Author Archives: Stacey Badger

Lady in White

Nationality: White
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/14
Primary Language: English

Lady in White

Personal Background:

Sydney is a sophomore at the University of Southern California and is studying Environmental Science. She lives in Los Angeles right now, but is originally from Chicago. Living in big cities has been great since she has been able to be around so much diversity with the schools she has gone to.

Legend:

Sydney says she has one story she always tells when people ask for ghost stories, although this is more of a legend. It is called the Lady in White.

“There is a woman who is dressed all in white, because she is a ghost. She tries to seduce men who are driving alone at night. She stays off to the side of the road dressed in a white dress, and when the men who are alone pull over to talk to her, she kills them. She would do this late at night, and usually on older country roads. She did this because she was killed by a man in a car, so she is getting her revenge.”

Sydney says she heard about this story when she was about 10 from TV, though she does not remember the show. It was something she was never afraid of since she was not a single man. It was just not a story she was able to relate to, which made it more fun to be able to tell the story. She does not believe to be real anyway, so it was more of a fun story she was able to tell her friends.

Analysis:

This is a ghost story that also has legendary aspects. The original story about how the woman was killed in a car sounds as if that could possibly be real. A woman who is killing men that are driving alone does not sound like something that is impossible either.

To me, this sounds like a story that is made for kids to tell during campfire. It is simple enough to remeber, and it is a way the girls are able to scare the boys. The title is so generic, it could be any woman who is dressed in white.

El Callejon de el Beso

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/14
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

El Callejon de el Beso

Personal Background:

            Paola is a junior at the University of Southern California. She has spent a lot of time if Mexico with her family, and is able to keep her connection with her family since she lives in Los Angeles. She grew up in Los Angeles with a lot of different Mexican influences throughout her life.

Ghost Story:

Paola knows a lot of different stories from growing up, but the one she liked the most was called El Callejon de el Beso, which in English translates to The Alley of the Kiss. She does not remember if she heard it on a tour of a city when she was little, or if she heard it from her parents. She feels it must has been her parents trying to scare her from staying away from the alleys of buildings, as well as to listen to them when it comes to serious situations. This ghost story takes place within a city, similar to where Paola had family.

“When they were rebuilding a city in Mexico, they built the structures so close together that you were able to touch the windows from each building at the same time. A boy and a girl had their windows very close together, and they ended up falling in love. The father of the girl did not approve of the boy, but that didn’t make the girl stop seeing the boy. One day when the girl and the boy were meeting in the alley between their buildings, the girl’s father came out with a gun and tried to shoot the boy. Since the alley was so narrow, the father ended up shooting both the boy and his daughter. It is said that the two haunt that area now.”

Paola did not have all of the details, but this story means a lot to her. To her, it meant that she needed to listen to her parents, otherwise they would hurt her in some way, as well as the person she was seeing. As she got older, she realized this was not the point of the story, but she still does not want to do anything to disobey her parents this much. A lot of this has to do with her culture and the morals her parents have taught her.

Analysis:

This is an example of a ghost story, as well as a legend. The story before the haunting part seems as though it could be completely true. It may have been a legend that turned into a ghost story over time.

To me, it was a way for Paola’s parents to keep her from doing things she was not supposed it. It has as though many of the Mexican tales have a to do with keeping children out of trouble.

 

Mexican Rain Dance

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/14
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Mexican Rain Dance

Personal Background:

Stephanie is a junior at the University of Southern California studying biology. She has grown up with a lot of Mexican influence, and has even spent some time in Mexico with her parents and grandparents. She is living in Los Angeles at the moment and is very happy with some of the Mexican influence L.A. has.

Ritual:

In the small, rural area that Stephanie is from in Mexico, crops are a necessity. The people grow and eat all of their own corn, as well as other warmer climate vegetables. When she was around six years old and visiting her grandparents in Mexico, there was a lot of rain happening. It is important for the crops to get rain, but there was more rain than they needed. Stephanie’s family then decided they needed to do the dance that would stop the rain. They all started walking in a circle and started to sing as they walked. She says she does not remember how the song goes, but she remembers she liked it. It then turned out that the dance worked and the rain stopped. She is not sure if it was luck that it stopped, or if the dance actually worked. She has not tried it since, but she likes the idea that worked because of the dance her family did.

Even when there is a lot of rain, there are times when there is no rain. One thing Stephanie’s family has done in the past to help get the rain to come is carry a Virgin Mary statue around in the spots they want it to rain. This starts bringing the religious aspects that come with the Hispanic cultures.

These rituals mean a lot to Stephanie because without the rain her family does not have crops to eat. It makes her feel better to think these rituals work because her family spends a lot of time performing them. They give her memories of helping her family have things to eat, and she remembers having fun as kid getting to really embrace her Mexican culture.

Analysis:

This is some religious folk belief. They are doing the dance is part of a superstition, or even a magic to make the crops grow. It might be more of a psychological thing than anything else. If they think their dancing and prayers and work, then they will continue this way.

To me, this is exactly the type of thing a small area would do. They seem to have more rituals and traditions. They rely to heavily on nature, it is there only way they can feel they have control of anything.

Death of a Crow

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/14
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Death of a Crow

Personal Background:

Stephanie is a junior at the University of Southern California studying biology. She has grown up with a lot of Mexican influence, and has even spent some time in Mexico with her parents and grandparents. She is living in Los Angeles at the moment and is very happy with some of the Mexican influence L.A. has.

Folk Belief:

            When Stephanie was about six years old, she visited Mexico with her family to see her grandparents. One thing she noticed that was odd was when a crow flew into a tree that was nearby. Everyone she was with started shooing the crow away in a panic. When she asked why her family did this, they said it was because a crow brings bad luck. Her parents told that when a black crow flies into a nearby tree and caws, it means someone is going to die soon. This scared the family because Stephanie had a great grandmother who was getting very old and sick at the time.

Stephanie still believes that will happen when crows are around. She gets very nervous when there are crows around, even if they are not in trees making noise. She did not lose her grandmother right when that happened, but it was enough to make her uncomfortable.

Analysis:

This story is a perfect example of folk belief and superstition. It is a belief Stephanie and her family has, and there is no actual rational belief behind it. They crow represents something evil the family does not want to be part of.

To me, it seems as if there are certain groups that have more beliefs than others. It seems as if the people in the small, rural areas tend to have the most folk beliefs. They focus on small signs for big signs.

USC Proverb

Nationality: White
Age: 53
Occupation: Admissions for University of Southern California
Residence: Huntington Beach, CA
Performance Date: 4/29/14
Primary Language: English

USC Proverb

Personal Background:

My mom works in admissions for a university. She grew up in Palos Verdes, California where her father was a dentist known throughout her entire community. She now lives in Huntington Beach with her family.

Proverb:

“The first year: It’s brand new. The second year: It’s tradition. The third year: We’ve always done it that way.”

My mom heard this quote from a man named Ken Taylor when she was a young professional working at a university. It meant a lot to her since she was always trying to give new ideas to the students, but they did not seem to want to change anything since everything they did seemed to follow certain “traditions.” It taught her that she had to try even harder to get her new ideas across since she would not be taken seriously the first time because she would be seen as breaking tradition. It also showed her how fast certain traditions catch on. It may not necessarily be the next year as it is in this case, but it can be a similar time scale for the fact that once it has started, the change becomes very difficult.

Ken Taylor came up with this when he was working with Greek Life at the University of Southern California. He started to break some of the old traditions by replacing them with newer ones. He was able to make a breakthrough in a sense. It made it easier to work with the other systems when they were not looking at everything as a tradition to be broken. It was a way to start new ones, and keep parts of the old ones.

Analysis:

This a proverb because is a fixed phrase. It is something that is meant to make someone laugh, as well as think. It is also a proverb that challenges many young professionals that they need to be able to try their hardest to make their way into a new place. New ideas do not always get recognized.

To me, this proverb says something about the school I go to. We are very fond of out traditions, and we want to keep them. It is both good and bad that we do this. We may be neglaecting new ideas without even knowing. But I am also proud to be part of my school’s pride.