Monthly Archives: May 2018

“Mais Perdido que Cego em Tiroteio”

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; São Paulo, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/20/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

There is this popular simile that I heard multiple times, I don’t know the first time I heard it but I keep repeating because it is so famous in Brazil that goes “estou mais perdido que cego em tiroteio” which means that I am more lost than a blind man in cross fire. It’s pretty self-explanatory; it means that you have no idea of what’s going on in the current situation. It’s a nice expression; a great symmetry and I think it’s funny. Although it could be seen a joke I use it occasionally.

This is definitely one of the most popular similes in Brazil; people use it a lot, including myself. When people are telling a story and someone doesn’t seem to understand they use the simile. It’s supposed to be entertaining, even though it might sound offensive at first, it’s just supposed to be a joke. Today I had some trouble to understand a tough math problem for my macroeconomics class and I used it to myself. People also say it when they are driving and aren’t able to find the destination they are looking for. It comes out spontaneously and it’s a fun way to say that you have no clue of what is going on.

Bagman

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; São Paulo, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/20/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

In Brazil there is this story of what we call the “homem do saco” which translates to the bagman. It’s sort of a bedtime story that if you don’t behave well, this random guy will come during your sleep and put you in his bag and kidnap you. He would carry you and take it with him. It’s something that my grandma used to tell me when I was young and misbehaving. It used to scare the hell out of me, so I carried that with me, I guess. Of course I don’t believe in it and I have never seen this man before, but I used to believe in the story not only because a grownup would tell me, which made it more authentic but also because she used to say that it had happened with people she knew.

Although I am from Brazil, this was the first time I ever heard about this story. According to Artur it is really common, perhaps from the state he is from because I had not heard of it. I believe it is an extremely effective way of teaching kids a lesson or thinking twice before they misbehave. Children tend to believe in these stories when they are young and they actually change their behavior for the better. That’s why at a young age, in my personal opinion, adults sometimes lie to kids to educate them through these stories, which have been efficient.

Blonde Girl in the Bathroom

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 22
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

My ghost story is actually a very famous story in Brazil. I heard it for the first time when I was around 11 years old, I can’t remember exactly. My aunt told me when I was in my country house, close to Rio. She told me about the “blonde girl in the bathroom”, that’s what the ghost story is called. Essentially, the story is if (pause) you call “blonde girl of the bathroom” three times, while in a dark bathroom, a blonde ghost will appear. I had some friends and cousins who told me they actually called the blonde girl and it worked. They did that in all of the houses’ bathrooms and said that she was in all of them already. So the week we spent there I would barely enter the bathrooms because I was scared she would be there. That story was really impactful during my childhood because even though looking back today it seems like a silly story, I was really scared at the time.

This is a very famous ghost story in Brazil, in fact, I know Pedro since I was three years old and I heard his aunt talking about the blonde girl in the bathroom. His cousins used to believe it was real and even though I was scared in the beginning I never really took it seriously. When we are young we tend to believe in these stories with more frequency but as we grow older we stop believing in them. The only problem was that people said they had seen it before so that made it more authentic, which as a consequence, made all of us more frightened. Even though the story seems familiar to me, the version I heard with more frequency is that if we flush the toilet three times in a row while the bathroom lights are out, she would appear. I never really tried that because I was scared, but with time I just stopped believing in this ghost.

White Owl

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 23
Occupation: Software Engineer
Residence: Los Angeles, California; Ceará, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/17/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

So this is kind of a ghost story or a superstition from where I lived almost all of my life, in the northeast of Brazil. It’s basically when a white owl flies over a group of people, everyone has to scream, “happy newly weds” otherwise somebody in your family will die in the next month. I heard this for the first time in when I was with my older cousin going to a family reunion party, to celebrate someone’s birthday. I don’t believe in this anymore but when I was a kid I used to believe in it, so I would shout, “happy newly weds” every time a white owl flew above me.

I am also from Brazil yet I had never heard about this folklore before. It is really interesting and the exact context and idea of how it came to be is unknown. Davi said that he heard it as a kid and he used to say it because he had fear that a family member would actually die but now he just thinks it is a silly superstition to have. I actually don’t think it is really common for a white owl to fly over your head but it probably happened to him a few times. I am not a big fan of these superstitions yet I find them interesting.

Headless Mule

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 18
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; São Paulo, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/20/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

In Brazil, there is a common myth, an urban myth, that on Thursday’s, a woman who has any physical relation with a member of the Catholic Church ends up becoming a headless mule, sort of like a donkey animal. And instead of having a head, she would have a big flame of fire. And she would run around and kill any animal of person on her path. She is attracted to nails and teeth, so if she were close to you, you had to hide your teeth and your nails. I was particularly afraid of it when I was little, I would always get cautious whenever it was a Thursday and I was at countryside and there were horses and donkeys running around. I was always thinking that maybe one of them would turn into one of the headless mules and just kill me.

This is the type of story that you only believe when you are young. As Pedro said, he used to take this ghost story seriously when he was younger but now he doesn’t. In my opinion, this is something rather impossible to happen and although there are people who do actually believe it can be true, I completely disagree. I had listened to this story before, at a young age, but I didn’t know the exact context of how the woman turned out to be a mule. Now I am more familiar with the folklore but in my opinion it’s an impossibility of the world.