Author Archives: Gabriela Dominguez

THOT

THOT

“Thirsty Hoes Out There. It means that they’re really thirsty and that they’re out there cheating on their boyfriends… I first heard this from a friend but I know that people started using THOT after a song came out.”

My informant is a 13 year old boy who is in his final year of middle school. He is of Mexican descent but has been born and lived for all of his life in the US. This then means that even though he still has strong ties to his heritage, his American nationality has been playing a big role to his upbringing as well.

When analyzing this phrase I found that it is actually very common among youngsters. Another thing that I found interesting is that it is most often used to describe females. Being thirsty refers to someone who has a very strong sexual appetite, so for this to be used towards other young females is very alarming. I researched where this phrase originated from and as my informant said, it seems to have come out of a rap song in which the rapper keeps repeating THOT. This then goes to show that music now a days plays a very big role in younger population’s everyday life. For more information, you can check out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuB3S6_1omQ&feature=youtu.be

 

The Evil Eye

The Evil Eye

“The evil eye is something that can be transmitted to anyone over jealousy or many other various factors. However, the group who tends to be more susceptible to this curse are babies, especially new borns and those who have not yet been baptized. Since they don’t the Holy Spirit helping their souls combat evil, that’s why they can easily be touched with the evil eye. A good way to prevent that is by buying babies a red bracelet, that will not let the evil eye penetrate. If you for some reason can’t find a bracelet, a piece of red thread will work fine also. The point is to have something red around the baby’s wrist so that the evil eye can’t get to them… my mom told me about this when I had my first child. I noticed that she could not sleep well so I asked my mom what was good and she told me that the reason my baby was having difficulty sleeping was that she may have got “el mal de ojo” (the evil eye). Regardless of what anyone may think, this actually worked. After I put the bracelet on my baby’s hand, everything was back to normal.”

My informant is a 41 year old Mexican descendant who was born in Mexico but has lived in the USA for the most part of her life. She maintains most of her ties to her Mexican culture while living in the USA so therefore, most of the things she knows has been passed down by her mother and other relatives. She does not necessarily learn her “cures” for different thing via a specific book or other published material, but rather from relatives in her daily life.

In my opinion, the fact that the informant’s recollection of where she learned this “cure” is from her mother, shows that perhaps her culture relies on being taught from others rather than by officiated people. Another thing I found interesting is that even though one might see this type of cure as irrational, the fact that the informant says that the cure actually worked shows that these folk remedies are practiced without hesitation and may even be preferred. This is because instead of seeing a doctor, the informant contacted her mother first. Regardless, this specific type of folk remedy seems to me as having a placebo effect. Maybe all people need is to think they’re getting better and they will get better. I definitely hope to try this out someday

Evil Eye Bracelet

Evil Eye Bracelet

El Que Madruga, Dios Lo Ayuda

El Que Madruga, Dios Lo Ayuda

“El que madruga dios lo ayuda translates into the English saying, early bird catches the worm or something like that. But for us, we don’t use birds or worms, we use god, haha… anyway, this is a saying that just about anyone uses so that people are on time but I think since it used the word ‘God’ it may have be made so that we get up early to go to church I guess. Anyway, I heard this all the time from everyone, especially my mother who wanted me to be up at the crack of dawn doing chores and stuff and now I too catch myself telling my daughters the same thing. I guess since it was so common in my life growing up that I now use it in my own vocabulary.”

My informant is a 41 year old Mexican descendant who was born in Mexico but has lived in the USA for the most part of her life. She maintains most of her ties to her Mexican culture while living in the USA so therefore, most of the things she knows has been passed down by her mother and other relatives. She does not necessarily learn her “cures” for different thing via a specific book or other published material, but rather from relatives in her daily life.

In my opinion, this is a very interesting proverb because it uses a concept that is similar to another culture yet makes it its own to mean the same thing. In other words, the proverb when said in Spanish directly refers to the culture’s religion and in English it refers to its surroundings yet when translated, they essentially mean the same thing. So even though the proverbs use completely different similes, the idea is the same. This is fascinating because one can see how one’s culture can determine how one explains a similar situation.

Quinceaneras

Quinceaneras

“A quinceanera is party done for a girl who has turned 15 years. It’s not a regular party, it is a very big party where money is just thrown left and right and the parents of the quinceanera usually ask other family members to help with the cost of the big party. Before the party begins, the party girl and her parents and padrinos (godparents) have to go to church where a misa (mass) is given. It basically means that she needs to go to church to thank god for letting her turn 15. After the church, the quinceanera goes to the party where people are already eating and stuff. Before the quinceanera though, it takes months and months of preparation. I know that for my quinceanera, we literally began planning for it since a year before…when I turned 14. The first thing we had to take care of was the misa because according to my mom, that’s the most important thing, even though nobody of our relatives go to the misa. Anyway, after we went to get the date for the misa, we then started to look at venues. Then once we had our eyes on the venue, we began to look for a banda, because a good quinceanera must always have a banda or else there shouldn’t even been a quinceanera in the first place. The next thing is deciding who you will chose to be in your court. Those elected to be in your court are going to perform a big first dance because supposedly my mom, and your mom tambien (also), say that a girl can’t dance until they’re 15 or else they don’t get a party and blah blah blah. So once all that is set, you need to tell your padrinos of the date, they usually are the first ones that should know if when the event will take place because they will be in charge of helping organize. Your padrinos can’t be any random person, they have to be the people who baptized you so in that sense, your padrinos should already know that your party is coming anyway. Moving on, next your parents need to start telling family members to help with the cost of the venue, food, banda, drink, and other things. People usually have no problem helping because it’s seen as “I help you now, you help me later” type of thing. So once all that is planned out, the party then takes place. Oh I almost forgot, the party girl has to wear a big puffy dress, kinda like they used to wear back then, it sort of make you feel like a princess, oh and you also get to wear a tiara so that’s a plus. And that is what a quinceanera party is.”

The informant is an American born Mexican. Her parents and family all were born and raised in Mexico but she was born in the U.S. This essentially makes her a Chicana of 20 years. She grew up with the U.S customs yet still had really strong ties to her Mexican heritage because of her relatives and parents therefore, she fuses her American surroundings with her Mexican heritage. This can explain why she still practices some of the customs that are very Mexican originated.

In my analysis of this, I found that a lot of Mexican quinceaneras are very similar to that of which my informant described. However, I also found that quinceaneras are not only celebrated among Mexicans; Quinceaneras are also celebrated among other Hispanic nations such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and etc. A reason for why Quinceaneras aren’t only celebrated for the Mexicans can be attributed maybe to the copying of certain traditions from these nations however, perhaps, Mexican may also may be the ones copying the quinceanera idea from other nations. Regardless, the point is that just because one tradition may be thought to be solely for a particular culture, traditions can make their way around the world and in their way gaining different aspects to the tradition which then makes it each country’s own new tradition.

Los Martinez

Los Martinez

“anos atras en el rancho habian 5 hermanos que se appelidaban Martinez. Esos hombres eran bien presumidos y no le callian bien a nadien. Entonces como ellos siempre presumian que tenian much dinero y esto y quell otro, un dia en el baile, so ollieron 5 balasos y resulta que habian matado a los 5 hermanos en la sierra… yo me acuerdo que pues yo estaba chiquito en ese entonces y cuando escuchamos los balaso, pensabamos que habian sido cuetes pero resulta que no. eran balasos y les habian dado a los 5 hermanos. Esto paso en el rancho de Lobatos en los 60s se me hace.”

“years ago in the ranch, there were 5 brothers whose last name was Martinez. Those men were show offs and nobody liked them. So since they were always showing off that they had a lot of money and all that stuff, one day at a dance, we heard 5 shots and it turns out that they had killed the 5 brothers out in the mountain range… I remember that well I was little back then and when we heard the shots, we thought that it was firecrackers but it turned out that no. they were bullet shots and they had hit the 5 brothers. This happened in the ranch of Lobatos in the 60’s I believe.”

The informant is a 61 year old man who was brought up and lived in mexico until the age of 26. He then migrated to the US and has lived there since. He never attended school, so most of his education came from knowledge others around him bestowed upon him. He also relies on many first hand experiences to account for the things he believes in. therefore, most of the stories he knows have been directly informed by himself.

In my point of view, this story seems a bit too harsh to be true, however, I cannot say whether this story is a fallacy or not because I was not there at the time of occurrence. Also, trying to learn more from this story, I stumbled across a couple of corridos (folk songs) that tell this story as was described by my informant. Unfortunately, they are in cassette format, but the point is that this is evidence that the story my informant gave was true. The 5 brothers were murdered before getting to the dance and that was it for them. This is a very common story among those native to the specific village in which this incident occurred. This story is fascinating because it shows that people have evolved in sharing their stories, they have begun making songs about them which is genius because that way, not too many variations from the original story will happen since it has been recorded and played in the same format each time. However, the content of the story is alarming because murdering 5 people at once seems all too horrible, but regardless, this has now become a common folk tale.