Monthly Archives: April 2016

Mexican Stew

Informant was a 19 year old female who was born in Mexico and currently lives in Brazil. She came to visit me.

Informant: Even though we live in Brazil, we always eat Mexican food, my mom always found a way to make it. She made sure that we didn’t lose our Mexican identity through food. It was kinda embarrassing to invite your friends when we had stew.

Collector: Why was it embarrassing?

Informant: Because to people that don’t know it and haven’t tried it before, it doesn’t really smell appealing. Like I once made a friend of mine eat it, and I was so scared that she wouldn’t like it, but she did, thank God.

Collector: What is in this stew?

Informant: Well, there’s different soups, but the one my mom makes the most is this one with pork belly. It has corn, onions, a special pepper, garlic, and green sauce. The ingredients are what make it smell gross, but I’m used to it like I grew up with it. It’s something we also typically eat at Christmas, it’s a Mexican thing.

Collector: Is there any special reason why you eat this at Christmas?

Informant: I mean, it doesn’t mean anything s pecial like it doesn’t represent anything. It’s just because it’s warm and it’s cold outside. It’s funny, if I don’t have anything spicy in a period of a week, I start to lose it. I get mood swings, or I start feeling desperate for it, spicy food can actually be an addiction. I used to bring chili powder to school. (She laughs) I actually have a purse size of the chili powder, so I put it in my purse when I go out.

Collector: Why do you like this particular piece of folklore?

Informant: I like it because my family makes it and I’ve been eating it since I was little so I’m used to it. My first memory of it was when my grandmother made it in Mexico on Christmas. It’s always reminded me of home. It’s like a part of my identity.

I think that my friend’s story about her Mexican stew and how embarrassed she was to show it to others who weren’t Mexican was really interesting. It shows how she has such pride in her culture, that she doesn’t want anyone tearing it down because they don’t understand it. I personally always like to show people my Brazilian food, and I get upset when they don’t like it. I found it really interesting and enlightening how food can be a big part of our cultural identity.

Scaremongering, HIV, and Fruit

I requested the informant to recount some pieces of folklore, some being ones that they have told me before. This is an urban legend they heard in middle school about how someone contracted HIV.

 

The informant says that this teenager bought a cup of chopped fruit from a street vendor in his neighbourhood. The next day, he started feeling sick and throwing up. When he went to the doctor, they told him he contracted HIV. As the story goes, the fruit vendor had HIV and had accidently cut through his gloves and into his hand without noticing. The boy did not notice the blood when he was eating it.


As some people still hold a lot of misconceptions and ignorant ideas about HIV, I am not entirely surprised that these almost scare-mongering, horror stories still exist. Presumably, people will drop these misconceptions as they grow up and learn. Information often dispels fear, a driving force behind these legends. For example, the informant later learned that one cannot contract HIV through consumption of infected blood, unless one has an open wound in the mouth seeing as HIV-infect fluid needs to enter the bloodstream. Having said that, it is possible that the person from the story had an open wound on their mouth.

Bruinitized

The informant shared this information at my request. They shared this with me when I asked if their college, UCLA, had anything superstitions and such.

 

The informant said that before someone starts their first year at UCLA, they have to touch this inverted fountain to get “bruinitized.” They’ll also have to touch it one more time after they graduate; however, if they touch it before, the superstition goes that they’ll stay an extra quarter. The informant also mentions that incoming students were told to do this at orientation.


Most colleges have their own folklore. This follows the general pattern of a few I have heard before, where there is a threat of being held back. This also fits another pattern college folklore tend to have, where first-years may have to go through a ritual of sorts before they are considered a “full” Bruin for example. The fact that this was something new students were pushed to do at orientation also supports the idea that these rituals are there to help newcomers feel included.

Bloody Worms

The informant shared this information at my request. They told me about how some people used to sell “bloody worms” in high school.

 

The informant said these “bloody worms” were simply gummy worms in red Kool-Aid. They were also typically in a small, plastic bag. They also mentioned that students also sold a variation called “bloody bears,” which used gummy bears instead.

 

They’ve never actually bought them, and is not entirely sure how or why students came to this specific combination of sweets. If they had to guess, the informant would say it might have given the food items more flavour.


I see this as an example of young people trying to make their way through life. Here, they would like to make money, so they are selling items easily accessible to them. I would guess that this folk dish came about after one takes two loved snack items, both full of sugar, and combine them into an even sugarier snack.

Carnival de San Miguel (Festival)

My informant is Alice. Alice is 50 years old and was born and raised in San Salvador, El Salvador. She lived there until she was 18 then moved to the United States and proceeded to live in Mexico for a short time before returning to the states.

 

Alice: “The festival is called ‘Carnival de San Miguel’ – the carnival of Saint Michael. It’s basically a town party, San Miguel is a city in El Salvador and there are a ton of coffee plantations around there and at the end of the coffee harvest they have this festival in the middle of the town like a big big party. Everyone goes and they get dressed up, well they used to now not so much, and dance and it’s very, very hot. There’s drinking and dancing and all kinds of merriment”

And this has been going on as long as you remember?

Alice: “This has been going on as long as I remember but there was a long period of time where people from the West of the country couldn’t go to that part of the country because of the war. So I missed this carnival for much of the time that I grew up because I couldn’t get there ecause of the war. When I came back after college I went for two years in a row. But my mother and my grandmother and my aunts and uncles all grew up going to this carnival”

Was it like a carnival here?

Alice: “No they call it carnival but its more like a big party, a dance”

What does this festival mean to you?

Alice: “It just means that it’s the end of a lot of hard work for a lot of people and you get to see everyone socially, people you know. It’s just a fun event, it’s a celebration. And depending on your age was how long you got to stay out and party. As a kid you would go with your parents and leave early but when you’re older you stay until like 4am and party. It’s like a rite of passage”

 

This festival, the ‘Carnival de San Miguel’, seems like a really fun celebration and like a very well known one in a small country like El Salvador where people would travel to come join the celebrations. Alice’s mother and her other’s mother all grew up going to this festival and she even claims it’s a rite of passage. All ages attend this celebration and it just sounds like one big party. This form of folklore is interesting because it is an annual celebration but they continue to do it and naturally it would change every year just a little bit, but from 50 years it could be completely different. Alice notes the change in wardrobe as people used to dress nicer to the festival. It’s also a cool form of folklore because it is something you can visually see take place and physically be a part of.