Author Archives: Ronni

财气酒 or cái qì jiǔ

Age: 24

TEXT:

“财气酒” or “cái qì jiǔ”

CONTEXT:

Informant- “There’s also fun little like Chinese New Year story about the last sip of wine. So at the New Year’s Eve dinner or any kind of like family family gatherings after everyone has eaten, talked, loved, and toasted, there may be one last sip of one life in the glass or in the bottle. So in many families, people call it cái qì jiǔ, which means fortune wine, or wealth and luck wine. The idea is not really about the alcohol itself. It is about the blessing behind it. So that last step is seen as a little bit of good fortune or money left at the end of the bottle. And if you drink it, it is like taking the remaining luck, wealth, and prosperity and carrying it with you. So if someone said, don’t waste the last step that that’s the fortune wine and pour you a cup of the last one. That means you will gain the last bit of prosperity and wealth. And they will always like say, “oh, may you receive all the good luck and good wealth, get rich.”

ANALYSIS:

This holiday ritual or tradition focuses on wealth and prosperity, as well as community, and act as a way to cement good fortune going forward into the new year. Though it involves wine, I would not specifically classify it as foodways as the tradition itself is not solely based on the dish and more of the remnants of the shared alcohol and the experience of being with one another. I would instead classify it as a ritual surrounding life and maybe even a rite of passage as you enter into a new year of life.

Quinceañeras

Age: 21

TEXT:

Informant- “I would say that one of the coming of age rituals that I have experienced with in my family is quinceañeras. So pretty much it’s once you turn 15, you get a coming of age party where you pretty much use a big old puffy dress and all your family and friends will be there to celebrate you finally being a woman. But I remember in my experience, I didn’t really have quinceañera, unfortunately, due to COVID, everything was closed down since the shutdown had just been two weeks beforehand. I just remember getting my quincea ring, because in my family, we always get rinks once you become 15, it’s just tradition and getting a big old ice cream cake. But my mom’s experience was very different from mine. Since she did have a quincea, it wasn’t extravagant, though. She had a nice, simple silk dress. It wasn’t the big old puffy dresses, and she had all her family there. But my aunt, though, on the other hand, she had a big old extravagant dress, it was pink and black, and she had a whole dance recital on a photo shoot and so on, which was really cool.”

CONTEXT:

This coming of age ritual is very common among Hispanic households across the globe. This tradition comes in the form of a large party thrown for the birthday girl on her 15th birthday in celebration of her new womanhood.

ANALYSIS:

From what the informant shared, I can see how no matter what kind of celebration is given to the birthday girl, though they are traditionally supposed to be very extravagant, the most important thing in my informant’s opinion is to share it with those who you are closest and to be able to symbolize the transition into womanhood with this rite of passage. A unique aspect of the informant experience that I hadn’t heard of prior to her explanation was the symbolic rings that the women in their family are given. I think this is a great signifier of womanhood as jewelry is traditionally used an heirloom that is passed down from generation to generation, and by having this physical reminder of the transition into the next step of life, you are reminded of your new status.

Sana Sana

Age: 24

TEXT: Sana Sana Colita de Rana

CONTEXT:

Informant- “Okay, so Sana Sana is, I guess I think it’s like, when I’ve looked it up online, it’s supposed to be like a nursery rhyme. It’s usually what people use to consult the children in their family when they’re not feeling well, when they’re hurt, which I think means heel heal- something like that. So the full story for me is that I grew up, I grew up having stomach issues, problems with my GI, or GI issues, um, problems with my intestines as they were like distant I was a kid. And so I was always in pain. And I was especially in pain, like if I ate something that didn’t agree with me. And at that point, I didn’t have it under control like I did now, so it really any little thing would hurt me. And my grandma would always, I go, I’d run to my grandma and I’d tell her that my stomach was hurting or something like that. And so she would like sit with me or she’d lay me down and she’d put her hand. It was specifically her right hand, her right hand on my stomach, and she would say “sana sana colita de rana” and she would change it. She’d say make (informant’s) belly feel so much better. And then she’d like, as she’s like rubbing it, then she’d like pretend like she was pulling the illness out of me and like grab it off my stomach. So, I guess my relationship to it is that it reminds me of my grandma. I even as an adult, like even when I was 18 years old, I would still say, grandma, my stomach hurts. “Can you sana sana me?” And she would come over and son us son on me… I don’t really remember the very first time I heard it. It’s just always been something that she’s done for me. Um. Yeah, I guess it is a sense of the comfort for me. Cultural reference, obviously, for me being Hispanic and like that, but it is a sense of comfort for me that she would use it. I don’t know if it was mind like a minding her mentality kind of thing that I swear every time she did do it, I ended up feeling better after that. So that is my full story of sana sana. That’s my relationship to it. It kind of follows my relationship with my grandma. And I she would always use it when I wasn’t feeling well, mainly with my intestinal issues.”

ANALYSIS:

In the story, the informant tells me of their experience with this traditionally, Hispanic saying and how it was used to comfort her as a child with intestinal issues even into her adulthood. She goes into whether or not she believed that just her grandmother saying this and performing a specific hand motion tricked her mind into making her feel better, but regardless, she believes wholeheartedly that the same always made her feel better. I know this informant quite well and during times where I myself have gotten hurt or felt sick she has performed Sana Sana on me and I think that it’s a very sweet and caring way of sharing culture with someone else.

La Caballota or The Horse Lady

Age: 21

TEXT:

Informant- “There are a few like little stories about creatures and ghosts in Guatemala. My favorite one is called La Caballota, or the Horse Lady. My great grandma would tell me the story when I was a little girl. And pretty much just my great grandmama and my great grandpa saw her once. They were at the beach and they saw beautiful women with gorgeous, long hair. And when she was, they were just walking, right? And then she turns around and they see her face. She had a horse face, right? They got really scared and they started running away. But as they were running away, their feet got really heavy and it felt like they had bricks on their feet. So they were slowing down. Thankfully, they made it out. That was not the only time they met her, though, but I just find it really interesting because supposedly, this, like, ghost or creature or whatever, it only appears to men usually driving by themselves at night. So I thought it was really interesting that it appears to both my great grandma and great grandpa in a very different circumstance.”

CONTEXT:

A Guatemalan ghost story about a beautiful woman with long hair and the face of a horse, who traditionally only appears to men driving home at night. This story was told by a person of Guatemalan descent and nationality who currently resides in Chicago.

ANALYSIS:

The informant shares her connection with a ghost story that’s close to home as she has been told it from family members and her great grandparents have stated themselves that it happened to them and shared their account of the tale with her. This has created a stronger belief in the ghost story itself and cemented it, not as just a tale, but rather a legend.

Lucky and Unlucky

Age: 23

TEXT

Collector: What do you find lucky, what do you wish on?

Informant: I wish on birthday candles and I suppose if I ever saw a shooting star, however I haven’t. This works for me because I’ve always heard about it in stories and movies. Something lucky is a ladybug if I ever see one because my mom told me stories of ladybugs being lucky and making a wish on them as you let them fly away.

Collector: What about bad luck? What can you tell me about that?

Informant: Bad luck or superstitions like going under a ladder or seeing a black cat pass by? If I see a black cat on my path, I usually don’t feel unlucky because there is a black cat that always visits my house and I always give him food, and at one time, he was a strange black cat that crossed my path.

CONTEXT

This informant from Chicago provides me with their take on luck and bad luck, as well as how these superstitions formed. They cited ladybugs, shooting stars, and birthday candles as both symbols of good luck and something to wish upon. Whereas they spoke on superstitions they grew up being designated as bad luck, such as black cats and walking under ladders, but offer their disbelief in these rituals.

ANALYSIS

Talking to this informant was interesting because it revealed what makes something lucky/ unlucky to some individuals and how those superstitions form. This individual uses firsthand experience to dictate what superstitions they believe, and emotional attachments and stories passed on by family to determine luck. In this family, they have cultivated their own ritual of catching, releasing, and wishing on a ladybug as it flies away, symbolically releasing the wish into the world.