Monthly Archives: May 2014

Using Baby Pee to Rejuvenate the Skin

Nationality: Mexico
Age: 42
Occupation: housewife
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: 4/09/14
Primary Language: Spanish

Using Baby Pee to Rejuvenate the Skin

“Cuando la mujer esta embarazada, se le mancha bien feo la cara y si uno no se cuida, esas manchas nunca se van a quitar. La soluccion es de agarrar los panales del bebe cuando tengan miados y flotarlos por toda la cara. Si uno hace esto, en menos que uno acuerde, se le va aclarar la cara igual como la tenia antes del embarazo… este remedio lo aprendi de mi mama, ella despues de mi primer embarazo vio que se me puso mi cara muy fea asi que me dijo que me empesara a untar los miados del bebe. No me puso a discutir con ella sobre esto, porque en otras ocasiones, a mis primas tambien les funciono este tratamiento. No estoy muy segura de donde aprendio este remedo mi mama pero yo pienso que le apredio de mi abuela.”

“When a woman is pregnant, her face starts breaking out badly and if one doesn’t take care of those imperfections, they’ll never disappear. The solution is to grab the baby’s peed diaper and rub it throughout the face. If one does this, the face will go back to the way it was before the pregnancy began… this remedy was taught to me by my mother, she saw how bad my face had gotten after my pregnancy so she told me to start rubbing the baby’s pee on my face. I didn’t argue with her about this because I had seen the results of this remedy on other cousins of mine. I’m not sure where my mom learned this remedy from but I think she learned it from my grandmother.”

My informant is a native of Guadalajara Mexico. She was born and raised there until the age of 16 which was when she migrated to the US. She is now 42 years of age and has 6 kids of various ages. Even though she has lived most of her life in the US, she still maintains strong ties with her Mexican heritage through her mother. She is really attached to her mother and therefore most of the things she has learned have been passed on by her mother. She is now also sharing her knowledge with her oldest children and continues to bestow Mexican culture among all her children. Since she migrated to the US she has focused on working and after getting married, to being a housewife. She has not had any formal institutional education, so most of her knowledge comes from others in her daily life.

In my opinion, this seems like a really cool home remedy for something that would otherwise cost a fortune. However, since I have never actually seen the results, I would be pretty hesitant to try it out for myself. It is a pretty gross thing to do so I believe that it definitely takes a lot of trust to actually follow this home remedy. This therefore shows that the informant of this remedy, is willing to do whatever her mother says. The results of this remedy should be tracked so that a definite answer in regards to its effectiveness can be concluded. Even if this remedy actually worked, I don’t think I would be willing to rub pee all over my face but if it were my mom telling me to do this, then I would probably consider it. Ultimately, I believe we all are willing to do what our parents tell us to do, therefore keeping remedies that have been passed on from our ancestors alive.

THOT

Nationality: USA
Age: 13
Occupation: Student
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: 4/09/14
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

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

Nationality: Mexico
Age: 41
Occupation: housewife
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/09/14
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

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

Milagro de Santo Nino de Plateros

Nationality: Mexico
Age: 85
Occupation: retired
Residence: Zacatecas, MX
Performance Date: 4/09/14
Primary Language: Spanish

Milagro De Santo Nino De Plateros

“estaba yo en la sierra solo lejos de la casa y en eso que mi caballo se atoro en una fosa. No habia manera de sacarlo, y el caballo no se podia parar porque estaba comletamente atorado. Si no lo sacaba pronto, se me hiba a morir, entonces lo que hise fue de pedirle un milagro al santo  nino de plateros, le dije ‘ay ninito santo de plateros, porfavor consedeme este milagro, te lo pido de todo Corazon. Ayudame a salvar a mi pobre aniamlito y te prometo llevarte flores y una vela a tu altar’ y no me la van a creer que le amarre un lazo al caballo, y lo saque sano y salvo. Asi que ahora yo le doy muchas gracias al ninito de plateros porque me consedio ese milagro muy grande.”

“I was in the mountain range alone and far from home and then my horse fell into a pit. There was no way I could get it out and it couldn’t get out itself because it was completely stuck. If I didn’t get it out soon, it would die, so what I did was to ask for a miracle from the “Santo Nino de Plateros”, I told him “oh holy baby of plateros, please grant me this miracle, I ask this with all my heart. Help me save my poor animal and I promise to take you flowers and a candle to your altar” and you’re not going to believe me but I tied a rope to the horse and I got him out safe and sound. So now I am very grateful towards the holy baby of plateros because he granted me with that very big miracle.”

The informant is an 85 year old male who has lived all his life in Mexico. He has been brought up on tales of the land. He never attended school, so all his knowledge has been passed down by his parents and other family members in his life. Since he has no other knowledge, he doesn’t really question the information, but rather takes it as the only truth. He has also never left his hometown village so the only information he knows is the information that pertains his village in particular.

In my opinion this is a very compelling story because one could actually attribute this happy ending to a miracle granted from that saint. However, when looking at this rationally, if the horse was really that badly stuck, there would be no way for the 80+ year old man to take a horse out of a pit. Therefore I must conclude that the horse may not have really been that badly stuck. However, I cannot say that this is certainly true, there may have been a miracle and I could be mistaken. Also, the man may have gotten strength by just thinking that there was an entity out there helping him, so it can also have been a sort of placebo effect. Regardless, I’m very glad that no one was hurt in this incident.

Quinceaneras

Nationality: USA
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: 4/09/14
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

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.