Monthly Archives: May 2018

Cinderella

Nationality: Cuban/Mexican
Age: 19
Performance Date: 4-12-18
Primary Language: English

Context: This piece is was an interview that I directly copied every word said. The participants name is Jonathan. I had asked the participate in advance over phone if he had any folklore and he asked what I meant by that. After giving a few example he said he actually did have something to share. So we met in his apartment a few hour later. We entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. Background: Jonathan is a 19-year-old college student whose ethnicity is half Cuban and Half Mexican. He is a sophomore attending UCLA.  Main Piece: 

So Cinderella is a girl that has to live with her step mom and her step sisters because her dad died. She is treated really bad and is pretty much the maid of the house. She has like little animal friends that um help her clean and talk to her. It is announced that there is going to be a ball and Cinderella really wants to go to meet Prince Charming and get out of the house. Her evil step sisters and her step mom don’t want her to go so they rip her dress and lock her up. But then a fairy godmother comes and transforms a pumpkin into a like really nice carriage and gives her a new dress. But then she gives her some conditions which is that everything would go back to normal at midnight. So Cinderella goes to the ball and Prince Charming and her fall in love. But then she runs out because it’s almost midnight but when she does she leaves a slipper behind. Prince Charming is going crazy looking for her and goes around with the slipper for girls to try them on. The step mom locks Cinderella up when the prince is coming but with help of her animal friends she gets out and tries the slipper and since it was her it fits so they live happily ever after.

 Analysis: This Cinderella tale is one of the most widespread and famous tales. Alan Dundes said there must be multiplicity and variation. This story embodies multiplicity and variation. The Cinderella tale has a centralized theme that anyone could be a “princes”. It serves the purpose of demonstrating that you can become anything you want to.  I am actually shocked by how many variations there are for this tale. If you would like to read popular variations of the tale you can rea Cinderella: The Ultimate Collection by Charles Perrault. 

Little Red Riding Hood

Nationality: Cuban/Mexican
Age: 19
Performance Date: 4-12-18
Primary Language: English

Context: This piece is was an interview that I directly copied every word said. The participants name is Jonathan. I had asked the participate in advance over phone if he had any folklore and he asked what I meant by that. After giving a few example he said he actually did have something to share. So we met in his apartment a few hour later. We entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. Main Piece: Ok so this was a long long time ago before technology. So there was this little girl named Red Riding Hood. She was called that cuz she wore a red sweater that had a hoody and she like had the hood on all the time. So the story goes that she.. she took care of her grandmother who was really old already. Like she couldn’t really leave the house. She kinda just stayed in bed the whole day and Red Riding would go into the forest… ooh yea she live in a cabin in the middle of a large forest. So she went to the forest to scavenge for food… she would carry like a basket and fill it with apples. ( coughed to clear throat). One day she went home and went to her grandma’s bedside. She told her grandma (raised the pitch of voice) “what big hands you have”…(with the same high pitch voice) “What big feet you have”. What was the other one? Uuhh… I can’t remember but then a man jumped out of the bed and tried to kill little red riding hood. He used an axe. So red riding screamed and a wolf came to rescue her. The wolf killed the mad and ate him. The wolf then used his nose to find little red riding hood’s mother. I think they found her in the closet locked in. They then lived happily ever after.  Background: Jonathan is a 19-year-old college student whose ethnicity is half Cuban and Half Mexican. He is a sophomore attending UCLA. He learned this version from a roommate he had in college. The roommate was Brazilian. Analysis:  This collection is a different variation of the famous tale of Little Red Riding hood. It is interesting to hear of a tale that has a famous motif inverted. The wolf is a famous motif representing a villain or an antagonist. It is seen in tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, the three little pigs, and the boy who cried wolf. However, in this Tale the wolf is the hero. If you want to read a variation of this tale in which the wolf does serve as a motif for a villain you can check out the book Little Red Riding Hood by Trina Schart Hyman.

The boy who saw the devil

Nationality: Cuban/Mexican
Age: 19
Performance Date: 4-12-18
Primary Language: English

Context: This piece is was an interview that I directly copied every word said. The participants name is Jonathan. I had asked the participate in advance over phone if he had any folklore and he asked what I meant by that. After giving a few example he said he actually did have something to share. So we met in his apartment a few hour later. We entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. Main piece: Me: “So… what is this story you have to tell me” Jonathan: “ Well… I am not superstitious or anything and I don’t believe in ghost but I still did see something one night and strange things happened after that” Me: “I am sorry do you mind speaking a bit slower so I could write everything down” Jonathan: “ ughh sure… So I was telling you. Well when I was about eight in the middle of the night I got up to go pee. So I went to the restroom right and when I was coming out I saw a figure in my room. So I was shocked… like I mean I was super scared and so it moved right outside my bedroom door into this big hallway my parents house had… I don’t know why but I went to the doorway to see what it was. I was honestly so fucken scared because dude I saw like a person but they had horns! And it had a long pointy tail. I just froze… and then it just disappeared. Me: “that crazy… just give me a sec… ok so what do you think you saw” Jonathan: “I think I saw the devil.” Me: “ not that I don’t believe you or anything but have you ever considered maybe you dreamt this. Not in any offensive way” Jonathan: “see that’s what trips me out the most! So after I remember just turning on all the lights and I just stayed awake sitting on my bed. I never went back to sleep. Like I never woke up so I was always awake. Do you get what I am saying? I can’t explain it”  Background: Jonathan is a 19-year-old college student whose ethnicity is half Cuban and Half Mexican. He is a sophomore attending UCLA. He has stated that he grew up in a home where they do not believe in superstition or anything supernatural. He is a firm believer in science and what could be explained. My Thoughts:I cannot say whether or not I believe Jonathan; however, this is a prime example of how folklore begins and how these stories get passed on. Rather than telling me a story Jonathan has heard, he told me his own experience and encounter with paranormal activity. Jonathan has told this story to other people and now people and now many people believe his room is haunted by Satan himself. While there is no hard evidence to the event ever happening many people still believe the story to be true. The power of folklore and one sharing narratives is clearly displayed.

Folk-medicine “Se Empacho”

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 47
Performance Date: April 19, 2018
Primary Language: Spanish

Context:

 

This piece of folklore was collected on April 19, 2018 around 6 pm. I went over to my girlfriend’s parents’ house for dinner and I overheard a piece of folk medicine and was intrigued. My girlfriends mother was telling this piece to my girlfriend, so I interviewed her. This is a rough translation of the conversation because she only speaks Spanish and I did not go prepared to record the interview as this was a spontaneous interview.

 

Main Piece:

 

At my girlfriend’s parents’ house, I overheard my girlfriend’s mother say that the baby, a 2-year-old, she babysits “Se empacho”. She said that she already had cured him by “sobandolo” (massaging). I was bit intrigued as to what sickness could be cured with a massage, so I asked if I could interview her on the topic.

 

Me: “Que significa que se empacho”. (What does “empacho” mean)

 

Teresa: She replied that sometimes when a baby eats something “se queda atorado en su estómago” (it will get stuck in their stomach). The baby the shows symptoms such as “no comiendo y estando triste” (not eating and being sad). Teresa : “Solamente… ninos se pueden empachar, o tambien adultos” (Can only kids get this sickness, or can adults get it also” Teresa: “Todo la jente se puede empachar” (Everyone or Anyone can get this illness) Me: “Oooh… ok, y como se dice… como se cura. Ay una manera specifica que se tiene que sobar. Pues como… adonde se tiene que sobar y tienes que usar algo cuando lo sobas” ( Oooh… ok, and how do I say this… how do you cure this. Is there a specific way you need to massage then? Like how… where do you need to massage them and is there anything you need to use when you massage them.) Teresa: She replied that you have to massage their stomach downwards to get the whatever is stuck to go downwards and get dislodged. Then you have to pull their loose skin from their back. Background: My girlfriend’s mother is Mexican, born and raised in a small ranch in the state of Nayarit. She is 47 years old and was a nurse for the ranch. She tended to most small illnesses for the people of the ranch. She moved the United States when she was 33 years old. She said that she learned most of her remedies, including the cure for when someone is “empachado” from her mother who was also lives in the ranch. Analysis: This piece of folk medicine is a prime example of how people transfer share their own remedies to sicknesses. Although I have never heard of this sickness before and could not find any specific studies to what this sickness could be or how massaging one’s stomach could cure it, it is still a significant part of one’s culture. When interviewing my girlfriend’s mother, I saw how serious she was about the sickness and the pride she had for curing it. Although traditional and scientific medical research shows no evidence of how this sickness is possible or how the cure works, it is widely believed and practiced in the small ranch.

Powderpuff

Nationality: Salvadorian
Age: 20
Performance Date: 4-17-18
Primary Language: English

Main Content: My high school, you know… Bell High School we had a tradition we did every year called Powderpuff. Essentially what it was was every year we had a flag football game in which the seniors played against the juniors. What was super funny though was that it was umm reversed. So the girls played the football game and the boys were the cheer leaders. It was like a huge event that we had the week before homecoming. Even during lunch there was… we would have a huge pep rally and both teams would run up onto the stage and everyone would be cheering. Then the guy cheerleader … who buy the way were dressed in cheerleader outfits and had makeup and even wigs. They would have a dance battle. The seniors versus the juniors. Background: Kevin is a 20 year old attending California State University Los Angeles. Both his parents are from El Salvador but he was born and raised in Huntington Park, California. Kevin stated that this powderpuff was an important part of his high school experience. He said that he actually participated and it allowed him to feel and have the perspective of a female cheerleader. Context: Kevin and I were playing video games and when we took a break to eat I asked him if he could help me with my collection of folklore. He agreed and allowed me to record the conversation with the condition that I would not post the video interview. We were both sitting on the couch.  My Thoughts: Powderpuff is an example of inversion rituals. In this example the roles of males and females were inverted. I believe that this type of ritual is important especially in defining equality for women. Not only does it show that women can play sports that are deemed to be male only sports, but it also allows men to view sports in the perspective of women.