Author Archives: Antonio Okun

AIDS poem in lipstick on mirror

I have a cousin who is an event planner in Colombia, Juliana, who arrived to the US in February of this year to start an intensive English program through UCLA extension. She was told in Colombia by her aunts to be careful because STD’s are rampant in Los Angeles, although none of them have traveled here. After making several American friends, one night at a party, the subject of STD’s came up and people started to tell stories. She said an American guy with dark hair was saying he had a former roommate when he was a freshman in college, who would sleep around without precautions. One night after “bagging a chick” he woke up to find he was alone, secretly he was grateful to avoid any awkwardness of kicking out a stranger. When he went to the bathroom, he saw lipstick on his mirror. Juliana initially did not understand what was written on the mirror and ask the guy to type it down on her phone so she could translate it later. It was a poem that read “Roses are red, Violets are blue, I have AIDS and now so do you” when she finally translated it, she said she was so shocked and it freaked her out a lot. One of her teachers seeing her so upset asked her what was wrong and she relayed the story, she said that her teacher started laughing really hard, this only made Juliana confused and embarrassed until her teacher explain that what she was told was an urban legend by the guy at the party and therefore not true.

Analysis: Juliana asked me three times to reassure her that the story was an in fact, an urban legend. She also asked why would anybody repeat such a horrible lie. I said that I am sure that Colombia had their share of urban legend as well but she denied that claim and said that any stories told were just to scare children into compliance. I think she was more susceptible to the legend because she was primed by her aunts. Her lack of confidence with English also made her likelier to believe someone who was a confident English speaker and storyteller. These kind of legends because of the believability factor seemed to get under people’s skin more and last longer, my cousin Patty said the same story was told to her with slight variation when she was in her 30’s when Aids was more of a death sentence than now and she stills remember the circumstances around the telling of the story.

Birthday songs for Colombians in the US and in Colombia

When I explained the scope of the of the folklore projects that it could include folksongs, Juliana did think of one that she has heard here in Southern California a lot. In Colombia when a girl turns 15 (American equivalent to sweet 16) there is an elaborate party with musicians typically “mariachis” who will sing “Las Manaitas” song. Usually becomes a father-daughter dance. But this is the only time it is sung because it is a special time in a girl’s life when she become a woman.

“Estas son las mañanitas que cantaba el rey David.

Hoy por ser día de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti.

Despierta mi bien, despierta, mira que ya amaneció

ya los pajaritos cantan la luna ya se metió.

Qué linda está la mañana en que vengo a saludarte

venimos todos con gusto y placer a felicitarte.

El día en que tu naciste nacieron todas las flores

y en la pila del bautismo cantaron los ruiseñores.

Ya viene amaneciendo, ya la luz el día nos dio.

Levántate de mañana mira que ya amaneció.”

(Translated: These are the little mornings that King David used to sing.

Today being the day of your saint, we sing them to you. Wake up my dear, wake up, see that the day has already dawned, the little birds are already singing, the moon has already set. How lovely is this morning, when I come to greet you, we all come with joy and pleasure to greet you. The day on which you were born all the flowers first were born, and in the baptismal font all the nightingales sang. It already comes dawning, the day already gave us light. Rise up with the morning and see that it’s already dawned.)

Recently, in Colombia, the song has gained popularity and is sung at small children birthday parties as well but never to other teenagers or adults especially not to men. Juliana, was at a birthday party recently in Santa Monica for a fellow male student, who was from Mexico City, and they sung La Mañanitas followed by the English version of the Happy Birthday song. She was surprised that everyone seemed to expect it. I asked her what other song is sung when an adult has a birthday in Colombia? She said it is the same chords to the American Happy Birthday song but the words are different:

“Feliz cumpleaños ha ti,

desudamos feliz,

que los saigas cúmplanlo

hasta año 3000 mil!”

(Translation, “Happy birthday to you, we wish you much happiness, we hope you have more birthdays, until the year 3000 AD.)

Analysis: Having been to countless Latino birthday parties, here in Los Angeles, what usually occurs is that both Spanish songs and the English version of Happy Birthday song are sung because that way you get to make more wishes and make a lot more noise, which seems like the goal of most Latino parties in general. It usually starts with Las Mañanitas and will continue to Feliz Cumpleaños followed by the Happy Birthday song. This allows for plenty of time to take pictures and get candle wax all over the cake. The songs seem to cement the occasion and be the final mark of the birthday festivities. People usually understand that once the cake is served after the songs then the party is going to come to an end unless of course there is a band or DJ, which means the party is now really getting started and will continue until very late or early morning. The actually singing by all the participants seems significant because it is not about talent or pitch of the voices but the unified showing of support and love for the birthday person.

Slenderman

According to my younger brother, he heard about an internet ghost story that was meant to scare people. About 4 years ago while on a YouTube site he saw that a reference was made to a “creepypasta” page about the Slenderman story that was made into a game. Slenderman was a faceless tall skinny figure with tentacle arms. When he first saw the picture of Slenderman, he did not think it was scary, however the game had many jump scares and fast action that did make it frightening or at least surprising to the player. In the “creepypasta” story the pictures of Slenderman always showed children playing unaware while back in the background within the shadows of the woods there would be slender figure appearing to be watching them. The game did not add any additional info about Slenderman but the story in the “creepypasta” site made it seem that the children he was photographed with would disappear without a trace, leaving some to speculate that they were kidnapped maybe even taken into a different dimension. Two “idiots” girls “allegedly” bought into the story of Slenderman believing they had to become proxies of Slenderman in order to protect their families, it ended up with one of their “friend’s” being stabbed 19 times but survived. My brother made air quotes with his fingers when referencing the words “Creepypasta”, “idiots” “allegedly” and “friend’s”. He says he know Slenderman is completely fictional although he kind of understands the fascination with the image because it is usually shrouded in the shadows letting your mind to fill in the blanks. He says that maybe because of the girls attempted murder of their “friend”, parents seemed more disturbed buy Slenderman than actual kids.

Analysis: Slenderman became an internet meme and started to trend on the internet about 5—6 years ago but I paid no attention to it since the demographic was skewed for some reason to younger viewers (preteens). Creepypasta sites in general have no real interest to me because the stories always seemed written by a mentally unstable person. However, the concept of photographic pictures showing mysterious paranormal orbs or other unexplained phenomena has been around since photography was invented and the first double exposure was seen as a ghostly reflection. Slenderman is just a continuation of that tradition that can now use advance technology like Photoshop to get just the right amount of mystery. The over reaction by parents also made Slenderman even more popular because the forbidden, will always be more attractive.

Curing “deadly” Colombian hiccups

Juliana remembered that if you get hiccups,  you should place a small piece of wet paper between your eyebrows in the middle of your forehead to stop the hiccups. She has no idea why but it will usually do the trick. However, if that does not work, then you are supposed to place the wet piece of paper inside on the roof of your mouth. If that fails, then get some “panela” (harden brown sugar) shave it into a thimble of hot brandy, lie on the bed with your head hanging off the bed, drinking it upside down. If all of that fails, then you run the risk of dying because she knows someone who had the hiccups for one week and died in their sleep. Spooky. I asked the other Colombians there at Easter dinner about the hiccups and they had a few other variations but all claimed to know someone different who had died of the hiccups. Colombians take hiccups seriously and will be on you to take measure to stop the hiccups as fast as possible because you can die.  They say that chewing your food slowly and eating slow is the key to not getting hiccups. Colombians already take their time eating on average twice to three times longer than most Americans. They seem to think that this was common knowledge and warned me against my ignorance because they did not want me to  die.

Analysis: Did not know hiccups were so dangerous. It is something most people will experience and an annoying nuisance and maybe because it is so common out of coincidence someone may die while having hiccups. But I have never heard of anyone in the US dying of hiccups and American mow their food at high velocity. Colombian eat much slower and yet it seems like everyone had heard of someone who has died of it in Colombia. I did Google it and someone on Grey’s Anatomy (TV show) died who had prolonged hiccups but her death was the result of infection from surgery to correct the acid reflux that was aggravating the hiccups. Also, we are talking about a fictional character.