebrations as a fundraiser for the local Lions Club. The events grew, bringing in big name entertainers from San Antonio, along with dancers and singers from Kerrville’s Mexican-American community. The events took place in Louise Hays Park, Kerrville Municipal Auditorium, Tivy High School and Louis Schreiner Airport. From 1946 until 1964, the fundraiser was one of the highest anticipated events of the year.
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| Delphina Torres Receives the Woman of the Year from the Kerrville Chamber of Commerce |
All the while, the Tortilla Factory grew in popularity, becoming a favorite local eating establishment. She ran the restaurant until her death in 1965.
After her death, Delphina’s family continued to operate the restaurant, providing excellent Mexican food to generations of Kerrville diners. Many of us mourned when the restaurant closed its doors in 2004. Not only was the food the Torres family served at the Tortilla Factory legendary, it was considered a local institution.
Many of Delphina’s descendants still live in Kerrville. She is remembered as a strong woman, a promoter of Mexican culture, a mentor of young people, a phenomenal cook and a good neighbor to those who knew her.
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