During a full moon or eclipse a pregnant women must wear a piece of clothing that is red. This is to prevent the baby form being born with a cleft lip. The red color is supposed to prevent negative energy from hurting the baby.
My informant is a building engineer. He migrated to the United States form El Salvador when he was 16 years old. He grew up in a city in El Salvador. Lots of the folklore he has heard has come from his family.
He heard this from his mother and other female relatives.
My informant is the Lebanese father of my best friend. He grew up in the town of Yaroun, Lebanon before migrating to America. This story is a true story of an encounter his sister had in Lebanon.
My sister got married, and every time she delivered a baby they used to sometimes live one week, one month, one of them lived one year one time. And then they get sick, they get really sick. It was like a weird situation. the doctor checks on them and their face turned blue. They’re like suffocating. Like something is suffocating them. It is a true story, my sister. And they used to die. And when they used to take the kid to the hospital. The doctors were amazed. The doctor was one of the best doctors, got so like shocked that he couldn’t, that he didn’t know how diagnose them. He didn’t know what was wrong with them! And the end we found out that it was some bad spirit that was born with my sister. That she choked them to death. And so we didn’t know. There was one year where she had a boy like one year old and she delivered another boy and both of them died in the same week. I was like probably seven eight years old. At that age you remember. We were so sad. The oldest sister was very aware. Because the doctor said its not something medical. So automatically she knew it was something spiritual. So my sister what she did, even though she didn’t have a lot of money, she found money and went, she traveled all the way, we are next to Syrian and Iraq,. She went and she was looking and looking and traveled all through the Middle East. But at the end someone mentioned a lady. She lived closed to us, in the city called Teir. So my sister wen to there and the lady opened. She gathers the evil spirits … she has the way to gather them. She gathers them and talks to them and after asking my sister what her name and the mother name. Once she knew what her name and the mother name they could locate, they know who she is. They told her exactly that she was born with a bad spirit that kills children, we call it erini, it’s like a partner. This women I don’t what she did, but she wrote part of the Koran to ward of the spirit.
I gathered this piece from my informant in his house while he served me food.
The interesting part of this folklore, is that every so often he would emphasize that this was a true story. It always interesting to hear a person’s personal story with the supernatural. It was also interesting to see that the idea of a supernatural force at work only came after other more “legit” means were exhausted.
Informant: Valentina Williamson. 11 years old. Born and raised in Mexico City. My little sister,
Informant: “Whenever a tooth fell out, I would put it under my pillow and the “Raton Pérez” (Mouse Perez) would take it away and leave me money.”
Collector: “When did you first hear about the Ratón Perez”
Informant: “I guess I heard it from my parents. When my first tooth fell out they told me to place it under the pillow as and the ratón would exchange it for money.”
Collector: “Do you know why the ratón took teeth?”
Informant: “My parents told me he wanted my teeth because he collects teeth from all the children around the world. Also, all my friends had the same experience. We all believed in the ratón and would show off the money he gave us.”
Me: “Why did you believe in the Raton Pérez and not the tooth fairy.”
Informant: “If my tooth fell out in Mexico it was the Raton Perez’s job. If I was in the U.S. it was the Tooth Fairy’s job. Like once my tooth fell out when I was in New York and I believed the tooth fairy took it. It was all about where I was. HA HA! I even thought they would meet up and compare their tooth collections.”
Thoughts: The Raton Perez and Tooth Fairy are classic folklore parents tell their children. What interested me the most from my sister’s performance is that she believed it was locational rather than sticking to one belief. I also know that in Spain they call it “Ratoncito Pérez” or “Little Mouse Pérez.”
Interesting read on the origins of the Ratón Pérez: “http://2yearsinmadrid.blogspot.com/2011/07/el-raton-perez-spanish-tooth-fairy.html”
Background: Stella is a 55-year-old woman living in Cerritos, CA. She was born in Seoul and has lived in South Korea for the majority of her life until she moved here for college. She stays at home. Before that, she worked at a hair salon as a beautician. She is married and has two grown children.
Main piece:
So what do you usually do when you or your children are sick?
Stella: “I always always say eat some pears… Asian pears!.. with a little bit honey. It is cool… and feels good in mouth. It is soothing to throat and the best for when you have cold.”
Where did you learn this from?
Stella: “My mother, so your grandmother, tell me this all the time. It is old, old tradition.”
Does it work?
Stella: “Yeah! Always feels good. It has worked for generations and generations.”
Performance Context: I interviewed the informant over the phone, as she was in the Orange County area and I’m in Los Angeles. This folk remedy seems to originate from back when my mother was a child. She learned this from her mother and has passed it down to me.
My Thoughts: I love this home remedy – it reminds me of my childhood and maybe it’s also psychological, but this remedy always seems to work for me. I plan to pass this down to my children as well.
Informant: My grandmother told this story of the town she was born and raised in, and still lives today. She laughed through this whole story. She does not know how true it is, but she says it makes sense because the town straddled both sides during the Civil War.
Original Script: “Well I guess the most celebrated general from the Civil War is General Logan, you know the school’s named after him and the parks and… well. The story is, he tried to form a company from scratch to fight for the south, but he couldn’t get enough people to join. So he formed a company to fight for the north instead!”
Context of Performance: She told me and my sisters over breakfast one morning.
Thoughts about the Piece: This is a funny antidote describing the role a tiny town like Ava played during the war. I like hearing about the role such a rural, midwest area would have in the war between the states.