Monthly Archives: April 2017

Balding

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/21/17
Primary Language: English

Informant Information:

Clerisse Cornejo is a student at the University of Southern California. She comes from a mixed background (Japanese/Mexican), and is originally from Fontana, CA.

Tale:

“So the tale is a wive’s tale, very common among a lot of Latino families. Uh, so as a child in order to make your hair grow thicker for the rest of your life (supposedly) you’ll get completely balded. The idea behind this is that as your hair grows back it’ll grow back thicker. I’ve looked into it there’s no actual evidence anywhere that says balding your kids will make their hair more thick and beautiful but that did not stop my mother from balding me as a two year old. I think the tale is mostly on my mom’s side and it was more common for the people (kids/cousins) that came before me. I have some cousins on that side of the family that were never balded as babies, so I think the practice has finally fallen out of use in my family.”

Q: Was there a ancient myth/tale associated with balding?

“Not that I know of.”

Analysis:

The informant mentioned that this practice is common in Latino families, and after investigation, it’s actually very true. I was able to find many articles detailing exactly what the informant said, especially on the belief that the informant mentioned. Apparently, it is common practice in Mexican culture to shave the heads of infant baby girls so that in the future they can have great hair, but I wasn’t able to find the origin of this old wive’s tale.

La Cajachina

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/21/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Informant Information:

Michelle Pina is a student at the University of Southern California. She is from a Cuban background, and is originally from Miami, FL before moving to Los Angeles, CA for college.

Recipe:

“La Cajachina is on Christmas Eve which is called Noche Buena, and we have this thing called La Cajachina which is essentially getting a pit in your backyard and roasting a pig carcass over the fire. So first off you have to make the pit or get a metal tub with coals. For the pig, some people do a whole pig and some people do parts. So for the parts you’d add seasoning to the meat you’re gonna roast. You get the roast from the butcher which means it should be clean but if you want to clean it more you can grab a hose and hose the whole thing down on the rotisserie rack.”

Q: Is there any reason for a pig to be roasted?

“With Cuban food, it’s a lot of pork so it makes sense for it to be a giant pig.”

Q: Is the celebration standard in your family?

“Oh yeah, it’s super standard. Sometimes if it’s only my immediate family we’ll just roast the pig in the oven and call it La Cajachina, but if we’re with more distant family and there’s a lot of people then we’ll do the official La Cajachina.”

Analysis:

I found out that “La Cajachina” translates into china box, which is essentially the box that the informant puts the pig in to barbecue. This box, from what I found, originated in Havana’s Chinatown, where Chinese laborers worked in the 1850s. However, my informant told me that there’s a tendency in Cuba/the Caribbean to call anything weird or complicated “china” or Chinese, so the box might’ve not been Chinese in origin.

Barefoot in the House

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/21/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Informant Information:

Michelle Pina is a student at the University of Southern California. She is from a Cuban background, and is originally from Miami, FL before moving to Los Angeles, CA for college.

Urban Legend:

“Whenever you’re walking around the house with your bare feet, no socks or shoes, when your grandmother or your mom sees you they’re gonna get mad because they think if you walk around barefoot on the ground you’re gonna get sick. Like because they think the ground is cold and your feet are awesome receptors of temperature so if your feet are cold your body’s immune system slows and you get sick.”

Q: Have you ever asked your grandmother/mother why they think that?

“I think it’s from their mothers telling them about it”

Q: Did you ever do research?

“Me in a fit of rage after my grandmother yelled at me for not having slippers in the house, I decided to do my own research and found that it was just an old wives tale and I told my grandmother and my mom and my mom believes me and my grandmother doesn’t.”

Analysis:

The informant’s old wive’s tale is fairly common among other Hispanic households. The informant told me her grandmother said this was supposed to prevent sickness. This is true in the present sense, but this wive’s tale could be traced back to class ranking. In Cuba and many other Hispanic countries, being barefoot is associated with being poor, as the many people in the country that are barefoot are peasants on the streets. Though this might not be what the informant’s grandmother intended, it could definitely be the origin of this old wive’s tale.

Hamburger/Hotdog Folding

Nationality: American
Age: 29
Occupation: Actress
Residence: New York City
Performance Date: April 20, 2017
Primary Language: English

My sister grew up in the United States, where most kids are introduced to arts and crafts at a very young age. As many know, there are two ways to fold a piece of paper: hamburger (narrow edge to narrow edge) or hotdog (wide edge to wide edge).

Allegra: “I was introduced to the folding pattern ‘hot dog versus hamburger style’ in first grade. We were fashioning tri-corner hats out of newspaper. The first step was to fold the newspaper down along a crease to maintain its width, rather than its length. This was referred to as “hamburger style.” If the first step had instead been to fold the newspaper vertically, longer than it was wide, the instruction would have been ‘hot dog style.'”

Me: Did you notice that other teachers referred to hamburger and hotdog folding in class?

Allegra: Oh totally. It was a commonly used instruction in art rooms and day care centers that I went to throughout my childhood. A teacher would say, ‘To make a paper fan, fold the materials hot dog style.’ or ‘To begin your fortune teller, fold the paper hamburger style.’

Analysis: If I could hazard a guess, I think the metaphor works because these sandwich fixings come out of the package with a natural crease. Buns fold along a perforation for easier separation. A hot dog bun opens but does not disintegrate, much like how many paper projects require the traces of former folds to last, so that they may be used later. Two American culinary staples, same dough, two different ways to enjoy them. Hot dogs and hamburgers are also quintessential components to the American child’s diet. Notoriously fussy eaters, the one or two lunch room items every kid likes are hot dogs and hamburgers. Its an easily relatable illustration for a strange new technique, like origami.

The Significance of Yams in Nigeria

Nationality: Nigerian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 19, 2017
Primary Language: English

new_yam_festival2

My friend grew up in Nigeria before coming to the US for college. He says yams are life in Nigeria.

Friend:“The yam is the staple food and therefore a measure of masculinity and wealth. If a family has a lot of yams, you’re rich because you can feed your family. This makes you a strong man. Yams are equated to life in Igbo culture. Nigeria is the leading producer of yams in the world, so of course they are a big deal to us.”

Me: Do you still have family who farm yams?

Friend: “My father does not farm yams, but my grandfather did, and his father before him. When my grandfather got married, he had to present his yams to my grandmother’s family to prove he could provide for her, which is a fairly typical custom in Nigeria.”

Me: Is there anything specific about how yams are farmed that makes them special?

Friend: “On some farms in Nigeria, the women aren’t allowed to go to the farm until harvest time. Then the women do all of the harvest work. It’s superstition I guess. There are many people today who still grow yams. Yams are featured at any big gathering or at any holiday meal.”

 

Analysis: Many cultures have some form of staple food. For the Irish, potatoes are an important part of sustenance, and therefore are a large part of how people live. Because of this, a simple food like a potato, or yam, can come to have symbolic meaning.  What a family produces in terms of yams, and how it relates to masculinity is extremely interesting, given that yams are an unpredictable measure of success. One year, the harvest could be plentiful and the weather perfect. The next year, however, bad luck could lead to very few yams. Another aspect of this folklore worth noting is that while the men do the initial farming, the women do the harvesting. Perhaps this relates to the hunter/gatherer trope, but a man’s worth relies on work which is half done by women.