Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

El Duende

M is 44. She was born in Los Angeles, her parents are from Guadalajara, Mexico. She told me this story her grandmother had told her about el Duende in person.

“My grandmother had the experience of el Duende… when she was younger… so el Duende fell in love with her and would come braid her hair at night… but it was so tight it was hard to get them off… so when it happened, my grandmother was very beautiful and she would wake with these braids and not know why, so one night her mom stayed up and saw the Duende…but so how you get rid of the Duende is holy water and tequila and you collect these things and wait for the Duende when he comes to try and braid the hair. I’m glad I wasn’t around back then!”

This duende story is a variation of the Tata Duende, which appears to be very popular in Belize, but also among other Mestizo cultures of Mayan descent. He sometimes also braids the hair of horses. For more accounts of Tata Duende see, https://www.marc.ucsb.edu/research/community-voice/teos-way/duende

The Legend of Bigfoot

Nationality: Mexican/American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 5/1/22
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

CONTEXT: 

RR is one of my best friends and roommates. She is a sophomore at USC who enjoys crocheting, writing poetry, and making me laugh. 

TEXT: 

Me: “Can you tell me now about Bigfoot? Because I know you heard about him since you were a little—all about him. Where is he from?”

R: “Bigfoot is a pretty big legend in the Pacific Northwest. 

I’m sure you have heard a little bit about him because you’re from Idaho 

but in Portland, and Oregon, because most of the state is covered in temperate rainforest. 

It’s a big thing for people to see Bigfoot. 

There’s so many sightings. 

There’s lots of websites too. 

The restaurant I worked in, the summer after I graduated high school, was a Pacific Northwest Oregon chain 

and some of the restaurants have lots of mementos of Bigfoot sightings 

like newspaper clippings or these really shitty, blurry photos of “Bigfoot” supposedly. I also had a teacher in high school who would go on hikes once a month 

and he’d try to find Bigfoot 

People really, really believe in him

there’s Facebook groups. 

There’s T shirts 

I bought us a shot glass that says Bigfoot country Oregon

It’s from the PDX airport. 

It’s big—it’s very prevalent in Oregon culture. 

I’d say that’s definitely one of the biggest landmarks of being an Oregonian.”

ANALYSIS:

The legend of Bigfoot has been around since 1958; a writer for the Humboldt Times, Andrew Genzoli, was sent pictures of large footprints that were found in northern California. He published the photos and joked that perhaps the footprints belonged to a “relative of the Abominable Snowman.” However, people were intrigued by the pictures and deemed this unknown creature, “Bigfoot.” Following this article being published, Bigfoot became a popular cultural phenomenon; especially in the Pacific NorthWest where temperate rainforests are common. In addition to Bigfoot being a mascot to the PNW, politicians in Washington and Oregon have even proposed bills in order to protect the creatures from hunters.

Splitting the Pole

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 03/15/2022
Primary Language: English

Background:

Refusal to “split the pole” is a belief held by the informant that two people should never walk in two separate directions around a pole or an object obstructing their path. The informant adopted this belief from his father.

Context:

This belief was related to me by the informant after walking with him down a sidewalk in Los Angeles. We saw a light post ahead of us, and as I began to walk around the left side of it as the informant walked right, he shouted in a frenzy, “never split the pole!” After looking at him in confusion, he told me what “splitting the pole” meant.

Main Piece:

Me: What are you yelling about? What is splitting the pole?

PF: When you’re walking with someone down a sidewalk and there’s something like a light post or a traffic sign in your way, you have to walk around it the same way. If you walk in different directions, you split the pole, and you have to say, “bread and butter.”

Me: Bread and butter? What does that do?

PF: I don’t know man, it’s just what you have to say. My dad doesn’t split the pole neither. No one in my family does.

Me: Where does “splitting the pole” come from?

PF: No idea. It’s just something I’ve been doing since I was a kid. If you do split the pole and don’t say, “bread and butter,” you get bad luck.

Me: Like walking under a ladder?

PF: Yea, but way worse (laughs). When my dad and I are going somewhere, even if there’s a massive crowd, we’ll wait for people to pass and stuff just to make sure we don’t split the pole.

Thoughts:

Neither myself or anyone I’ve asked has ever heard of “splitting the pole”, so its origins remain unclear. It seems to be just one of those superstitions that a select number of people have heard and adopted. There is something to be said about the metaphysical gravity some allot to customs and beliefs despite having no rationale or origin to validate the belief. There is no utilitarian value in refusing to split the pole, yet the informant was driven to yelling in public after realizing we were about do so. Just like walking under a ladder or breaking a mirror, it is a superstition that some adopt despite not aligning themselves with the culture or community it comes from. Despite not being part of the culture or community it comes from, people still act in accordance with the belief out of the potential threat that violating this belief will endanger them.

Mexican Sneezing Belief

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: March 2022
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Background:

The informant is my roommate who was is originally from Mexico, having spent the first eight years of his life there. His mother used to tell him and his siblings that whenever you sneezed unexpectedly – not from sickness or contaminants – it meant someone was thinking about you. This is a widespread belief in Mexico, but the informant’s family has added their own additional beliefs regarding the number of sneezes.

Context:

My roommate told me this after I sneezed unexpectedly one night at his house. His family had me over for his grandfather’s birthday, and after a lamb dinner we sat around outside talking. I sneezed and my roommate’s mother told said something in Spanish that garnered laughs from the other family members. My friend then explained what she had said.

Main Piece:

ML: My mother would always tell us someone was thinking about us if we sneezed randomly.

Me: Aren’t all sneezes random?

ML: It’s like, if you sneeze when you’re not sick. It’s the cause of the sneeze. If you sneeze when you’re sick, you’re sneezing because you’re sick and your illness is causing you to sneeze. If you sneeze just randomly, someone is thinking about you and those thoughts are intruding into your body almost, causing you to react and sneeze.

Me: And this is a common belief in Mexico?

ML: Yea, everyone… everyone’s mother would tell them this. But my mother told us that if you sneezed more than two times unexpectedly, it was because someone was thinking affectionately about you. Like they have a crush on you.

Me: So if you sneeze once, they’re just thinking about you in general?

ML: Could be. Could be talking bad about you to someone or thinking negatively about you. Or they could just be remembering something you said or that you two did together.

Thoughts:

This was the first folk belief or superstition I’d ever heard regarding sneezing. Sneezing is a bit of a perplexing, spontaneous action, the cause of which is not always immediately discernible. Obviously, if one sick, the body malfunctions in a way, causing a sneeze. However, when illness or allergies can’t be pointed to as the cause, it leaves a bit of mystique and uncertainty as to the cause. This folk belief could be an attempt to playfully resolve the trigger of an unexpected sneeze. Sneezing from illness or allergies carries with it the negative association of being sick or deficient in health. This belief spins a sneeze as a potentially positive event, as someone could be thinking of one in an affectionate way.

Finnish Tar Remedies

Nationality: American
Age: 65
Occupation: Writer
Residence: Seattle, Washington
Performance Date: April 28, 2022
Primary Language: English
Language: Finnish

Informant Background:

My informant, KL, is my mother. Her father was born in Finland and immigrated to the United States as a young adult. When she was younger, her father would heat up pine tar in boiling water and have her breathe in the fumes if she as sick.

Piece of Folklore:

            When KL was sick as a child, she remembers her father heating up pine tar in boiling water and having her lean over and breathe in the steam to clear out a head cold. Tar would also sometimes be diluted and rubbed on her and her siblings’ chests for the same effect. She also remembers a saying: ”Jossei viina terva ja sauna auta ni se on kuolemaksi,” which roughly translates to “If vodka, tar, and a sauna cannot cure you, it is likely fatal.*”

*: A slightly different version of this saying is referenced in a Finish journal of social medicine:

Pietilä, Ilkka. “Kontekstuaalinen vaihtelu miesten puheessa terveydestä: yksilöhaastatteluiden ja ryhmäkeskustelujen vertaileva analyysi.” Sosiaalilääketieteellinen aikakauslehti 46.3 (2009).

Analysis:

            Tar was believed to have powerful medicinal qualities – everything from treating skin ailments to serving as an antiseptic and antibiotic. It was more or less considered a cure-all, and was often at hand because it was also used for sealing boats. Similar treatments for colds are still in common use across many cultures – breathing in steam is thought to help de-congest the nose, and similar chest rubs are used to relieve coughs.