Author Archives: Julia Virtue

Ponchos- Ecuadorian

Nationality: Irish, Scottish, German
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: May 1, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Angie spent the summer of 2011 in Ecuador in to visit family, do “touristy things” and study the language. She already knew some things about the language because she had studied for four years with a professor who had lived in Ecuador. She visited cities and towns near the Andes, like the city Ambato and surrounding areas. She lived in Ambato, traveled to the Amazon twice, to the beach once and to the capital, Quito, once.

Traditional garb in Ecuador consists of ponchos and pants for the men and wraps and skirts for the women. One can tell what community a person belonged to based on the color and style of their clothing. Many different tribes live in the Amazon and many in the Andes, each with their own color and style.

Women make ponchos for their sons as a coming-of-age gift. Angie would see women carrying large containers of sheep’s wool around with them throughout the day, meticulously constructing thread. Sheep’s thread is much more expensive than alpaca thread, so while tourist ponchos are generally made of alpaca thread and cost around $20, women make their sons sheep thread ponchos at a value of about $100. In addition, women go to great lengths to dye and treat the wool so that it is waterproof. This is a coming-of-age gift because the boys begin to represent their culture by wearing the poncho. Because so much time and effort goes into making these ponchos, they generally last the boys a very long time.

Angie noted some other interesting things regarding clothing in Ecuador. Although she doesn’t remember the exact styles, single and married women would wear their wraps differently, as a sign of modesty. Also, she saw a group of children in a playground- some were wearing ponchos and some were wearing very Americanized clothing.

These Ecuadorian tribes that Angie met put a lot of their identity into their traditional clothing. Based on colors and style, one can observe an individual’s community or marital status. This is a very outward, very public display of one’s identity.

Toffee Making

Nationality: German, Italian, Irish, English, French
Age: 52
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Palmdale, CA
Performance Date: April 20, 2013
Primary Language: English

During the Christmas season my family bakes toffee. As I was growing up, I learned how to make it from my mother every year. I asked her about the act and meaning behind our families’ tradition.

My grandmother (my mother’s mother) brought the recipe to my mother about 10 years ago. As I suspected, she wouldn’t share the recipe with me because it is top-secret. The details she would share were that the recipe contained butter, sugar, almonds and chocolate. My grandmother received the recipe from a friend, who my mother decided should remain anonymous. This friend normally wouldn’t share her toffee recipe with anyone, but since she and my grandmother became such close friends, she eventually gave it to her. My grandmother brought it back to my mother and throughout the years, they tweaked it to make it their own. It is now the top-secret recipe that it is today.

In addition to being top-secret, the event of toffee making is highly ritualized. Some of the ritual is required for the recipe to be successful. For example, the mixture has to be stirred over the stove for 12 minutes, using a candy thermometer or, for more experienced toffee makers, watching the smoke rising from the pot to see when its done. Later, the mixture must be poured, smoothed down and covered with chocolate very quickly. However, some rituals during the process are not scientifically supported to be significant but are practiced due to the sacred, secret nature of the process. For eight years, my mother and grandmother used the same stove, the same pot and the same spoon to stir the toffee. Eventually the stove and spoon broke and the two were afraid that the recipe would no longer work. The toffee still turns out well, but they still use the same pot, with some speculation to making any more changes. My mother clearly defined a successful batch of toffee by its nice crunch and snap. If the toffee doesn’t snap right when its broken in half, the toffee wasn’t mixed for long enough or at high enough temperature so the sugar didn’t set right.

The activity of toffee-making has become a family tradition. My grandmother comes over a few times every December so she and her daughter can bake toffee together. At age eight, the kids (my siblings and I) were trusted to help with the process. The kids would be in charge of stirring the toffee consistently for 12 minutes; not the most exciting task, but it was a way to include younger kids in the process. Although she takes the toffee-making process itself very seriously, she commented on how enjoyable and laughter-filled it can be.

I asked my mother the importance of keeping the recipe a secret. Her logic is that it she wanted to keep it special; a special recipe makes a special gift. Our family hands out this toffee as gifts to friends and family. Because we are the only family who makes the toffee, it produces a demand and makes people appreciative. When people receive the toffee, they recognize that it is only around at Christmas time, and only from us.

Regarding the significance of only gifting toffee at Christmas time, my mother said that it gives friends and family an anticipation and expectation annually. It is a seasonal event, not only for the receiving end, but for the gifting end as well. My mother explained that she will make toffee apart from Christmas only for very special occasions. If a relative that we don’t see very often is coming into town at a time other Christmas, she will make toffee for them. When her sister came to California in November recently, she made toffee. However, she explained that it didn’t feel right without the Christmas music and Christmas aprons. The context of the performance of this folklore is important to her. As a joke, she also mentioned how unhealthy toffee is, so it’s best that it is only eaten once a year.

My mother mentioned that her great grandfather apparently made toffee and candies in Chicago. Although she didn’t have any emotional or personal connection to her great grandfather and his business, she draws a part of her identity from this family history of making toffee.

Claddagh Ring

Nationality: Irish, German, French, Czechoslovakian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 18, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

This Irish ring is made up of a heart, held by two hands, under a crown. The heart represents love, the crown represents loyalty and the hands represent friendship.

Siobhan owns one of these rings and identifies it as Irish folklore. Just as narratives are weaved into the designs of dresses or dances (see Irish Dance Competitions entry), symbolism is weaved into the caladdagh ring, a piece of material folklore.

Irish Dance Competitions

Nationality: Irish, German, French, Czechoslovakian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 18, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Siobhan was very active in Irish Dancing from age 5 to age 18. She described a typical dance competition to me.

The two most common kinds of dances are soft shoe, or the reel, and hard shoe. Soft shoe dances are bouncy and fast paced. They use leather shoes, that criss cross at the front. Hard shoe dances like the horn pipe are danced using trebles and clicks. Trebles are when the dancer brushes their foot backwards and forwards and clicks are when the dancer hits their heels together to make a clicking noise.

Siobhan described a couple of narratives that were represented through choreography. A group dance represented the weaving of an Irish cloth. Another dance features boy and girl pairings and centers around Irish women and their sailor husbands who are leaving for sea.

The competitors are judged on technique, energy and stamina. Judges look to see that the soft and hard shoe dances are properly executed, like the “turn out” with feet crossed over and turned in. Dancers must maintain energy, exhibited by high jumping and high kicks. Although the dances are generally short, they take endurance, so stamina is another category to be judged.

The music they dance to is typically live music consisting of accordions, fiddles and keyboards. The music is lively, fluid and constant throughout the competition.

Irish dresses typically have Celtic designs, each with its own unique narrative behind it. However, Siobhan has noticed a trend in competitions recently to stray from the natural and traditional and towards a beauty pageant atmosphere. Girls now have sequined dresses and wigs instead of traditional Celtic designs and natural curly hair.

Local competitions are usually held in ballrooms of hotels, with a stage set up near the front. Regional or national competitions are held in larger hotels with multiple ballrooms or convention centers. World competitions are held in either Ireland or Scotland and occasionally in the US.

Audience members include families of dancers, dance teachers, other students from dance schools of Irish dance and any interested public in the area.

Siobhan noted that Irish dance is not exclusive to ethnically Irish individuals. She has met Asian, African American and South African people at Irish dance competitions. Siobhan noted that the experience fostered a sense of diversity.

Legend- Irish Dancing

Nationality: Irish, German, French, Czechoslovakian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 18, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Siobhan was very active in Irish Dancing from age 5 to age 18. She explained the legend about the origin of Irish dance:

 

“I’m not sure if this is like proven or whatever, but I think like the um discussed cause of Irish Dancing is um… like Irish people in their houses, there was a rule that they couldn’t dance and it was like, the English monarchy or whatever was like ‘Yea, you can’t dance’ and like had rules for it. So like the Irish people were… they would like keep this upright posture so that if you look in the window it looked like they weren’t dancing, but their feet would just be like dancing, and they’d be dancing with each other. So that’s like, where the really rigid posture came about and that’s like stayed in Irish dance. It’s like flying feet everywhere but you have this rigid posture the whole time. So that’s…. where the roots come from.”

 

With this narrative in mind, Irish dance may be a source of national pride for Irish people, as it distinguishes them from the English. Not only is it an attempt to explain the aesthetics of the dance, including fast-paced foot movement with a rigid, upright posture, but it explains national ties.