Author Archives: Caelia LaPenna

Diaz de los Muertos and One’s Ancestral History

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Age: 28

Text: CB – “Known well as Diaz de los Muertos or day of the dead, its a very important holiday in the Hispanic calendar. It has a lot of crossover with the Americanized Halloween, but it’s distinctive differences go far beyond the costumes and candies. The point is to remember our dearly departed. During it, we bring out all the old photos from my grandmother’s family and my grandfather’s family, my mother side (Nana, and Tata respectfully). Specifically what we do is help my Nana and Tata arrange all their family photos on the banister and dining room table so that they may join us for one last meal. We offer our prayers to them and little candies of their favorite and light candles in their honor. As the photos come out, my grandparents and my aunts and uncles will begin telling stories about these people Somehow, we’ve heard 1000 times and never interrupt. Others are new to us and add another source of identity to where we came from.”

Interviewer – “What is the most memorable story you’ve heard about your ancestors?”

CB – “My big Nana (great-grandmother) was a loving, but firm woman. All her children learned to dodge at a very young age, for she was proficient with wooden chanclas. One time my mother snuck out at night to go see a movie when she got back they had closed and locked her window This wasn’t that unusual. Typically they would just spend the night on the roof at this time, however she went to big Nana‘s house, knocked on the door and gave her a sob story about my grandfather locking her out. This caused my great grandmother to storm over to their house (my Nana’s family lived very close to each other) and hammer on the door. When my mother’s father opened it, he was immediately hitting his head with a wooden chanclas. She chased him around the property for about an hour while my mom darted to her room and laughed from her window.”

Context: Diaz de los Muertos is an annual Hispanic holiday to celebrate the dead of one’s family. Typically it involves large gatherings, bringing together members of extended family to celebrate and share stories about those who have passed. In the case of CB and their family, some stories pop up and stay the same each year, and each year each family member listens on with respect and fondness. Besides, the candy, feasts, and decorations this holiday is additionally anointed with, at the heart of it rests the tales of those gone to show that they are and never will be forgotten. CB has been told this story about his mother sneaking out a number of times, year after year, and it never gets old.

Analysis: Being both an annually calendrical holiday, there is an air of spiritualism, belief, but also prolonged familial ritual for Diaz de los Muertos for CB and their family, as is with most families who celebrate it traditionally. The art and act of gathering around to tell stories about those who have passed to allow their spirits to not fade into obscurity is a prime example of continued tradition and using a holiday as the medium to come together to do the sharing. This family-based festival, where food is offered and made, candy is eaten, stories are exchanged, and to take pride on those who have passed is a wide mixture of many folk group mediums, from foodways, to folk belief, to folk speech and narratives, and finally this annual holiday which encompasses it all. Diaz de los Muertos is a rich example of folk culture for the Hispanic community, and continues to shine on for each family regardless of how they celebrate it.

Tamales as an Annual Christmas Tradition – Foodways

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Age – 28

Text: CB – “Every Christmas, my family come together to make tamales in a very specific way. Precise amounts of masa, sauce with potato, cheese, meat, and a green olive. This blend is very important to the tradition as it’s what was grown in the garden when my grandmother was little. They grew up very poor and tamales can keep for a very long time so they would all go over to my big Nana‘s house to make hundreds of tamales for everyone to enjoy throughout the year.”

Interviewer – “That’s really cool, is there a specific method to making them? Is it a whole team effort or is it just a few people?”

CB – “It’s that, a team effort. The whole family turns up and we divide into stations. Team one is unfolding the cornhusks. Team two is putting in the Masa and then every other team puts in a separate ingredient! It’s an assembly line to make that much, taking a whole day. This whole train is actively coordinated by my Nana. It’s a family effort, but her operation.”

Context: This annual holiday ritual around Chistmas food ways was shared by the informant, CB, during a discussion about their family, the holidays, and if any kinds of special events took place every year like clockwork. CB and their family are of Latino origin, with them and their family partaking in this massive production line for tamales each year on Christmas, though the tradition originally came from CB’s Nana and has since been passed down throughout their family.

Analysis: The act of making tamales is a food-based annually calendrical ritual during Christmas, marking its importance in the symbolism of the holiday itself, while also allowing the entire family tree to reflect back on their humble upbringings. CB’s Nana grew up where this ritual was out of necessity to ensure enough food was put on the table, and has since transformed into a craft to commune with their own family members and large extended family, recollecting the history they actively draw from, and as an immense gesture of care, love, and familial belonging as feasts are ritualistic in their own right. Being a force to bring people together, for discussion and intimacy, the art of constructing tamales en masse acts as the foundation or precursor, establishing the connection between each family member, their lineage, and the love they all share for one another, the holiday, and the food they make.

Mystery Man on Tecate Ranch

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Age: 28

Text: Interviewer – “What kind of ghost stories have you been told, told yourself, or know? Where did you learn them?”

CB – “There is a one specific ghost story for my family. A long time ago they used to own a ranch in Tecate. Near the southern edge of property was an old graveyard. According to my mother local cartel would double stuff the graves there with people they are getting rid of and one of those victims stayed around. Sometimes late at night, you can see him standing out the side of the road like he was waiting for a ride, for the afterlife or to a job you’re supposed to go to nobody knows. My mother swears she saw him once when they were out hunting rabbits in the evening. Normally, they weren’t allowed in the area at night because of the cartel, but she could see the access road from the hilltop and swore there was a man there that her sister couldn’t see.”

Interviewer – “Have you shared this story with anyone else outside of your family?”

CB – “Nope. Not really.”

Interviewer – “Thank you for sharing it with me, then.”

Context: This ghost story was told to CB by their mother, detailing the events of their own upbringing and paranormal stories. This being one of the many stories that their mother shared, usually ending with multiple spines of cacti, though with this ending in a much more supernatural atmosphere, unsure of what she saw was actually there or not. The story itself, until me, was only circulated within the family’s own folk group of believers and nonbelievers, whether it be something spooky to be feared or silly to be laughed at.

Analysis: Stories of the paranormal run deep within areas of burial, death, or where spirits would be inclined to seek revenge. Given how the circumstances of the cartels pressence within CB’s mother’s story lines up, the tale aligns itself with others of its kind where the point of origin is a crossroad of death. Additionally, CB’s mother’s perspective aligns with an environment which would encourage one to become more naturally accepting of the paranormal, supernatural forces, or spirits/apparitions. Given the setting, an old graveyard with a trouble history of unrest at night all with only one other person, CB’s mother, regardless of whether she actually saw something, would be automatically more inclined to agree that she did due to the mood and environment. Furthermore, attaching stories to the deceased is a classic trope of ghost stories, imposing their own subtales onto the larger tale at large, whether it be a woman in white, lonely hitchhiker, or in the case of CB’s mother, a victim of the cartel waiting for a ride to work.

Breakfast Casserole – A Christmas Tradition

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Text: Interviewer – “What kind of meals do you make around the holidays?”

JL – “Every year we make the Jimmy Dean sausage casserole for Christmas breakfast.
We’ve done this for as long as I can remember.”

Interviewer – “What is the ritual for making this dish? Is it a full-team effort, are the same ingredients used each year? When do you prep or bake it?

JL – “We prepare the casserole after our Christmas Eve dinner. The entire family is involved, everyone helping with the preparation. Chopping tomatoes, cutting bread into cubes, browning the sausage, beating the eggs. Everyone’s roles have changed over the years, now that kids are older and can be comfortable using the stove and knives. We all chip in, and come together as a family. The same ingredients are used every year. We’ve occasionally make minor variations (original or maple sausage), but have found the original is still the best. We prepare it the night before Christmas, and put it in the refrigerator overnight, allowing everything to soak into the bread and “come together”. On Christmas morning I’ll wake up and take it out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature a bit (over the years we’ve found putting it from the fridge directly into the oven overcooks the bottom in order for the rest of it to be cooked through). We go to church on Christmas morning, and we’ll put the casserole in the oven when we leave for church. When we get home from church, the casserole is perfectly baked. Then we eat our delicious casserole as a family and watch football.”

Interviewer – “What does this Christmas tradition mean to you and your family?”

JL – “I can’t speak for the rest of the family, but I really value this tradition. When the kids were young I kept trying to force traditions I grew up with, and most just didn’t stick. I love that something as simple as our Christmas casserole has become a family tradition. We’ve created something that’s uniquely ours. Do I hope everyone will keep making this casserole every year, even if we’re not together? Of course. But I’m happy knowing that we do it now. No matter what good times, bad times, stressful times we’ve had, the world stops when we’re making it and eating it, and it brings us together.

Context: Talking to JL specifically about family traditions around the holidays. And alongside a typical Christmas Day or Eve dinner, them and their family makes a casserole, prepping it on the Eve of Christmas and then baking it day-of. Holiday based meals, especially those that have become traditions for family are common, and this example is no different.

Analysis: This example being both an instance of utilizing foodways to express a folk group, or in this case the family of JL, but also a representation of ritual around the holidays where each member of the family chips in their own ways, some more, some less to make something together to then eat together the next day. While there is no narrative or underlying story beneath this tradition, it’s something that has managed to stick around for years and years, becoming synonymous with Christmas and Christmas Eve itself at this point in the views of JL and their family.

Splitting Xmas: Heritage and Tradition for the Eve and Day of Christmas

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Age: 24

Text: MF – “Christmas in my family is different because we split it into two days to represent both sides of my grandparents’ culture. Since my grandparents come from different backgrounds, they made it work so they could both spend time with their families while still being together. Because of that, Christmas Eve is centered around Mexican culture, and Christmas Day is more traditional American.”

MF – “On Christmas Eve, everything is focused on Mexican food and traditions. We usually have dishes like tamales, chili relleno, enchiladas, rice, beans, and other homemade foods that take time to prepare. A lot of the cooking starts earlier in the day, especially with tamales since those require prepping the masa, making the filling, wrapping them in corn husks, and steaming them. Chili rellenos involve roasting and peeling the peppers, stuffing them, battering, and frying them. Our enchiladas are a little different too. Instead of making them individually, my grandmother makes them in a big pan so there is more for everyone, which makes it feel even more like a shared family meal. It is more of a warm, cultural, family-centered night where everyone is eating, talking, and enjoying being together. Christmas Eve is also when the whole family exchanges gifts with each other, so it feels more like a big group celebration.”

MF – “Then Christmas morning is completely different. It shifts into a more traditional American-style Christmas. That is when it becomes more personal, where my parents give us our gifts (Under the tree for us when we wake up). We also have foods like ham, mashed potatoes, and other classic dishes. It feels more like what you would typically see in movies, with everyone gathered together, opening presents, and relaxing. The most important part of this holiday for me is definitely the food and being around family. The food brings everyone together, but it is the time spent with family that really makes it meaningful for me.”

Context: MF and their family each year break up Christmas into two separate days, where Christmas Eve is used to represent and celebrate their Mexican heritage and culture, and the latter day, Christmas Day proper, is to celebrate Americanized Christmas as is shown in pop culture and around the United States. The largest distinction between these two days would be the food that is made and consumed on the respective days, as well as the aura around the celebration itself.

Analysis: While being centered around a calendrical holiday, MF and their family made this truly their own ritual by the deviation of form, now having this repetition annually for them and their family. Taking a pre-existing holiday and molding it by one’s own community or folk group to align more with their vision, whether it be to express shared gift giving and family time, honoring the traditions of their Hispanic heritage with the food and style of family time but also celebrating the holiday as is done traditionally on the day itself. Within MF’s family, there really isn’t a Christmas Eve, but two separate holidays to treasure and cherish each side of their family. Through the communal act of making and eating food together, giving gifts throughout the whole family, or the traditional “ham, mashed potatoes, and other classic dishes,” lend the power of one’s own folk group, the rituals, traditions, holidays, and the foodways that fuel them to create something truly beautiful and unique.