Author Archives: Sophia Guzman

Karnataka Proverb

Age: 20

“Everything that’s gold doesn’t glitter.”

Text

Informant: “I’m from Southern India. A place that’s called Karnataka and so we speak this language called Kannada and in Kannada it translates to “Everything that is white is not milk.” I think it’s supposed to be like…I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the saying in English that’s like, “Everything that’s gold doesn’t glitter.” So she’d always say it to me when I would be more dramatic or if I made a generalization she’d say it in Kannada to me. I feel like it has to definitely do with something with the fact that I’m vegetarian we eat a lot of… Hindu’s and people like that have a lot of respect for cows and so our form of gold is milk, I guess. I don’t know if that’s necessarily an equivalent.”

Context:

The informant is from Karnataka, a state in India, and retells a proverb that their family often tells them. It’s meant to teach people to not judge things by how they appear because it may be deceptive.

Analysis:

This text from Karnataka would be classified as a folk speech and a proverb in folklore. It’s informal and is passed down by families over generations. It fits the criteria of a metaphorical advice or wisdom. In other words, the proverb is saying that you can’t judge things based on what they look like. The piece of advice being taught is that looks can be deceiving. It’s also in the “topic + comment” structure. The topic is “everything that’s gold” and the comment is “doesn’t glitter.” At the same time, proverbs can give a glimpse into the culture. In Chapter 5 of ‘Living Folklore,’ Sims and Stephens write that “proverbs are frequently culture specific – express knowledge in terms that people from that culture or group will understand.” Since Karnatakans view cows in high regard, this proverb equating milk to gold makes sense in their culture.

La Carreta Nagua (The Witch Wagon)

Age: 54

Text:

Informant: “My grandma would tell the story of ‘La Carreta Nagua.’ It was a wagon that was pulled by bulls and they were so skinny that they were skeletons, practically dead. The conductor was also a skeleton and they called her “La Muerte.” This wagon supposedly passed by in the middle of the night/early morning. If you were on the street, you were told to go somewhere where you could hear her coming. It made a lot of noise. You could hear the wagon’s wheels and chains. The old ladies would always tell you to not go outside in the middle of the night, especially when you’re alone and there’s no one else on the road because sometimes, the skeleton would give you a bone. That bone meant that someone in your house would get really sick and die. They told you not to go outside so you wouldn’t see them. My grandma says that when she lived in her parent’s house, everyone in her family slept in a room near the living room. The windows were doors but instead of being double doors, they were divided into four. In the middle of the doors, there was a gap. Because of that gap, her and her sisters saw the wagon pass by once in the middle of the night and it was really loud. Everyone outside ran to hide. The wagons would disappear at every corner because corners are in the shape of a cross. Since the skeletons are demonic and Catholics think crosses are holy, the story goes that the wagon can’t go on corners, they’ll disappear and reappear on a different street.”

Context:

The informant’s grandma lived in Nicaragua and told the story about La Carreta Nagua, which is a wagon pulled by bulls and controlled by a skeleton. Children and teens are warned not to go out and night because if they hear the wagon and receive a bone from this skeleton, it means someone in their family will die. The informant revealed that their grandma has told them that she saw the wagon one night when she was an adult.

Analysis:

This Nicaraguan legend seems to take a functionalist approach by scaring teens and children from going out alone at night. Adults didn’t want their kids to be out in the middle of the night unsupervised and likely created this story to make sure they followed their curfew. The setting is a real place – it includes streets that the children and teens live near, which makes it feel more real. While it is a Nicaraguan legend, the informant says that their grandma always told it as a true story and even once they became an adult, their grandma never said that the story was false.

Theater Good Luck Ritual

Age: 21

Text:

Informant: “One that I learned growing up that when I’ve done it in other places, people are like, “What the hell are you doing?” It’s like before the show, you’re all standing there behind the curtain waiting to go up. Usually I only end up doing this if it’s a show that I start in the first number, not if I come on later. You know one of those shows where you’re in the ensemble and everybody is standing behind the curtain waiting there. One that I always did was this” (holds hand in fist and raises thumb and pinky finger.) “Like if you’re doing sign language and signing “you and I.” You go around to the other people in the cast and you link pinkies and bite your thumb and it’s just a little way of saying “break a leg, have a good show.” It’s just a little good luck thing. I always did that at the theater that I did shows with growing up and then I went to other places and they were like, “What the hell are you doing?” I was like, “Oh,” (laughs) “Nevermind.” Other than that, when people say “Good luck” to me it makes me really anxious. I’m like “No. That’s bad luck. You can’t say “good luck,” you have to say “Break a leg.””

Interviewer: “Do you remember being taught how to do that or was it just that you observed other people doing it so you just did it, too?”

Informant: “The hand thing, I think it was something that – I did children’s theater and it was just sort of something that was in the culture of that theater. I don’t even know if they do it anymore. When I was there, I think it was the second show I ever did was Mary Poppins and everybody who starts on stage for the ensemble are frozen in their spots so we’d be standing there behind the curtain and all of the older kids would come around and show us how to do it. From there, that was something that I did most every show I was in, and teaching the younger kids how to do it.”

Interviewer: “So was it mostly younger kids and teens or were the adults doing it, too?”

Informant: “It was a children’s theater so the oldest kids were seniors in high school. The group that I was part of was late middle school and high schoolers so we wouldn’t really interact with the younger younger kids, but it was definitely the seniors in high school teaching the youngest.”

Context:

The informant was part of a community theater growing up. They learned rituals specific to their theater from the older students. When the informant went on to join college theater, they learned that other people had never heard about that particular good luck ritual.

Analysis:

Theatre has many superstitions, likely because it has been around for over 2500 years. The superstitions are shared amongst theater members who participate in plays and musicals. Traditionally, these rituals are passed on by the adults or older teens to the young children. Many of them are widely known across theater’s everywhere, such as “Break a leg” for good luck. Naturally, certain theater members will create their own superstitions or rituals that get passed on and stay within that theater, and are foreign to people outside it. The goal is that it gets taught to the younger kids by the older kids to keep the tradition alive. It can be considered a functionalist approach because it’s meant to bring good luck for the performers to do well on stage.

Senior Prank

Age: 21

Informant:

“The year before us did a senior prank and it was great because it wasn’t actually a prank. So I guess somebody in that class had a 3D printer so they 3D printed a ton of these tiny 3D printed articulated slugs and they would just leave them everywhere. You’d constantly be finding these articulated slugs and snails and they were all over campus and it was so great. I was like, this is the best kind of prank because you didn’t have to harm anyone. It was just like, “Oh my god, a slug!”

Context:

A tradition for graduating seniors in America is to pull a senior prank on their school. In the days leading up to the last day of school, the graduating senior class will come together and act out their plan to prank the school. This particular high school pulled a harmless prank with 3d slugs.

Analysis:

Senior pranks can vary in execution. Sometimes the prank is to jump in the fountain, post post-it notes all over the principal’s office, or decorate a hallway with balloons and streamers. It’s one of the last hurrah’s for the graduates before leaving the school. Senior pranks act as a rite of passage for high school seniors. They’re done during the liminal space, or a waiting period, leading up to graduation. The students are close to becoming an alumni but not quite there yet. It’s a bridge between adolescence and early adulthood.

La Llorona

Age: 22

Text:

Informant: “I don’t remember how long ago it was, but it was in Guatemala. In the capital of Guatemala. That’s where my uncle and my aunt live. It was like around 8 p.m and they just came back from church. They were just like settling, putting away their stuff. I think my uncle heads to the kitchen and all of a sudden he just sees La Llorona standing there. I actually don’t know what they did. If you hear her and she sounds very far away, that means she’s close to you. But apparently, La Llorona was in the kitchen and I can’t remember if either they left the house or they started praying. That’s usually what they do when they sense a spirit.”

Context:

When the informant was younger, their uncle told them a story about the time he and his wife saw La Llorona in their kitchen. The informant believes their uncle either tried to pray that La Llorona be sent away or they exited the house.

Analysis:

La Llorona is a popular Latin American legend about a woman dressed in white who drowned her children. She is typically said to be seen crying near rivers and bodies of water, because she drowned her children after finding out her husband was unfaithful.

In this story, the informant’s uncle has told them a memorate, his personal interaction with La Llorona. There are a myriad of reasons why people may see La Llorona, according to the legend. The story can be a warning to not be out late at night near bodies of water. It forewarns men to not cheat on their wives, or they may see La Llorona. Others say that she appears when children are disobedient. All of these reasons can be a lesson for children and adults to scare them into following the rules and being faithful to their wives.