EL Cielo Pobrado

Nationality: Columbian/American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 4/17/15
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Story

My informant’s great grandfather on his mom’s side once invented a successful Columbian product and it apparently is all over South America and the world. It’s called ‘El Cielo Pobrado’, which is a type of ceiling texture that had never existed before. He successfully started a house construction company that focused on this.

Analysis

My informant finds pride as a Columbian in this legend as there is a successful ancestor in his family. Despite the fact that he seems to firmly believe that this is an actual product, after researching on the internet, I found that there is no such product. When I told him that, however, he said that his mom also believed this story and that it was passed down from the mid-late 1800s. Thinking about it, perhaps this family legend might have been created to bolster the family reputation. It also gives the family a sense of pride. If this story was true, however, then, in my interpretation, the product’s success may have been bloated as it was passed down from generation to generation.