Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Abuela Blanca

Nationality: Cuban American
Age: late 20's
Occupation: USC spanish professor
Residence: Los Angeles Area
Performance Date: April 15, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant’s family originated in Cuba. Her mother was born and raised in Cuba but her father was born and raised in America. Her Cuban culture and background comes from her mother’s side and folklore that her mom picked up over the years and shared with her. The folklore from this informant comes from family stories that are shared amongst the family as lessons or as advice. 

Magic Abuela Blanca

Informant…

“It is a wide spread belief through santeras (witch doctor) is that if you were to catch lice that it was most likely from a dead person. Having lice from a dead person meant that you would carry that dead person’s spirit with you or you were possessed by them leading so you would be shunned from your family and society. My great great great grandma Abuela Blanca was a saint in her community. She was an amazing woman who taught at an elementary school in the country side. For a few days in a row one student, a young girl, wasn’t showing up to school and Abuela Blanca was concerned. She went to the young girl’s house and asked the parents why she hadn’t been to class and they proceeded to tell her what happened. The young girl caught lice from a dead person and the family was in the process of pushing her out of the home so she would be shunned from society. Abuela Blanca cared for the girl and didn’t accept the situation. Being the saint she was Abuela Blanca took the girl home, cleaned her hair and got rid of all the lice and sent her home. From that point on Abuela Blanca was talked about in the community as being a miracle worker or being able to perform magic.”

Analysis…

When I thought about folklore before, I didn’t realize that folklore could be held within and amongst family members. The specific informant gave me folklore that isn’t necessarily known widely by lots of people but rather held in her family and it is significant to her and important to the family because it actually means something to them. It is a story that tells them about their ancestor and the way that she lived her life.

Abuela Blanca sounds like an incredible woman. The way that she saw other people and was caring in her community really is an expression of her character. The informant expressed to me that she was amazing and I could tell by the way she spoke about her. Having a figure like her to look up to and try to live like is probably beneficial in a family. If they all look up to the same person and base their life after the same person there are probably a lot of similarities within the family.

 

“It’s A Promesa”

Nationality: Cuban American
Age: late 20's
Occupation: USC spanish professor
Residence: Los Angeles Area
Performance Date: April 15, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant’s family originated in Cuba. Her mother was born and raised in Cuba but her father was born and raised in America. Her Cuban culture and background comes from her mother’s side and folklore that her mom picked up over the years and shared with her. The folklore from this informant comes from family stories that are shared amongst the family as lessons or as advice. 

“Its a Promesa” 

The informant…

“My Abuela Nina had strange rituals that she would perform. Abuela Nina was involved with the Santeras who have beliefs that if they do different promesas then they would be given something by the Gods. Abuela Nina bagan to pull her eyelashes out at some point in her life and wouldn’t give an explanation to anyone as to why she was doing it except for “it’s a promesa”. She finally revealed that the Santeras taught her that if she never let her eyelashes grow back the Gods would do something in her favor. Abuela Nina also practiced other Santera traditions referred to as promesas as well. As her sons grew, she kept all of their hair, nail clippings, and teeth in jars. She would only give the answer “its a promesa” when asked why, but it is believed among the santeras that is someone were to get a hold of those things they could create voodoo on that person, so it was safer to keep them hidden in a jar.”

When I asked the informant what the Santeras specifically were she described them to me as witch doctors. They have strange voodoo, magic, are connected to the Gods in some way, and other traditions they practice they believe to work. I also asked her what a promesa is. She said that a promesa is translated as a promise, but to the Santeras it is a promise to the Gods or like a thing that you do for the gods. The informant also added that her Abuela Nina is said to be so weird or strange.

Analysis…

When the informant told me this stuff about her abuela Nina, I didn’t know how to respond. It was so different than anything I have heard before. The closest thing to a witch doctor that I have ever seen has been on the discovery channel so to hear about it face to face with someone who’s family knows a lot about it was interesting. Similarly to witch doctors, the closest form of voodoo magic I had ever heard about has been on movies. Hearing about Abuela Nina has expanded my cultural perspective and awareness. I think it is interesting that the informant has that in her culture and I was given the opportunity to be able to hear about it.

The Senior Bugaloo

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: ROTC, student
Residence: Maryland
Performance Date: April 19, 2015
Primary Language: English

So I guess there is one that is always passed down. The rest, each year, every village comes up with their own. All the kids, we uh, you grow up at the camp. And the seniors, sing this cheer, and inadvertently you learn it ‘cus you hear it so many times.

Senior campers are the best,

we party while the others rest

we continue to rock, we continue to roll

because we’ve got spirit and we’ve got soul
all day long we’re hanging around
all night long we’re partying down
senior campers are really cool
we don’t have to go in the pool
Mohawk boys are really lame
Seneca girls always complain
Cayuga cubs you better run
Onondoga girls are no fun
some walk high and some walk low
but senior spirits gonna really something something
with an R U L and a big fat E
gonna rule this camp til we’re CITs
we’re number one,
so we can’t be number 2
now cmon everybody let’s do the senior bugaloo
context of the performance:
I asked the informant, one-on-one, if he had any camp songs that were passed down, knowing how much this camp was a part of his life, and this was the one he immediately thought of. He couldn’t remember it all at first, and had to sort of pause, close his eyes and think a few times, but was very excited when he got it.
thoughts on the performance:
Seniority is a big part of a lot of teams, and apparently this camp as well. The younger campers seem to look up to the older ones and, as the informant, learn their cheer inadvertently, but never speak it until they are of that age. He explained after how the group that cheers this is the oldest group of campers before you can apply to be on the staff.

Cross-Country T.P.ing Tradition

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Illinois
Performance Date: April 19, 2015
Primary Language: English

Okay. I don’t know, I guess what we did is gather up toilet paper and then we…T.P.ed his house. I think it’s always supposed to be the day after Sectionals. Yeah, it definitely is, because it’s to celebrate qualifying for the State meet.

We just knew we had to do it…’cus people do it every year.  It’s always the seniors, doesn’t have to just be the State team or anyone. And I guess a few juniors come to learn how to do it next year…and it’s right around Halloween, too.

I don’t know where exactly the tradition started from. I think it is just sort of a common thing to do in high school. Like, I know Kevin and his friends were always doing it. It’s just a common deed on Naperville North.

But for this, I think it was more “woohoo we won!” or possibly out of vengeance.  Different people came for different reasons to the T.P.ing. Like I know you and I probably came to celebrate and for state and stuff, but Marie I know did it for vengeance for the hard workouts.

And yeah…his family tradition, well it became their tradition, to um, cleaning it up the next day. He said it was like Christmas morning for them, for his kids (laughs).

context of the performance:

The informant, my close friend and former teammate, reflected with me one-on-one about our high school cross country tradition to T.P. or toilet paper our coach’s house after the qualifying State meet.

thoughts on it:

It is interesting how it meant different things to different people, but this act, which is probably considered vandalism, is done as a tradition and sort of out of love. It is even funnier that it has become a part of their family traditions to clean it up together, a “Christmas morning” of sorts, as the informant mentioned.

 

 

The Annual Bike Parade and Block Party

Nationality: American
Age: 54
Occupation: professor, administrator for first generation students
Residence: Illinois, USA
Performance Date: April 19, 2015
Primary Language: English

Every year, everybody decorates their bikes for the bike parade. We actually did this with my cousins every summer in Hovokan, Wisconsin.

So I did block parties as a kid and we always played the same games so I wanted to bring them to our neighborhood for you guys to play. You remember, right? The egg on the spoon race, the three-legged race, the pudding eating contest, and the egg toss…

And yeah, that first block party, that first time is was just six families and now I think last year forty families came. I’m not in charge of it anymore, but I think it was forty.

Now they even make invitations for it. Generally the moms in their 30s in the neighborhood plan it and then, when your kids get to be a certain age…you don’t do it anymore.

But yeah, it started as more of a picnic. Mr. Russel was always the Keebler Elf of the parade Remember that? He used to get that costume from Jewel.

But the tradition of the bike parade, I also brought back from when I was a kid. So all the neighborhood kids now get their bikes or scooters and decorate them and then do a parade around the neighborhood to start off the block party. And we always used to put playing cards with clothes pins in the spokes to get it to click, so you guys do that too. And streamers are big, too.

context: 

I went home, where these traditions all occur, for Easter this year. The informant, my mother, and I discussed the neighborhood tradition of the block party, which happens every summer, one on one.

thoughts: 

I was familiar with all the games and the bike parade tradition, because I took all of them very seriously but I never knew the context or that the history behind it came from my mom’s childhood, as well.

It is interesting how the leadership changes depending on the ages of the kids of the moms involved.