Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Sorrel and Yams

Nationality: Jamaican American
Age: 19
Occupation: USC student athlete
Residence: USC
Performance Date: April 1, 2015
Primary Language: English

The informant was born and raised into the American culture and way of life. Her mother’s side of the family is in touch with their Jamaican culture and heritage and as the informant grew older she was able to become more into with the beliefs and customs of Jamaica.

Jamaican views on Yams and Sorrel.

Informant…

“Sorrel is a drink that is used in Jamaica that has magical properties that are healing. When an individual becomes sick they will drink sorrel to heal, if they are injured they will do the same. Yams in this culture have a superstition on them where in a sense that they are said to give the ability to help an individual run fast.”

I asked the informant if she believes these things to be true about the two foods and she responded, “I am a track athlete here at USC, and I rely on my ability to be fast and I eat yams because in my tradition yams help you to be fast, but they are also delicious! I would consider myself to be fast and I believe they have helped in that aspect. I don’t think that yams gave me the ability to be fast I just think maybe the have enhanced it because I have eaten so many in my life. With the Sorrel, I believe that it is a form of medicine. When I can feel myself getting sick I will drink some Sorrel and hopefully start to feel better. I believe in this because it has worked for me in the past so I will continue to use it.”

Analysis…

Using foods as a means to achieve something is definitely not unheard of. It is totally normal to have food remedies to help with sickness or whatever other conditions we want to fix or enhance there is a food remedy. I have never heard something this extreme with food remedies. Yams will make you fast, that is a different and interesting concept to me. I think that this traditions is one of those traditions that the community has a superstition about, so it becomes true. With the sorrel that reminds me of hot chicken noodle soup or vitamin c. Whenever we feel a cold coming on we take proactive methods to try and prevent the sickness from taking its toll. The healing properties of sorrel, I connect with honey. Honey is used to heal sore throats and wounds similar to sorrel it comes from a long time ago and is still used today because it actually works.

Don’t Wear Silver in Water

Nationality: Bahamian
Age: 22
Occupation: USC student athlete
Residence: USC
Performance Date: April 15, 1996
Primary Language: English
Language: Broken English

The informant’s family comes from the Bahamas. She was born in the Bahamas and is a talented Bahamian woman. Her mother and she were extremely close and she learned a lot of the folklore that she shared with me from either her mother or from being with her mother. Eventually her family moved to Florida where they learned American cultures and were able to compare and contrast the two. 

Informant…

“I’m not really sure if this is considered folklore or a proverb, but one tradition, or superstition, or maybe it could be considered water etiquette in most island cultures is that you absolutely never wear your silver jewelry or anything shiny into the waters. I don’t mean like swimming pools, I mean the water with fish and other things in it. We do this because we believe that a barracuda will attack you if you do. I think its because silver or any other flashy types of jewelry or anything will confuse a barracuda and it’ll mistake you for the little critters it preys on and will attack any human wearing it.”

When she was asked why this is a superstition she said, “Well a barracuda will attack you.”

Then I asked, “Have you ever seen it happen or heard it happen to someone close to you?”

She said, “well… no, My mom just told me and here mom told her and I’m sure her dad told her as well. I don’t know where they got it from, I just know not to do it.”

Analysis…

Superstitions play an important role in the way that people may act, what they will do, what they will say, what they will wear, or when they will do things. Usually superstitions are practiced because of good luck or bad luck and doing something one way will prevent bad luck from happening, and give you good luck. In the case of the informant this is a superstition of something you don’t do or there will be bad consequences. Maybe this originated by an older sibling trying to fool his younger siblings into doing something he wanted so he made up a story about barracudas attacking, or maybe someone was actually attacked by a barracuda because of the jewelry the person was wearing. Regardless of where it came from it is a heavily practiced superstition and is not ever broken in fear of being attacked.

“La Llorona”

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 30's
Occupation: Learning Specialist for SAAS at USC
Residence: Los Angeles area
Performance Date: April 15, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant’s family had been a traditional Mexican family then they moved to America and expanded their culture here. His parents were born and raised in Mexico and learned many cultural forms of folklore with the informant who was born in America. He shared some of the folklore that he was told that stuck with him as he grew older and more wise and mature. 

Informant…

“There was a woman in Mexico named Maria. Maria was gorgeous, more beautiful than anyone else so she believed she was above everyone else. As Maria go older, she got more beautiful and prideful because of it.When she was old snout to have an interest in men she wouldn’t look at the men from her village. She believed they weren’t good enough for her and what she thought she deserved so she would say thing about how when she would be married it would be to the most handsome man in the world. And then one day, a man who fit her standard rode into her village. He was a handsome young ranchero as well as the son of a rich rancher from the south. He only rode wild horses, he thought it wasn’t manly to ride a horse if it wasn’t half wild. He was the most handsome man in the world, but he had various talents as well he sang beautifully and played the guitar. Maria decided that that was the man for her. Maria played mind games with the ranchero, if he would speak to her on the pathway she would ignore him and pretend he wasn’t there, he would go to her how at night to play the guitar and serenade her but Maria wouldn’t go to her window, she wouldn’t accept any gifts from him. This all made the ranchero want her even more and he knew he had to get her to love him. Everything went according to Maria’s plan and they were soon married. Things were great in the beginning of their marriage they had 2 kids. But the man became bored with Maria and wanted to live his crazy wild life again, he showed more affection to the children that he showed to her. As proud as Maria was, she became very angry with the him. She also began to feel anger toward her children. One night she drowned her kids in the river and when the man found out that she drowned her kids he basically rebuked her away. So she was cursed because she drowned her kids for all eternity to wander the earth crying for her kids, hence the name la llorona.”

Analysis…

“La Llorona” translated in english as the woman who cries

When asked about where he heard the story he said his mother and grandmother had told him but he wasn’t sure where the story originated or came from but he knew that it came from Mexico. The informant believes that La Llorona is real. He came into close contact with her when he was young around the ages of two or three. He said that his mother and his aunt were in Mexico cleaning his grandmother’s house when they heard her painful, creepy, whaling cries. He said that she was saying “oh my babies” and when his mother and aunt heard that they took all the children and threw them under the bed in the next room. He said they did this because it is believed that if she finds children she will take them as her own because she had lost hers. He believes that this story is also told to children as a scare tactic method to keep them in the house at night so that La Llorona doesn’t take them. He believes that because his mom used it as a scare tactic on him, his brothers, and his cousins.

Tales like this are told all over the world as a scare tactic to force kids into doing whatever their parents feel like they should be doing. Most Americans have heard of having monsters under their beds (to keep children in their beds at night) or the boogie man (forces kids to bah in fear of the boogie man coming after them. This tale reminds me of those and I initially make the connection between them. The crazy part of this tale is the informant swears that the came into close contact with the la llorona meaning that it is possible that she is real which would lead to ghosts and unwanted spirits being real.

Another version of this legend can be found in movie form and is called The Crying Woman (1993) directed by Ramón Peón.

White Witch of Rose Hall

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles/New York
Performance Date: April 28, 2015
Primary Language: English

In December 2012, the informant and his family traveled to Jamaica for Christmas Break. On their way to Rose Hall their taxi driver, a Native of Montego Bay in Jamaica, told them the story of “The White Witch of Rose Hall.”

The Story

In Jamaica, there is a “White Witch of Rose Hall.” She was a white (Colonial British) plantation owner’s daughter. She lived on a huge plantation in Jamaica and she would torture the slaves and be unkind towards them. She was not a good woman and her poor treatment led to her demise. She was eventually murdered by the slaves for her cruelty towards them. Basically, she was brutally murdered in this mansion, “Rose Hall.” Her spirit haunts the house – mostly at night. She makes the furniture move and people have claimed to see her spirit roaming the house.

 

Analysis:

The informant says that when they went to visit he and his family trespassed. They snuck onto the property of Rose Hall after hours and the informant said that it lived up to the hype, the mansion looked pretty eerie and spooky. He said that when they arrived, there were black cats roaming around (one even hissed at his brother) and there were doors creaking. Eventually, when the security guard came out to tell them to leave he said that the “White Witch” had thrown a table inside the house just moments before.

The informant mentioned that he thinks that the Security Guard telling his family about the table was to lure them back to see what chaos ensues at the haunted mansion during operating business hours. I agree with this informant. The security guard trying to entice them with “spooky information” coupled with the story about the White Witch t highlights the main reason why Rose Hall in Jamaica is so popular for tourists, they want to see if the house is haunted and if it is, they want to see the White Witch in action.

La Llorana 1

Nationality: Colombian, American
Age: Mid 20s
Occupation: JetBlue Flight attendant
Residence: Brooklyn, NY
Performance Date: April 19, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

La LLorana means “The Crying Woman”The informant says that her parents would tell her not to stray alone in the street because La Llorana comes and steals kids.

The Story of La Llorana is:

“One day La Llorana was sad because her husband was angry with her. She sought vengeance and went to the river to drown their children. She was hanged for this criminal act in the middle of the town. After the fact, people said that they could hear her spirit crying and some claim that they see her roaming through the streets. Oh! You area also not supposed to look her in the eyes.”

The informant’s parents are both from Colombia and she was raised in Brooklyn, New York. She said that them telling her the La Llorana story worked – she would not go outside alone.  The informant’s parents protected their own fears of their child wandering alone by invoking fear. Of course a child is going to be scared of a ghost who kidnaps children and killed her own, but that will eventually subside. A parents’ fear of their child being on their own and in danger never goes away. La Llorana serves as a helping tool for parents with younger children. Younger children will believe her story so they will stay closer to home or remain in bigger groups when they go outside. She might have been the worst mother for killing her children but she definitely is a great protector – as she is the reason why many children are careful when they are out on the street.

As I was interviewing this informant, a woman nearby said that the story of La Llorana resonated with her as well. Even though she was Mexican, her parents told her the story of La Llorana too so that she would not misbehave (See La Llorana 2). From this it is clear that La Llorana is a story shared across Latin American cultures.

The informant also mentioned that La Llorana has been used to make several films. Here is a link to a trailer for “The Wailer (La Llorana)” from 2006.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi93651225