Author Archives: justinross

Prayer to São Longuinho

Nationality: Brazilian-American
Performance Date: April 2007

    “If you are looking for something and can’t find it you need to promise to São Longuinho that you will jump three times and scream three times and the saint will find it for you.”

This is my informant’s description of a superstition her grandmother held.  My informant is a native of Brazil and is of Portuguese descent.  According to her, her grandmother, from whom she learned this superstition, was a fervent Catholic and “knew hundreds of saints and their miracles and for every misfortune or mishap there would be some saint to pray to or a superstition to fix it!”  She said superstitions were her grandmother’s specialty.
I am not aware of any superstition of jumping and screaming to find a lost object in Catholic tradition.  This superstition does, however, contain Catholic elements, such as the saint, and the idea of three.  Catholic tradition is replete with threes, symbolizing the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  This magic-superstition is likely an example of hybridization.  As many holidays including Christmas and Easter were once non-Christian feasts, to which the Catholic church attached Christian meaning to facilitate mass-conversion within their growing dominion, this superstition was probably once a native idea, to which Portuguese Catholics attached S o Longuinho.

The Legend of Xica da Silva

Nationality: Brazilian-American
Performance Date: April 2007

Xica da Silva was an African slave woman in Brazil long before the nation abolished it in 1888.  She was able to gain her freedom through marriage into the Portuguese court.  A particular royal Portuguese official (Tax Collector according to my informant) “fell desperately for her” and she gave him sexual favors, winning her emancipation.  The collector, who was becoming wealthy and powerful due to the success of gold mining in Brazil, had a palace built for his wife.  Even though the colony in which they lived was landlocked, he also built a ship and a lagoon for the ship, just so Xica could feel the sensation of sailing.
My informant says that it was Xica’s rise out of slavery and into wealth and luxury that made her legendary among the slaves.  I asked her if Xica was some kind of hero to the slaves or did anything to benefit them, and my informant said that Xica, through sex, earned only her own freedom and in fact had slaves herself.  This story remained a popular local legend until the emancipation of the slaves in 1888, and has now apparently become a migratory legend.  When the slaves were freed, their labor was replaced by that of immigrants.  My informant’s family, originally of Italian descent (she had one Portuguese grandmother; the rest of the family were Italian), emigrated to Brazil in 1890, where her grandfather grew up on a coffee farm.  He heard this historical legend from the local workers, who were former slaves, and he passed it to my informant, who recalled it as the story “that impressed me the most” of all those she heard from Brazilian lore.  She said that Xica was indeed a historical person, and that the essence of the story is true (how Xica used sex to buy freedom and lived in abundance as the wife of a wealthy nobleman), but that the popular imagination among the slaves may have exaggerated the amount of gold and luxury she enjoyed.

Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Performance Date: February 2007

I recall participating in a festival just once many years ago, as a child, in Whitehall, New York, with my paternal family.  Apparently, this traditional celebration on July 16 has been part of their tradition since my great grandparents immigrated to the United States.  My informant said, “One of the greatest traditions that Italians brought with them was the establishment of the ‘Sons of Italy Society’ which all young men enrolled in.  They continued to foster all the customs and activities from their heritage.”  In particular, she described a parade that was part of the event, calling it one of the “proudest achievements” of the society.  Marching through the village of Whitehall, people of all ages in the Italian community took part in the parade, which included bands and floats.  My informant also mentioned other festivities associated with the July 16 event.  “In the evening a band concert was held.  Ethnic food was sold in various booths in an open field.”  She recalled her favorite part of the event being the grand display of fireworks that was held in the late hours.  She said, “It was the culmination of all working together to bring the best entertainment to all the folks in Whitehall and all the nearby communities.”
My informant associated this event with a certain Mass that was held on that day, but gave no other detail other than that it was a “solemn Mass” and that it was conducted by three priests and celebrated by three generations of family.  More details about this celebration, its origins, and its association to the religious calendar can be found in a report from another informant on this same event, and in the annotation.

My aunt also participated in the July 16 festival (mentioned in the previous report) growing up.  Her slightly differing recollections that may illustrate changes that were made over the years, or perhaps are just details that my great aunt forgot or left out.  My informant, my aunt, also provided some information on the festival’s name and association with the Catholic church.
According to her, the festival was a three-day event, from July 14 – 16, called the Tritium.  The church conducted a special service and benediction at night on the fourteenth and fifteenth, and on the third day everyone celebrated a feast called the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  My aunt said there were two bazaars during the Tritium when she was growing up.  The first occurred on the fifteenth, and included food, fireworks, and a concert band.  The second bazaar, celebrated in Mt. Carmel field in Whitehall, was a town-wide event and was more extravagant than the more local festival on the fifteenth.  According to my informant, my great grandparents cooked and served hot dogs and sausage and my grandfather served beer at the event.  There were other activities and games such as roulette, as well, and everyone wore costumes.  Like my other informant, my aunt also called the eleven o’clock fireworks “the highlight of the summer.”  My family (great grandfather in particular) also used the event to collect donations for a charity, the Mount Carmel Society.

Annotation/additional comments:
The New Advent Organization’s Catholic Encyclopedia (article by Frederick G. Holweck:(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/index.html) http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10604b.htm) gives a detailed account of the history of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  The holiday was originally established in the late fourteenth century to honor the victory of the Carmelite sect over an enemy sect.  Throughout the years, it eventually came to be accepted as a holiday universally throughout the Catholic church.
Blood is only one aspect of ethnicity.  People groups are held together by many factors, including language, lore, and religion.  This religious festival helped to define and preserve an ethnic group in their new location.  As many Italian immigrants were Catholic in the nineteenth century (and continue to be), celebrating their Catholicism also helped to affirm their identity as the Italian-American community.

Finally…the Blonde Joke to End All Blonde Jokes

Performance Date: April 2007

A blonde calls her boyfriend and says, “Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can’t figure out how to get it started.” Her boyfriend asks, “What is it supposed to be when it’s finished?” The blonde says, “According to the picture on the box, it’s a tiger.”

Her boyfriend decides to go over and help with the puzzle. She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table.

He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and says, “First of all, no matter what we do, we’re not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a tiger.”

He takes her hand and says, “Second, I want you to relax. Let’s have a nice cup of tea, and then …” He sighed……..
“Let’s put all the Frosted Flakes back in the box…….”

I heard this joke from my roommate, who in turn received it from his girlfriend in Texas via the Internet.  While I would hesitate to call it the “blond joke to end all blond jokes,” it does exhibit the paradoxical structure that is the backbone of any “good joke.”  Incongruity is created by the girl’s inability to solve her “killer jigsaw puzzle,” and the punchline delivers appropriateness: the puzzle is unsolvable because it is nothing but sugary cereal.  Clearly the implication is that blond females are intellectually under par.
So why is blond hair the butt of so many jokes?  When I asked this of my informant, he offered the possible explanation that the jokes descend from the stereotypical blond girl as portrayed on television.  I would certainly agree that films and TV shows often portray the role of attractive female characters on a superficial level.  Perhaps this depiction came to be associated with blonds in particular during a past trend in fashion that valued blondness.  Thus, blond jokes may represent a societal response toward the entertainment industry’s preoccupation with appearance.  In essence, Hollywood gives society their version of an ideal female, and society rebels by telling jokes that belittle her wits or point out her shallowness.
It is perhaps for this reason that blond jokes seem more “politically correct” than racial and gender jokes.  As they are more of a reaction to a stereotype than to a biological group, they are less likely to be offensive.  I have even heard blonds tell blond jokes (neither my informant nor his girlfriend are blond, however).  Fortunately, the format of such jokes also allows for manipulation of the looney character’s traits, so the jokes can be adapted to various audiences.

Guanti – Fried Snack

Performance Date: April 2007

The following recipe is for a traditional holiday treat from my father’s sister.  She tells me, “Your great grandmother made these by the bushels at Christmas and Easter.”  It seems every culture worldwide has devised a unique way to fry dough and satisfy the sweet tooth: funnel cakes and doughnuts in America, beignets in France, churros and sopapillas in Spain and Mexico.  This particular cookie seems familiar to me, but I did not realize it was from Italy.  In my father’s family, food – especially pasta and sweets (unfortunately for someone like me who avoids sugar) – has always been a central unifying aspect of culture.  Indeed food is one of the central aspects of ethnicity and heritage, and my informant says this is especially true in Italy.

 

Guanti (Wands)

 

Beat 3 eggs with 2T of sugar.  Add:

 

1t lemon juice

1T evaporated milk

6T vegetable oil

½t salt

 

Add 2 c plus 2T of flour.  Knead on floured board.  Roll paper thin.  Cut into very thin strips and shape each strip into a loop.  Fry in vegetable oil 5 seconds.  They’ll be golden in color.  Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with sugar.