Author Archives: Sabrina Rivas

Pep Rallies

Nationality: American
Age: Unknown (late 20s or early 30s)
Occupation: Writing Instructor at USC
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 19, 2017
Primary Language: English

When my dad got out of the army, he, uh… we moved to Arkansas. So I was probably, like, ten or eleven, um… And so then I’m, like, I became one of them, right? And, uh… going to pep rallies was, like, a new thing… for me, um… All the schools that I’d gone to, I lived in, like, Washington state, Colorado, and… they didn’t really have pep rallies. I don’t know, maybe they did in high school, but I… I wasn’t aware of them. Anyway, I remember going into this gym and, um… you know, the cheerleaders are cheering, and the football team is, like, running around, the band’s playing, and then everyone was, like, clapping, and then making this sound, like, “Woooooo!” And I was, like, I cannot make that sound, like… I was, like, trying, and I’d be going like, “Uhhh! Weeeaaah! Aaagghhh!” you know, like that. And then, as everyone was screaming, I would, like, try it out to see how to make that “wooo” sound… Anyway, so that was just, like, trying to, like, figure out how to be normal at a pep rally.

 

Thoughts:
My informant is a self-described “librarian type”– she is very bookish (she studies Shakespeare and is a writing instructor) and sort of introverted. Thus, the wild screaming and cheering and overall rowdy atmosphere of pep rallies, particularly in a place to which she was new at the time, seemed very strange and out-of-character for her. This story also points to the culture of pressure to fit in or “be normal” in society generally, and especially in high school. This almost forced community gathering and vocalizing of loyalty or excitement for one’s school somewhat institutionalizes this practice, and marks my informant as an outsider who is new and unfamiliar with the expectations of how to show support for her school identity.

Las Mañanitas

Nationality: Mexico
Age: 48
Occupation: Financial advisor
Residence: Minnesota
Performance Date: April 12, 2017
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Lyrics:

Estas son las mañanitas

Que cantaba el rey David

A las muchachas/los muchachos bonitos

Se las cantamos así

Despierta (nombre), despierta

Mira que ya amaneció

Ya los pajaritos cantan

La luna ya se metió

Translation:

This is the song of the morning

That King David sang

To the good-looking girls/boys

We sing it like this

Wake up (name), wake up

See that it has dawned

Now the little birds are singing

The moon has already set

 

Context: 

(In informant’s words:) “Las Mañanitas” is a Spanish song that we sing in Mexico on birthdays… I don’t know if they also sing it in other, uh… Latin American countries, but… we do it on everybody’s birthday in our family, and our friends in Mexico. And sometimes if we’re with close family, uh, like my parents or cousins or siblings, or in Mexico, there’s another verse that we sometimes… uh, add, which goes:

“Que linda está la mañana

En que vengo a saludarte

Venimos todos con gusto

Y placer a felicitarte

El día en que tú naciste

Nacieron todas las flores

En la pila del bautismo

Cantaron los ruiseñores

Ya viene amaneciendo

Ya la luz del día nos dio

Levántate de mañana

Mira que ya amaneció”

Translation:

“How lovely is the morning

On which I come to greet you

We’re all coming with relish

And pleasure to congratulate you

The day on which you were born

All the flowers were born

On the altar of baptism

Sang the nightingales

Now daybreak is coming

Now the light of day has reached us

Get up in the morning

See that it has dawned”

 

Thoughts:

It is interesting that this traditional birthday song revolves around the motif of morning and dawn to symbolize a new year of life for the birthday person, as well as other symbols of “new life” such as flowers and birds, which are also often used to represent springtime. It also contains images central to Christianity (King David, baptism), which is unsurprising for a song sung in a culture that is (traditionally) steeped in religion. This is, to my knowledge, the most common Spanish birthday song (perhaps now rivaled by a Spanish translation of the common English “Happy Birthday” song), and one that has, without fail, been sung at every single Mexican birthday I have attended, including my own.

 

Annotations:

For another version of the song (as well as videos of various performances) see:

“Las Mananitas.” Mexican Birthday Song, Explore Hispanic Culture, www.explore-hispanic-culture.com/las-mananitas.html.

Predicting Future Children

Nationality: Hong Kong
Age: 48
Residence: Minnesota
Performance Date: April 12, 2017
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

When I was little, somebody had told me about this thing… that you can do, uh… supposedly, it’s supposed to help you predict how many kids you’re going to have when you’re older. Um… so what you do is, you make a fist, a tight fist, with your thumb over your other fingers and your hand… like, your palm is facing up, but you’re in a fist… and then you… with your other hand, squeeze the part of your palm that’s open, under your pinkie, and then there’s supposed to be these little balls or bulges or something that appear on your wrist… uh, and that’s the number of kids you’re going to have. And I think… I think the left hand is how many boys you’re going to have, and the right hand is girls. And I… I think it worked for me. I don’t remember if it was exactly right from when I was little, but I think it was pretty close to… to what I ended up having.

 

Thoughts:

The fact that this is something taught to girls at a young age reveals that there is a societal/cultural pressure on females to have children, and to start thinking about having children and fulfilling this social role from an early age. The desire to “predict” the number and gender of children a girl will have is perhaps a way for her to start preparing to have these children, as she enters her pubescent years.

Boy Who Warmed His Parents’ Bed

Nationality: Hong Kong
Age: 48
Occupation: Quality Coordinator
Residence: Minnesota
Performance Date: April 12, 2017
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

There’s one I remember with… uh… this kid used to… in the wintertime, he used to warm up his parents’ bed by… you know, right before bedtime, he’d crawl in it and just sleep there or just lie there for, like… for a little while until it gets warm, so that when his parents go to bed, then the bed will be warm enough for them, you know?

 

Background:

You know, respecting the elders is a very big thing in China, so… so that’s one I remember hearing about a lot. Uh… my parents used to tell it to us a lot, and my older siblings also…. uh, told it, to… to… keep us entertained, I guess, since, you know, there were seven of us kids and not… not a lot of, um, space. And, and also, you know, to teach us to respect our parents and our elders, because, you know, I… we grew up in a very traditional… Chinese… Hong Kong family, so, so that was a very important value to my parents.

 

Thoughts:

It is a very important value in China (and in Confucianism) to respect one’s elders, so it makes sense that the story of a child making the effort to make his parents’ beds more comfortable would be a popular one in China, and that my informant’s parents and older siblings would often tell it to her and her siblings. It is meant to teach children to follow the example of this boy and try to help their parents and elders feel more comfortable in their old age.

 

Annotations:

For the full version of this story, see #19 in:

“The Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Respect: Their Stories & Verses In Praise.” The Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Respect, Kenyon College, www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln270/24-filial2.htm.

La Chinita

Nationality: Unknown Latin American
Occupation: Custodial/Housekeeper
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 18, 2017
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

No más le voy a contar la historia de… una canción que me cantaba mi padrastro, porque no me quería ir con mi papá. Porque él decía que yo era una chinita cuando era una niña. “Me da chinita” es que estamos estirados de los ojos, no “chinos” como dicen los mexicanos del pelo. Y luego me cantaba una canción que decía que “en el bosque de la china, la chinita se perdió, y como yo era un perdido, nos encontramos los dos,” decía. Y me cantaba que “era de noche, era de noche,” decía la canción, “y la chinita, la chinita se perdió,” y decía que “al cabo de un rato, la encontramos los dos.” Esa era toda la cancioncita que me cantaba, pero siempre me la cantaba cuando era una niña.

Translation:

I’m just going to tell you the story of… a song that my stepfather sang to me, because I didn’t want to go with my father. Because he said that I was Chinese when I was a girl. “Me da chinita” means that our eyes are stretched out, not “chinos” like Mexicans say of the hair (curly hair). And then he sang to me a song that said that “in the forests of China, the little Chinese girl got lost, and since I was a lost one, we found each other,” it said. And he sang to me that “it was at night, it was at night,” said the song, “and the little Chinese girl, the little Chinese girl got lost,” and it said that “after a while, we found her both.” That was the whole little song that he sang to me, but he always sang it to me when I was a girl.

 

Thoughts:

My informant is a middle-aged Latin American woman who cleans our dorm. I’ve noticed a few Latin American songs or phrases that reference China and Chinese people (such as the Mexican designation of curly hair as “chino”), though I’m not sure what the relationship is. It is interesting that it was my informant’s stepfather who sang her this song, since it talks about finding each other after she’d gotten lost (presumably in reference to a bad relationship with her biological father). Calling her a “chinita” and then singing her this song about a lost person finding a “chinita” in the woods makes the song even more personal and affirms the relationship between my informant and her stepfather.