Author Archives: maresde@usc.edu

Stuffed Peppers

Main Piece: Stuffed Peppers

The following was a story told to me by a college of mine, RD, and I am DM. The story was about a family recipe that was passed down that she learned to do on her own.

RD: My grandma had uh, my grandma on my Italian side has a recipe book in her head that she verbally passed on to my dad and my dad’s sisters. And I used to be very bad at cooking but recently I got into cooking. I wanted to try some of her recipes, but they weren’t written down anywhere so I asked my dad’s sister to send me her recipe book like her mental recipe book. Could you please write down the recipes down for me? And really what all she could provide for me because she was like you just have to cook it and figure it out. Really all she could provide for me was the ingredients so now I’m trying to recreate an actual recipe book by experimenting with all of her ingredients to try to figure out like the perfect combination so that I can create the actual recipe book with instruction and the right amounts and all that stuff  and then hopefully pass it down to my kids and so on and so on.

DM: Did you figure out a recipe?

RD: I did! I made her gnocchi, which I was so proud of cause everything was from scratch. I tried to make her raviolis and they were so bad so I need to try those again. And I made her stuffed peppers which were also pretty amazing.

DM: You want to tell me about either the gnocchi or the stuffed peppers?

RD: Yeah the stuffed peppers cause they are easier. Um so the stuffed peppers, you get a pepper and you cut it in half um and then you make her gravy which is meat, breadcrumbs, a bunch of Italian seasonings, um onions all just like mushed together and then put into a pot of tomato sauce and you just cook it for like three hours on low and it just simmers so that it can just pick up all the flavors and stuff. And then you stuff those into the peppers and you top the tomatoes with Ricotta cheese and then you put the peppers again in the oven and you cook them again. Then when you take them out it’s a little bowl filled with meat and cheese and it’s amazing.

Background/Context:

The participant is twenty-eight years old. She is a Mexican American assistant principal at a high school. One day she posted a picture on Instagram of her making her grandma’s recipe from scratch. I wondered how long that family recipe was passed down in her family, so I asked her about.   

DM:Where/who did they learn it from?

RD: I learned this from my grandma because it was her stuff. Her children wouldn’t have know had she not passed it down to them.

DM: Why is this recipe important to you?

RD: It is what I grew up eating. Everytime my dad cooked, he cooked this recipes.

Analysis/ My Thoughts:

I think this story was actually very similar to what we were debating in class about oral versus written folklore. Her grandmother’s recipe book in her head with becomes something authored by her. She won’t be giving it to another else but her family. Instead of being an oral book it will now become something physical that can be passed down to her family. It raises the question of who the recipe book belongs to. The recipe book is hers, but the recipe book is her grandmothers. As it gets passed down, will it raise the question of where these recipes came from.  

 

The Lighthouse

Main Piece: Lighthouse Point Vicente  

The following was a story told to me by a friend of mine, BS, in my Anthropology lab, and I am DM. The story was about a haunted lighthouse in Palo Verde.

BS: As a kid, I grew up looking at this lighthouse every night. I always saw a women, but I never knew the story of why she was up there. When I began to work at a like local culture center, I finally heard the story about that women. A long time ago, there was a boat called the SS Destroyer, which was an army ship, and they were in a boat wreck. One of the crew member’s wife jumped off the lighthouse after she heard the news of her husband. Now, every night she will go out on to the lighthouse and moan for her dead husband.

Background/Context:

The participant is nineteen years old in his first year of college at the University of Southern California. He is American. In my Anthropology lab, we were sharing folklore with one another for our final project and BS decided to share with us a ghost story he had from his hometown.

DM:Why do you know this ghost story/ Why do you like telling this ghost story?

BS: I know this story because they told me stories as a kid. I also learned more about the story when I began to work in the cultural center.  I like talking about it with other people who saw her and know about the history.

DM: Where/who did they learn it from?

BS: I saw it as a kid, then people told stories about it, then  at the cultural center I saw the story again. I finally looked it up online when I wanted to know more.

DM: Why is this ghost story important to you?

BS: This is important to me because it was my first ghost encounter or experience. This is also important to me because I will never forget how scary it was seeing her every night or sometimes during the day.

Analysis/ My Thoughts:

There was another version of this story which involved the richest family in Palo Verde, the Vanderlipp’s. They say that the lady that is moaning in the night is Mrs. Vanderlipp because they owned that lighthouse. It is more of a claiming her territory type of thing. In class, we talked about how ghosts can cause a real estate problem because the ghosts feel entitled to the land. The land is actually supposed to be passed down to their family, but when it gets sold to other people, the spirits on the property get angry. 

One can also find this story at:

Walton, Stephanie. “A Lighthouse Legend.” Daily Breeze, Daily Breeze, 6 Sept. 2017, www.dailybreeze.com/2008/04/18/a-lighthouse-legend/. This article talks about the same thing as my interviewee said only with more descriptions and more of the facts. The article has more information about what exactly happened to the lady on the lighthouse.

 

 

Padre Sin Cabeza

Main Piece: Padre Sin Cabeza  

The following was an interview of a Participant/interviewee about ghost stories of her hometown. She is marked as MS. I am marked as DM.

MS: Algo que paso ahi donde yo nací. En la iglesia que está en el pueblo que yo nací se muere un sacerdote. La iglesia era una iglesia antigua donde siempre se celebran las fiestas de la virgen de guadalupe. Entonces cada cierto tiempo pasaba que el padre que se murió dicen que le cortaron la cabeza. El alma de ese padre bajaba en la iglesia desde aparte de atrás de la iglesia hasta el frente de la iglesia. En las noches si oía cuando el padre salía y arrastraba las cadenas y el padre murmuraba y lloraba por el patio de toda la iglesia. Mucha gente en el pueblo sabían que era el padre porque mucha gente lo llego a mirar. Hoy, todavía se puede oír las cadenas del padre.   

Translate:

MS: In the church that is in the village that I was born in, a priest died. The church was an ancient church where the festivities of the Virgin of Guadalupe are always celebrated. Then every once in a while they heard the father who died, people said they cut off his head. That Father’s soul was coming down into the church from  the back of the church to the front of the church. In the evenings one could hear when the father went out and dragged the chains and the Father murmured and his cries in the courtyard of the whole church. A lot of people in town knew it was the father because a lot of people saw him. Today, you can still hear the father’s chains.

Background/Context:

The participant is 52 years old. She grew up in Michoacan, Mexico. Maria, who is marked as MS, is my grandma. In her hometown, there is a lot of superstition beliefs that spread throughout the whole town. In this specific story, almost everyone in town heard the chains and cries of the decapitated priest.They heard the priest mostly at night around 12. Below is a conversation I had with MS for more background/context of the remedy, which was originally in Spanish.  

DM:Why do you know this ghost story?

MS: I know this story because I am the one who lived through it. Me and my sister heard stories about the church and we went to see for ourselves what it was like.

DM: Why do you like telling this ghost story?

MS:  I like telling this story because it is something I want people to know what I have been through.

DM: Where/who did they learn it from?

MS: There was stories already in my town of the priest, but I never heard him it until that time walking with my sister.

DM: Why is this ghost story important to you?

MS: Whenever there is a family gather I will be able to tell what I lived through and what my town believed. I want my kids and grandkids to tell it to keep this story alive because I feel like it’s apart of my hometown.

Analysis/ My Thoughts:

This story shows how universal this story was in MS’s hometown. If she was able to hear about it from others, then experience it herself it means that this is true. MS explains to me how her and her sister heard a lot about the priest’s cry before they heard it.

 

Devil Dog

Main Piece: Devil Dog

The following was an interview of a Participant/interviewee about ghost stories of her hometown. She is marked as MS. I am marked as DM.

MS: Esta tarde voy a comentar una historia que me paso a mi y mis tres hermanos aproximado cuando yo tenía seis o siete años. Veníamos de la case de unas de mis tías. En ese tiempo había televisión nada más en diferentes casas. No todo el pueblo teníamos televisión y veníamos de ver un programa de la televisión en casa de mi tia. Para regresar a mi casa teníamos que atravesar un río. Veníamos como a las doce de la noche caminando por la orilla del río y cuando veníamos llegando donde estaba une puente donde cruzaba la gente de un lado a otro. Unos de mis hermanos nos dijo voy a sacar mi plátano para comer me lo ahorita. Entonces cuando vinimos nosotros caminando de repente se empezo a oir come un bramido come de un perro o un animal grande y mi hermano quien traía el plátano dijo espérense no caminan y los empezamos a detener nos miramos que salió un perro grande de unos arbustos grandes y empezaba como caminar con una cadenas alrededor del perro y ese perro se atravesó por el río y empezó a tratar come de agarramos y nos ladraba fuertemente. Pero lo que me más superando ver que el perro no se atravesó dentro de la agua si no por encima de la agua y cuando mi hermano quiso correr juntos con nosotros no podíamos dar el paso donde el perro no atorro y cuando mi hermano quiso agarrar y aventarle el plátano para que nosotros podíamos pasar el plátano se partió en tres pedazos con la misa cáscara y mi hermana empezó a rezar a dios que nos quitara eso para pasar. De repente se empezó a meter como un montón de canteras con un montón de ramas secas y ahí se metió el perro y se iba desapareciendo poco a poco. Cuando se desapareció el perro, podíamos empezar a caminar otra vez.

Translate:

MS: This afternoon I’m going to tell you a story that happened to me and my three siblings when I was six or seven years old. We came from the case of one of my aunts. At that time there was only a television in certain houses. Not all the people had television and we came to see a TV show at my aunt’s house. To get back to my house we had to cross through a river. We came as at twelve o’clock in the night walking along the river bank and when we came arriving where it was bridge that people could cross from one side to the other. One of my brothers told me I’m going to get my banana to eat now. Then suddenly we began to hear a roar of a dog or a big animal and my brother who brought the banana said wait do not walk. We looked at the big dog come out of a large shrubs and with a chain around the dog and that dog walked on top of the river. But what more surpassing me to see that the dog did not go through the water if not above the water and when my brother wanted to run together we could not take the step where the dog was. Atorro and when my brother wanted to grab and throw the banana to We could pass the banana broke into three pieces with the shell mass and my sister began praying to God to take that away to pass. Suddenly they got He started putting like a pile of quarries with a bunch of dried twigs and there he got the dog and he was slowly fading away. When the dog disappeared, we could start walking again.

Background/Context:

The participant is 52 years old. She grew up in Michoacan, Mexico. Maria, who is marked as MS, is my grandma. In her hometown, there is a lot of superstition beliefs that spread throughout the whole town. In this specific story, almost everyone in town saw this dog they claimed to be the devil. They tried to avoid the river because that is where the dog appears most of the time. Below is a conversation I had with MS for more background/context of the remedy, which was originally in Spanish.  

DM:Why do you know this ghost story?

MS: I know this story because I am the one who lived through it.

DM: Why do you like telling this ghost story?

MS:  I like telling this story because it is something I want people to know what I have been through.

DM: Where/who did they learn it from?

MS: There was stories already in my town of the dog, but I never saw it until now. I heard about the dog from others but I also learned it through a real life experience.

DM: Why is this ghost story important to you?

MS: This shows that family always need to be united always in every situation especially with family and that God will always hear you out.

Analysis/ My Thoughts:

This story shows how this “devil dog” was able to show up in everyone’s life at one point. MS explains to me how her and her siblings heard a lot about the dog before it appeared to them. They were scared of walking or fighting at night because of everything they heard. Finally, the dog appeared to them. When my grandma told me this story, I was scared of the dogs that I had in that moment.

Diaper Rash

Main Piece: Diaper Rash

The following was an interview of a Participant/interviewee about a folk remedy that is passed within her community. She is marked as MS. I am marked as DM.

MS: Te voy a dar un remedio para lo rosado de los babies. Agarras y compras un manojo de hierba mora. La pones a hervir con agua suficiente para sentar un baby. Cuando hierve la agua y esta mas o menos la agua verde los pones en un traste donde el baby cepa bein. Cuando ya esta la agua tibiecita agarras y haciendas el baby por como una hora. Después, lo bañas completamente. Lava su partecita, o sus pompis bien bien lavaditas y lo dejas que se hore sus pompis. Vas agarrar aceite de olivo, 3 ajos, y los vas a quemar hasta que el ajo se pone cafecito. El aceite que queda, los vas a poner en el pompis del bebé con un trapo limpio. De ahí, vas a conseguir fecula de maiz y le pones poquito micena en sus pompis que se ore por quince minutos. Despues le pones su pamper y lo dejas tranquilo.

Translate:

MS: I’m going to give you a remedy for diaper rashes. You put it to boil blackberry weed with enough water to sit a baby. When the water boils and the water is more or less green, put it in a container big enough for the baby to sit. When the water is lukewarm you sit the baby in the water for about an hour. Then you bathe it completely. Wash his/her parts thoroughly then let air dry. You’re going to grab olive oil, 3 garlics, and you’re going to burn them until the garlic gets brown. The remaining oil, you will put them in the baby’s behind with a clean cloth. From there, you will get starch of corn and you put little on their behind. Let this sit for fifteen minutes. Then you put their pamper and leave them calm.

Background/Context:

The participant is 52 years old. She grew up in Michoacan, Mexico. Maria, who is marked as MS, is my grandma. When I was growing up, my grandmother was the one who looked over us while my parent was at school or work. She was able to take care of us with her home remedies that she learned from her grandmother’s. Below is a conversation I had with MS for more background/context of the remedy, which was originally in Spanish.  

DM:Why do you know this remedy?

MS:    I know this because I practiced this with my kids and my grandkids.

DM: Why do you like this remedy?

MS:  I like this remedy because it is effective and it does not affect the kids health.

DM: Where/who did they learn it from?

MS: I learned this in my hometown Michoacan, Mexico through her grandmother and her dad’s side.

DM: Why is this remedy important to you?

MS: This remedy is inherited from my grandparents. I saw this in my family for a long time. I want my future generations to have a reliable remedy and it has been passed down in my family and I want to keep it going.

Analysis/ My Thoughts:

I know there is an abundant amount of home remedies that all take care of one symptom like swollen tonsils. The people have the power to choose which ones they will use for themselves. I have never used this home remedy, but MS said it worked for her family.