Monthly Archives: April 2019

Kaprielian Hall Ghost

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: English

Context:

The following informant is a 20-year-old American male student. I had a conversation with the said informant about campus ghost stories. The informant is an engineering student at the University of Southern California. The informant will be denoted as J and I will be C.

J: So when I was in 152, Physic 152. I had to go take my lab down in Kaprielian Hall. I heard this story from my TA whose verified it because he had felt the same phenomenon. So a lot of the labs are really late and the TAs will work late so when you’re walking in the hall by the machine shop you can hear the machines on and people making sounds and talking to each other. It is still really faint you can still hear it, but then when you walk over there everything is off and all the lights are off and you can’t see anything and all the sound is gone. So my TA was telling me about how he had been working late one night and all the people left from his lab, so it happened to him the week before. And started hearing these noises because we were like in the other side by where you pick up the materials. And then started hearing these thing like whirring and like thunk-a-thunk-a-thunking. And he walked over there and all the lights were off so he had to leave real fast and that’s the story of the Kaprielian Hall ghost.

Analysis: This reminds me of some of the other haunting/ghost stories that I have heard. The part that is particularly interesting is how the TA inserts himself into the legend to make it feel more real.

Mexican Phrase: “Descacharon con manos en la masa”

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 53
Occupation: Nanny
Residence: North Hollywood
Performance Date: 13 April 2019
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Text

Informant: You know what masa is? You know that, that doe that my mom uses to make the sopes?

Interviewer: Oh yeah.

Informant: That’s called masa.

Interviewer: Oh yeah, yeah. I know masa.

Informant: So, if you are doing something mischievous, people will say to you “descacharon con manos en la masa.” “They catch you with your hands in the dough.” That means they catch you doing something.

 

Context– The informant is a middle-aged Mexican immigrant who grew up in Mexico City and then immigrated to Los Angeles in her teenage years. She has many family members still in Mexico City, so she learned many of these legends from those family members both while growing up and during her frequent visits and phone conversations.

 

Analysis– This metaphor is very similar to the American one about catching a kid with his hands in the cookie jar. Both of these metaphors mean the same thing but have different culture connections. Because chocolate chip cookies and cookie jars are popular cultural imagery of the United States, the use of such imagery would not have the same affect in Mexico. The use of masa is logical as masa is used to make a variety of Mexican dishes. Because masa is so widely use, kids sneaking tastes of it while their mother was not looking would be very common. Therefore, the use of masa in this saying is appropriate.

La Planchada

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 53
Occupation: Nanny
Residence: North Hollywood
Performance Date: 13 April 2019
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Text

Informant: Another one that my sister just told me, it’s about a nurse. In Mexico City, there’s a lot of hospitals. Like, basically my mom lives here, and all around her home it’s all hospitals. Everywhere you go there’s a hospital. So the legend says, that this lady, they call her La Planchada. So, why do they call he La Planchada? Because she was a nurse. She worked in a hospital, but the way people noticed her was her dress was always well ironed, you know, and crispy. You know how when it’s like… how it’s fine, like perfect, always. So she fell in love with a doctor, but the doctor, again, said, you know, he didn’t love her back. So she killed herself, and she, um, she became… before she killed herself she became a mean nurse. She was the best nurse. But then after she killed herself they said, that… after he left her she, uh… killed herself, and now it’s said that every hospital in Mexico City has a Planchada.

Interviewer: Like has a…

Informant: Like a lady. A nurse that they call La Planchada cause there’s patients that have said they’ve seen them… that they’ve seen her.

Interviewer: So it’s like a… wait so is it like a person designated or is it just like a…

Informant: It’s like a dead person in every hospital.

Interviewer: Oh, whos like La Plan-

Informant: Who’s La Planchada.

Interviewer: Oh. That’s cool.

 

Context– The informant is a middle-aged Mexican immigrant who grew up in Mexico City and then immigrated to Los Angeles in her teenage years. She has many family members still in Mexico City, so she learned many of these legends from those family members both while growing up and during her frequent visits and phone conversations.

 

Analysis– The existence of this legend can probably be attributed to the large amount of hospitals the informant said exist in Mexico City. Due to the large amounts of deaths that occur at hospitals it makes sense that there would be legends about haunted ones. I find it interesting that the ghost does not exist in one hospital but in many, and this fact could be due to so many hospitals being in proximity to one another that the ghost story from one spread to others. The idea of a mean nurse being the ghost could also be attributed to the common fear of hospitals, with people imagining a nurse as the representation of the anxieties people often have when they visit hospitals.

Dan & Phil Fandom Inside Jokes

Nationality: American
Age: 13
Occupation: Student
Residence: Arlington, VA
Performance Date: 3/16/19
Primary Language: English

Abstract:

This piece is about an incident-turned-meme that is widely known inside the Dan & Phil fandom about Phil falling off a stage.

Main Piece:

“L: This is a thing everyone in the Dan & Phil fandom know about. On their most recent tour, Interactive Introverts, their first or second night – one of the first few nights, Phil one of the two main people, fell off the stage and into the audience. Someone saw it and now there are jokes about it and everyone knows about it. Like someone turned it into a Valentine’s Day card.

M: They made memes about it?

L: Yeah, like “i’ve fallen for you like Phil fell off the stage.” Like that kind of thing.”

Context:

The informant is a 13 year old girl who is part of a Youtuber fandom for the youtubers Dan and Phil. She regularly keeps up with their videos and social media posts. She even went to their latest tour and bought their merchandise. She has kept up with inside jokes in the fandom, such as this, that have become memes that only those in the fandom understand. She has stated her affinity for the pair comes from their approach to comedy and reliability.

Analysis:

This type of obsession reminds me of obsessions with boybands like One Direction or even earlier boybands like NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. When One Direction was in their hayday, it was common for fans to have inside jokes about the specific members. The informant’s affinity for Phil over Dan also reminded me of this aspect of fandoms as well. It is common for a fan to prefer one member of a band over the others and almost “claim” them as theirs. This is more common in fandoms surrounding boybands or other musical groups than comedy groups. The fact that memes have been created from one specific moment and have lasted for awhile show how powerful the fandom can be.

 

The Mountain of el Espiritu Michoacan

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Uber driver
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

So where my dad lives, el Espiritu Michoacan, there’s a big mountain with a large cross that is visible to the naked eye at the top. I don’t know how long it’s been there, but they say that religious groups took it there on horseback. The wood used was so big that they needed a lot of people and lot of horses to move it or transport it. There’s a story that after it was built, many people were at the top of the mountain and I guess praying or worshipping… and because it’s at the top of the mountain, they got dizzy when they were staring at the cross. They thought that the cross was falling or that the sky was falling and they began to run, and some people maybe got hurt and fell down because it’s steep. They also say that the people might have been partying, so they could have been drunk or intoxicated or something. You know, your depth perception isn’t great under those circumstances. So they were being punished by God.

Context: The informant’s father is from Michoacan, and he has visited the state almost yearly since his childhood. He heard this story from his father.

Interpretation: This story has a cautionary element that warns audiences not to mix worship with intoxication for fear of punishment. It also seems reminiscent of Judgment Day, where worshippers are evaluated as the world appears to end (i.e. the sky is falling). It also suggests the power of religion, both in that it brought people together to build and transport the cross and that it is powerful enough to send a large group of people falling down a mountain. The fact that this story is widely spread in the area shows that the people of el Espiritu Michoacan value religion and are dedicated to spreading the word of Christianity (more specifically, Catholicism).