Author Archives: Alexis Madara

Veladoras

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Long Beach, CA
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

My informant brought up a connection to her grandmother as I looked at the veladoras in her room. “So I collect veladoras with the image of the virgen de guadalupe on them. I’m not religious at all, although my family is catholic. My grandmother who I was very close to was very devote to the virgen [she’s supposed to be the patron saint of mexico and the indigenous people who converted to catholicism]. She would light a veladora for her every night and it was bad luck for it to go out until it completely burned out. she burned them for my grandfather who had passed away the year I was born. when I used to visit her in the summer I would be her helper and it was my job to light them for her and make sure they stayed on all night. I didn’t have to but I would get up & check in the night to make sure it was still on. My grandma passed away this summer and I light veladoras for her. I can’t let them burn all night like I used to but she would always say the saint and the soul you would burning it for would understand as long you remembered them.”

The practice my informant began was something that connected her, not to her religion, as it did somewhat with her grandmother, but to her grandmother. She is taking a practice that is supposed to be a religious one out of it’s religion and uses it as a means of remembrance to the dead, but also away to feel connected to her grandmother’s soul. These candles were also made to continue a silent prayer even after  one stops praying. The waiting until the candle is completely burned relates to candle magic where often the candles have to burn through completely for the magic to take.

Howcana-Howcana

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: student
Residence: Long Beach, CA
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

My informant told me after she got off of work, when we war sitting in the grass, that “At work everyone working there has been working there since Freshman year, so we’ve all been hanging out at work since then. So when we’re together at work we   use weird words, like we don’t say put, we say puta, and we say wokay instead of okay, and instead of saying how can I help you, we say howcana-howcana. We use this language more for customers who annoy us.”

This is a way to fight back toward the customers, in a way that they can’t get in trouble, because they can’t tell the customers that they are “pissing them off.”

Volleyball Luck

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Toledo, OH
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English

My Informant plays volleyball a she note something that she has seen many other captains do, though she does not do herself. “Before a volley ball game the opposing teams stand on opposite ends of the net. They stand on the end line and slap hands under the net with the other team before they play and say good luck to the other team. The captain is usually first in the line and on there way to the net before they slap hands with the other team, a lot of captains touch the antenna to make sure the net is in the right place and for good luck.”

They touch the lucky net before they touch or, in a way, taint themselves with the hands of the opposing team. Though my informant does not believe in this activity to gain good luck, and she takes it more to be a silly, invalid superstition, many other captains take it very seriously.

Aloe

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Toledo, Oh
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English

Sitting in our kitchen my informant and I were talking about our grandmothers she said that her grandmother had aloe leaves to cure all of her sicknesses, “if we were sick and had a fever she would go to one of her plants pull off a leaf and rub it on our foreheads, if we got a cut she would rub a leaf on it, if we had a soar throat she would use the aloe leaves, she used them for everything”

The grandma uses aloe as a miracle drug and probably could have some sort of placebo affect where it would work even by rubbing a leaf on the throat to get rid of a sore throat.

Don’t step on a book

Nationality: American
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

My informant discussed an event that happened when he was at on of his friend’s houses. “My friend freaked out when I stepped on a book. Cause I guess, like, according to him, like…I don’t know whether this is religious or just cultural, I think he’s Indian…but it’s like, they value knowledge so much, right, if you step on a book, it’s like, “FUCK KNOWLEDGE,” it’s like “fuck everything,” it’s like disrespecting intelligence. So he was like, “Dude, DON’T DO THAT” and I was like, [quietly] “oh, shit, well alright”[laughter].

This account deals with symbolism, comparing the book to knowledge itself, and giving it a sacred value.