Author Archives: Stephen Carr

Watch the Sunset

Nationality: White
Age: 50
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Pacific Palisades, CA
Performance Date: April 29, 2015
Primary Language: English

Carol is a Floridian who left the state to study film production at Boston University. She has since started a family in LA and is as much an LA native as a Floridian at heart. She has no remnants of her floridian accent, and knows the entire secret menu at In N Out.

Performance: “Basically if you were bummed or feeling sad, just go to the beach and watch the sunset. “Watch the sunset” was a phrase that was used on a daily basis. It remedied everything from boredom to anxiety to heartbreak.”

Response: This quick folk remedy seems to have far reaching curative powers. Like many Floridian folk remedies, it is centered around the beach, where the sun would set over the water. Unlike other remedies this remedy seems to cure ailments of the mind or heart – nonphysical ailments. It is interesting that watching the sunset is the cure for matters of the “soul” rather than the body, as the old saying goes, “the eyes are the windows to the soul.”

Quinceñera

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mexico
Performance Date: April 30, 2015
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Bernie is a very close friend of mine from Mexico. Bernie left Mexico for the first time to study at USC. He loves to talk about his culture, and speaks with a thick Mexican accent.

 

 

 

Performance: “uh, one of the traditions, probably you’ve heard of, in Mexican culture and really in Latino culture is the Quinceñera. The girls, when they turn 15, it means that they consider themselves women and thats why they throw the party. The Quinceñera, when they turn 15, is basically a huge party for the girl/woman and invites all the family and is a really common tradition that uh people do in Mexico.”

 

 

Response: I have heard of Quinceñeras before, as they are one of the most commonly known folk traditions of Mexican culture. I had never heard one described by a native who has likely been to countless Quinceñeras, and it was interesting to hear Bernie talk about it. I also find it interesting that girls are considered woman at the young age of 15. In American culture this seems far too young, and the girl would likely not even be in high-school yet.

Wey

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mexico
Performance Date: April 30, 2015
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Bernie is a very close friend of mine from Mexico. Bernie left Mexico for the first time to study at USC. He loves to talk about his culture, and speaks with a thick Mexican accent.

 

 

Performance: “So “wey” is basically a term that you refer to…its like bro or like “man” “buddy” “wey” “guy”…. it’s only to guys you cannot say it to girls. It’s basically a slang word used by young people, you would not see older people…it’s very coloquial. you would not see older people using it. it’s just an easy way, instead of calling somebody by their name you say “wey” “wey come here” “wey do this” “wey.” It’s just a way to start a conversation or refer to a person that is really uh part of the Mexican culture. And it’s how we communicate.”

 

 

Response: I’ve taken 5 years of spanish in high-school and college and have never heard of “wey.” It seems to be a term like “dude” but can only be used between two young males who are of Mexican descent. It seems to have wide aplications but Bernie stressed that you would never say it to an older person or to a girl.

Cross Yourself

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mexico
Performance Date: April 30, 2015
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Bernie is a very close friend of mine from Mexico. Bernie left Mexico for the first time to study at USC. He loves to talk about his culture, and speaks with a thick Mexican accent.

 

 

 

Performance: “Another thing that is pretty big for Mexico and that my parents always taught me, related to Catholicism is that every time that you um pass by a church either by car or walking if you don’t do…umm…the cross? (he crosses himself to see if I understand) The cross. Then you’re going to have bad luck. My Mom would always tell me that you gotta do the cross every time you pass a church, if not it would be against your faith and bad luck and everything.”

 

 

Response: Crossing one’s self is common practice for Catholics, but i find it interesting that beyond simply being a “bad christian” that Bernie was taught it was actually bad luck. It is interesting when religious practices are sort of hybridized with “luck” which is generally a folk belief tied to folk traditions, rituals, and gestures.

La llarona

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mexico
Performance Date: April 30, 2015
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Bernie is a very close friend of mine from Mexico. Bernie left Mexico for the first time to study at USC. He loves to talk about his culture, and speaks with a thick Mexican accent.

 

 

Performance: “The story, it is a superstitious story. It is about a woman who has three kids. All of the kids are women. The story is, is that she treated really really bad her children and they all left her. And the story goes that they left to a lake that is really close to the house. So, it says that during night she will find her kinds…she…they….she finally finds them drowned. And the story is that my mom will tell me that you gotta behave but at the same time the mom has got to be right. So every night she will go to that river and cry. So whenever, that was the way she would scare us or make us go to bed, because if we don’t go to bed that woman will cry and come get us. So the story is that you gotta do as you’re told, but at the same time, you gotta stay with your mother, because if you don’t go to bed she’s gonna come back looking for her children.”

Does she have a name? The woman?

“Yes. La Llarona.”

 

 

Response: This is a story that I had heard before and that we had discussed in my Forms of Folklore class at USC. However, Bernie’s examples differ from the ones I had heard. I had always heard that la llarona in fact drowned her own children and then mourns their deaths, not that they drowned because they disobeyed their mother. The story, like the other versions I had heard, was made in order to scare children into obeying their parents. Another variation I had never heard was that all three of her children were girls. Im not sure what this adds to the story but it is an interesting detail.