Author Archives: DG

About DG

I am a sophomore studying journalism at the University of Southern California. I am from Los Angeles, CA.

Aloe Vera

Nationality: United States
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Huntsville, AL. Currently residing in Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/12/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

 

The following was recorded from the Participant. They are marked as AF. I am marked as DG.

 

AF: I know my grandma uses aloe vera on everything, like she grows it outside. But you know, I feel like, um, a lot of Hispanic people do that–they just put aloe vera on everything. Stuff like, well like for things like burns, or acne, or like anything on your skin-not like if you have a fever or something.

 

 

Context:

 

The conversation was recorded while sitting in the lobby of a dorm at the University of Southern California. The story itself was told to the interviewee by his grandmother, as they sat in their living room. He was asking her about folklore in order to feel more in touch with his roots.

 

Background:

 

The student is from Huntsville Alabama, but took a gap year in New York City, NY, before attending the University of Southern California as a School of Cinematic Arts major. They are a sophomore, and come from an Italian Hispanic background.

 

Analysis:

 

This is a homeopathic remedy that I myself have used in the past, so I can allude to the strong belief that it works well. In my case, I had used it for acne, as a more natural face wash. I liked how in the telling he added to the cultural background of the remedy, saying that many Hispanic families use aloe vera often. I also enjoyed seeing how this is a cross-generational tradition that was passed down. Additionally, aloe vera is used often by the majority of people for sunburns, but most people don’t tend to think about the other skin purposes of it, so it was interesting to see the cultural insight to more uses from AF’s perspective.

La Llorona

Nationality: United States
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Huntsville, AL. Currently residing in Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/12/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

 

The following was recorded from the Participant. They are marked as AF. I am marked as DG.

 

AF: Um, well La Llorona is just this folktale, um, about this woman who…was jilted basically…uh and then, uh, well actually no she wasn’t jilted, her husband died… or something like that, uh, so she…hmm. Well ok, she was murdered. Ok, there are different versions of the story basically. So, um, in some of them she was jilted and killed herself and in some of them she was murdered and stuff like that, and basically she came back and was this, like, spirit who wandered amongst the streets at night… And if you’re, like, a lost kid at night, she’ll steal you away and maybe eat you…I don’t know…but definitely steal you away. Oh, and like an important thing is La Llorona cries, she’s this crying spirit, and you’ll hear her. Um, and yeah. I think maybe she, like, killed her kids.

 

DG: Who told you this?

 

AF: Oh, uh, my grandma actually, because I was asking her about folk stuff a couple years ago. She told me this story, um, yeah.

 

 

Context:

 

The conversation was recorded while sitting in the lobby of a dorm at the University of Southern California. The story itself was told to the interviewee by his grandmother, as they sat in their living room. He was asking her about folklore in order to feel more in touch with his roots.

 

Background:

 

The student is from Huntsville Alabama, but took a gap year in New York City, NY, before attending the University of Southern California as a School of Cinematic Arts major. They are a sophomore, and come from an Italian Hispanic background.

 

Analysis:

 

I had heard about this folklore story in one of my classes, so it was interesting to hear it from someone. This was true especially so since although I did learn one version, it was already easily jumbled up for me too, and I had learned it fairly recently. This shows how easy it can be for folklore to become changed, as the teller may forget, have pieces jumbled, or slightly change them. This also alludes to how the audience will keep the teller in check, if the teller goes too far from the version they know. This is what helps folklore remain folklore. In my case, I was a passive listener, so the folklore remained jumbled in the retelling for this archive post.

 

Pullman Hotel Tennis Ghost

Nationality: United States
Occupation: University Professor
Residence: Chicago, IL. Currently residing in Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/12/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

 

The following was recorded from the Participant. They are marked as TM. I am marked as DG.

 

TM: When I was working, um, at Pullman Hotel, and it’s in the uh Pullman neighborhood in Chicago, and it’s the hotel that housed people that used to visit the Pullman Palace Car Company and made railroad cars-really fancy ones. And so, uh, they had a factory in that neighborhood, and then they had a tower of houses…And so it was built in 1880, and it’s no longer used as a hotel, um, partly because there’s no way to get out if you’re on the top floor. Yeah, um, and I…was kind of manning the front desk for tourists to come in and walk around the old hotel and these three women walked in and one was kind of a little bit, you know, younger–not 20s but maybe 30s, and, um, then there were two women maybe a little bit older and they had like fanny packs on, you know, and kind of tourist looking… And, um, the younger one had on like a tennis skirt or something. It looked like she played tennis or something, um, it looked a little dated but not really so I talked to them…Um, it was mostly–it was the two older women who were talking to me, I guessed the other was their kid, and, um, it used to be a restaurant at the hotel-and it was fancy-which isn’t there anymore. Um, so they all kind of went off and the two of them went to do the tour where, um, you have your piece of paper and you walk around and take the tour on your own, and the other went off to the bathroom. And then the woman comes walking around the corner from the bathroom, kind of reaching into her pocket to, you know, maybe hand me a piece of paper, and then she just just disappeared. Just completely gone! She had a tennis skirt on, it was kind of 80s. It was kind of funny 80s, I thought it was kind of dated, but then I was like she’s kind of close to my age so like. I have no idea what that was about.

 

Apparently the hotel was supposed to be haunted and many people have had ghost experiences there.

 

 

Context:

 

The conversation was recorded while sitting in a hallway outside of a classroom on a university campus. The context of where the interviewee saw the ghost was in the front desk area of the old Pullman Hotel. Apparently, the hotel is a well-known haunted site, and most who have worked there have had sightings.

 

Background:

 

The interviewee is a professor at the University of Southern California. They are also a practicing archeologist. Originally from Chicago, IL, they now live in Los Angeles, CA, with their husband. The interviewee worked in Finance before pursuing a teaching degree.

 

Analysis:

 

I think this story held a lot of weight because I’ve had my fair share of ghost stories. I’ve also worked long hours in a retail setting, and know that feeling you get towards the end where you’re starting to imagine things. I think that made this story even better, because I could easily imagine the feeling of “Did I just see that??” Beyond that, many others have apparently seen ghosts at the Pullman Hotel, adding legitimacy to the legend. It also made me wonder what was on the paper–was it a message that the apparition was trying to tell TM, or was it just a recording ghost that does the same act in the same place forever?

Mayan Jin

Nationality: United States
Occupation: University Professor
Residence: Chicago, IL. Currently residing in Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/12/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

 

The following was recorded from the Participant. They are marked as TM. I am marked as DG.

 

TM: So there’s the, uh, the Mayan Jin-a little different from the ones we talked about in class-but they [the Belizeans] believe that when you’re walking in the jungle and you trip for, like, no reason, or you hear a weird noise, or something–a twig snaps or something, whatever happens, it’s actually these Jin–they’re not evil creatures, um, that get in your way or make you fall or make you lose your way… But they [the Belizeans] believe that the Jin are actually pieces of um…liver from people who died, so their livers become animated after they die. And so their livers become animated and go out in the jungle and…cause everybody a bunch of trouble, and so I, I, I’ve probably heard that from about three different people I’ve talked to in Belize… So I don’t know if it’s outside of Belize, if that’s the story. Um I’m pretty sure I just tripped because I’m clumsy but I like to blame it on the Jin (laughs).

 

DG: Where did you hear it from?

 

TM: Well a few [people]… I heard it from one person when I fell down–I tripped over something out in the jungle. Ah the guide I was with said “Oh it must be one of the Jin’s”, and I was like, “Is that someone’s last name?” So he told me the story, and I thought he was just trying to make me feel better about tripping, but then I asked a couple more people about it. Um, two of my friends– the first one that told me about it was male–and the other two–he was probably around 40 to 50– and the two women I asked about it too were the same age range and they both had heard of it too so…

 

 

Context:

 

The conversation was recorded while sitting in a hallway outside of a classroom on a university campus. The context of the original Jin story was told while the interviewee was hiking in Belize, and later confirmed by two others.

 

Background:

 

The interviewee is a professor at the University of Southern California. They are also a practicing archeologist. Originally from Chicago, IL, they now live in Los Angeles, CA, with their husband. The interviewee worked in Finance before pursuing a teaching degree.

 

Analysis:

 

I thought this folklore item was great. First, just the idea of the interviewee thinking the guide had told her about the Jin in order to make her feel better about tripping was amusing. But also, much of the folklore I’ve collected has been passed down through family, so to see a folklore that TM saw from three different people, of different genders (although around the same age) was interesting. Additionally, this was the furthest piece of folklore I’ve collected. The woods are always full of warning folklore stories, so this one allowed for cultural and religious beliefs of the area to create the folklore.

Vietnamese Wedding Gifts

Nationality: United States
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Northern California. Currently residing in Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/12/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Vietnamese

Main Piece:

 

The following was recorded from the Participant. They are marked as DD. I am marked as DG.

 

DD: “So it’s a little bit of folklore about this necklace, which is actually a folk object of mine. And, um, so in Vietnamese families there is a tradition of the…groom’s parents giving a gift to the bride, um, right before the wedding… And so this necklace is what my dad’s mom gave to my mom to commemorate their, um, wedding, and …. I, my mom never really wore it and it was kind of just put away because my mom just kind of has a lot of old jewelry she never wore. And I was looking through some of our old stuff because we were moving out my senior year after my grandma passed away, and my mom found it and asked if I wanted to keep it to, you know, remember my grandmother. And I remember–you know I haven’t taken it off, except maybe when im competing, or when I’m, like, going anywhere I might lose it. It…feels…well, like, similar to when you wear something and you don’t take it off, it feels weird. So, um, whenever I’m not wearing the necklace I feel myself reaching for my neck to go touch it. It does feel…it’s a nice reminder that, um, well in my family we have this belief that our ancestors never…it’s not that they really leave us, there is an afterlife and my grandmother is kind of watching us and if I ask for help she’ll be there for us.”

 

The piece is a small blue rectangular jade necklace, wrapped in silver.

 

Context:

 

The conversation was recorded while sitting in the sun on a bench on a university campus. The giving of the gift was to be given before a marriage between two families, and the interviewee was given the necklace after the death of her grandmother.

 

Background:

 

The student was born and raised in Northern California. She is a sophomore at the University of Southern California. Although she was born in Northern California, her entire family is from Vietnam, and she is one of the first generation to be born in the United States.

 

Analysis:

 

What I like about this piece of folklore is that the giving of it was a folklore act, with the groom’s parents giving the bride a gift being a tradition. However, then the interviewee was later given the necklace to remember her grandmother. What I like then is that the necklace picks up a new form of folklore belief–the belief that her grandmother is able to watch over her, and then when she touches the necklace she knows that her grandmother is there. This then pulls upon two folklore categories: myths, with the afterlife, and superstition, with the belief that the touching of the item will speak to her grandmother, in a way. It’s a touching and warm folklore item.