Monthly Archives: April 2018

Easter Eggs

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 32
Occupation: Mexican American
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/20/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece: Easter Eggs

The following was a story told to me by a college of mine, ER, and I am DM. The story was about a new tradition created within her family that changed the way her family celebrates Easter.

ER: I am going to tell the transition of my family celebrating Easter. My grandma grew up in a traditional Catholic household where they would go to mass every Easter. In terms of Easter, she would always mention that they would go to mass on like Christmas Easter and that they would be there and kind of celebrating the resurrection of the Lord and so this idea of faith kind of guiding your year of setting the tone for the practices of daily life. When moved to the United States, um they did not go to mass growing up so my grandmother kid of lost this tradition of when she raised my father and his siblings. They did not go to mass other than Christmas and they didn’t really celebrate Easter and that Tradition was lost for about thirty years. My brother and all of my cousins started to having children so it’s kind of another layer of transition in our family holidays where Easter was now more about the kids. Everyone got together on Easter day to celebrate and we would use typically in Mexico these are called cascarones which are confetti filled eggs and so typically you go around smashing them on people’s head kind of a fun little chiste (joke) that you do with each other. My family thinks they are very funny so my cousins always try to get us like when we were unaware. Two years ago, bought the color dye from the color runs on Amazon and filled the eggs with the dye. So every year we have about 500-1000 Easter eggs that we break on each others heads. We have this huge cascarone fight. It has been interesting seeing the change transition from going to a typical conservative formal Easter celebration to nowhere really it’s just a day to spend with family and focus on each other and that time together.

Background/Context:

The participant is thirty-two years old. She is a Mexican American high school English 10 teacher. She told me about how her Easter evolved from a traditional Catholic Easter to a new tradition.  

DM: Where/who did they learn it from?

ER: It is just something that happened organically over time

DM: Why is this tradition important to you?

ER: I think part of that we are going over the typical norm of like society and just being typical Latino like you go to church that was the obligation that you had to do to now like making it our own and kind of making it what works for us.

Analysis/ My Thoughts:

I think this is a perfect example of how one thing changes over time but still the same thing. The tradition of celebrating Easter has stayed the same, but the way they Easter is celebrating is different. There are multiple ways these generations celebrated Easter day. 

You can find the story of the eggs here:

Rentería, Melissa. “’Confetti-Filled Eggs’ a Tradition.” San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio Express-News, 21 Apr. 2011, www.mysanantonio.com/sacultura/conexion/article/Confetti-filled-eggs-a-tradition-1345157.php. This article talks more in depth about the history of where these cascarones came from as well as how popular they are today. They mention how there are stores where they just sell these cascarones.

 

Chili

Nationality: Mexican Italian
Age: 28
Occupation: High School Assistant Principal
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/20/2018
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: Chili

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: Every Christmas Eve we have tamales and it’s just a tradition we’ve weve for as long as I can remember we eat tamales but uh her specific salsa she told me always had to go on her tamales otherwise I would be cursed so um to this day even if its not one of her tamales I need her salsa to put on it otherwise I can’t eat it cause I don’t know I feel like something is going to happen to me.

DM: Do you know what’s in her salsa?

RD: Yes I do.

DM: Can you tell me?

RD: Sure so its uh a couple different kinds of chiles she puts um jalapeno then she put habaneros and then she puts cilantro and tomato and onion salt and pepper. I think that’s it. Yeah I think that’s it.  

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:Why do you like sharing this recipe/Why do you know this recipe/ Where/who did they learn it from/ Why is this repice important to you?

RD: Cause he salsa is the best salsa I’ve ever  had in my life um even when I go to Mexican restaurants I want it know. I don’t know if its because she’s convinced me that it has some special power or just because I think it is really good. She was also really important to me and she’s has alzheimer’s so um it’s like definitely not the same person as when she kind of gave me the story so I feel like it’s kind of a way to keep that part of her.

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 within 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.  

Stuffed Peppers

Nationality: Mexican Italian
Age: 28
Occupation: High School Assistant Principal
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/20/2018
Primary Language: English

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

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: University Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 03/27/2018
Primary Language: English

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

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 52
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/19/2018
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

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.