Author Archives: Olivia Garcia

Customs – Food

Nationality: American - Black
Age: 50
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Palo Alto, CA
Performance Date: April 2011
Primary Language: English

On Christmas Eve every year, Kim cooks gumbo for her family and sometimes friends. Gumbo is a hearty seafood, sausage and chicken with okra made from a roux (base for sauce).  The dish is made in one massive pot and takes almost all day to make well. Kim and her sisters all make the dish differently because partially because they do not have a written recipe and they all measure mix and stir by eye.

Kim was born in and her family is from Louisiana, both New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Gumbo is a customary dish of the South and every cook has his or her own variations of the stew. Southerners cook it at other times throughout the year but it traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve.

Kim is unaware of the reasoning behind the tradition but she remembers eating her grandmother’s gumbo on Christmas Eve as a child. For her immediate family it is a way to remain connected to her Southern roots.

Game – “your team”

Nationality: American - Persian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

My informant plays a simple, funny and contemporary game with her siblings and friends. The unofficial name of the game is “your team”. People between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five are the most common participants. The origin is not definitely known but it definitely a recent addition to folklore that is spreading throughout the United States among young people.

The game is ongoing and can be played at practically anytime. “If you see someone who is strange looking, doing a strange activity, wearing unusual clothing or stands out in a somewhat negative way then you tell your friend ‘he’s (or she’s) on your team’.” A laugh made by either part often follows the statement. The point of the game is to make your opponents team as bad as possible. The game is played in public places or in the car since the assigned ‘team member’ is almost always a stranger. There is no scorekeeping and never really a winner since it’s a never-ending game. The game is basically a way to poke fun at strangers and laugh with friends.

My informant learned the game from her older brother. At first, she was skeptical and confused about the game but now she finds it hilarious. She has even taught it to many of her friends and continues to play with them and with her brother at random times.

Folk speech – Streets of Downtown LA

Remembering the streets of Downtown LA

From MAIN we SPRING to BROADWAY, then over the HILL to OLIVE! Oh! Wouldn’t it be GRAND if we could HOPE to pick a FLOWER on FIGUEROA.

My informant learned the song/chant from her teacher in elementary school. The song is supposed to be a way to help remember the streets of Downtown Los Angeles. The rhyme was obviously effective since she still remembers the rhyme today many years after she originally learned it.

The song is something that only someone from LA would know so it creates some unity between people from the city. My informant says that her friends who are also from LA between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five are also familiar with the rhyme.

Dying in your birth month

African/Southern African-American Proverb

When you die the same season or month you were born, your time on this earth is coming to an end at the right time, if and when you die at any other time it is usually an untimely death.

The proverb or belief is used to explain or justify death, something that remains mysterious and inexplicable to people. My informant first heard this saying from her grandmother after her own father died at age 50. They considered his death untimely because he was so young and seemingly healthy but had a sudden and lethal heart attack. He was born in September and died in February so that strengthened their belief that his passing was an untimely one.

My informant’s mixed race family is from New Orleans, LA and she said her grandmother had lots of wisdom that she traced back to African although to her it seemed especially endemic to Louisiana. People often use sayings to justify or explain an occurrence that they have no control over and this saying is an example of that.

Holidays – Birthday – Sri Lankan

Nationality: Sri Lankan
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Morgan Hill, CA
Performance Date: April 2011
Primary Language: English

On every member of the family’s birthday, the other family member must each feed that person a piece of birthday cake. My informant says it is a fun and lighthearted birthday activity that they always do. It is supposed to be a way to treat the birthday boy or girl more specially than they are normally treated although it turns out to be funny since it is not practiced at any other time after one learns to feed him or herself. Every birthday since she can remember her family has done this tradition.

My informant says that all her extended family members and Indian and Sri Lankan friends who live in the United States do the same ritual. There is no significant cultural meaning for the activity except to somewhat ‘serve’ the person whose special day it is.