Category Archives: Kinesthetic

Body movements

Bracelet Against Evil Eye

Informant: My informant is a current sophomore at the University of Southern California. Her parents are from Jalisco, Mexico. However, she grew up in Denver, Colorado.

Context: The following is a conversation that my informant and I had over zoom. During the zoom we were discussing some of the lore that we share. The following is an excerpt of our conversation and my informant explanation of her bracelet charm against evil eye.

Text: “I wear this bracelet as a protection amulet for myself. The reason that I wear it is that it’s a custom that has been present for many years now. I don’t think these customs come from Catholicism, even though my parents are religious, but I think it has to do a lot with indigenous roots. The evil eye is negative energy such as bad vibes, and jealousy and to keep that away we wear a bracelet with an eye on it. [The informant takes her bracelet off and hands it over to me]. Usually, these are red, but mine on here is a colorful number of beads and if you look at the middle it has like a hand with an eyeball in the center it has a little like eyeball, and it’s not super detailed or anything, but it’s just a circle, and the like outer part is red and then the inner part is completely white with like a singular black dot. And basically, I wear this all the time, because at some point I really did just start believing that it was a positive energy that protects you from other people’s bad glares. Even my little cousins wear this. My mom and dad always told us to wear these-slash- they put them on us as babies to protect us from evil.” 

Analysis: Hearing of the evil eye from another person who practices it was very interesting indeed. I for one also wear these kinds of bracelets because as a small child my mom taught me that these bracelets work as small amulets to keep me safe. Seeing how my informant and I learned these customs, superstitions, and myths from our family show how much one relies on our culture rather and on professionals or science to believe whether something is necessarily real. Some might argue that this is the placebo effect, our minds are playing games to make us believe that this is truly a protection. However, whether it is placebo effect or not, these charms have demonstrated to play a big role in developing our beliefs in practices towards our future generation: our children.

One of the bracelet charms against evil eye that informant showed during zoom share.

“El Juego del Lobito” (“The Wolf Game”)- Children’s Game

*Originally spoken in Spanish. The following is a rough translation. 

Description (From Transcript): “A bunch of kids, we would make a circle and we would choose one person in the center of the circle and the “wolf” outside the circle. And we would start moving in the circle and singing the song “Jugaremos en el bosque, mientras que el lobo no esta, porque si el lobo aparece a todos nos comerá.” (“We will play in the forest while the wolf isn’t here because if the wolf appears, he’ll eat us all”), and then we would pause and say “Lobo, estas ahi si o no?” (“Wolf, are you there, yes or no?”), “Sí aquí estoy” (“yes, I am here”), and we would ask “what are you doing?”, and the wolf would say, “I’m showering”. Then we would start moving in the circle again, and so on. And when the wolf was done getting dressed, (each time he would say what he was doing) he would say, “I’m gonna eat you all” and we would run! We would all run and whoever he caught had to be the wolf next, until we were done with everyone. I guess just until we were bored”. 

Context: TR is a Mexican woman, born and raised in Zacatecas, Mexico. She immigrated to the United States in 1995. She would play this game in her hometown when she was a child. Her and her neighbors would get together when they were children and they didn’t have much else to play with. They would play a lot of rondas, games such as this one where children would stand in a circle and do some kind of call and response. Some of the games had losers and winners. 

When asked about her children knowing the game now, she responded that her son didn’t know or play the game, and her grandchildren will probably not know it either. However she accepts this reality because times are changing. Her grandmother and mother also played this game. She explains how many generations played rondas infantiles until electric light was introduced to these rural communities, at which point many children just wanted to watch TV. 

My interpretation: This game is heavy on contact, communication, and movement, all characteristics that explain why they were so heavily used in rural Mexican communities, where children didn’t have much else to play with or do. Because these virtues are instilled in children at a young age, the people in these communities remain close as adults and emphasize activities such as play, dance, and music. This game in specific is very telling of how fear is a motivating emotion from a young age. Oftentimes, these communities are low on resources and high on crime, a difficult lesson to learn as an adult. But here, children learn to be attentive, stick together, and outrun danger, all while maintaining youthful qualities like joy, movement, and competition. 

Limpia- Mexican Cleansing Ritual 

Description (From Transcript): “The translation of it is a cleanse. This one is kind of hard to explain. Essentially what it is is thinking that you have this negative energy within or around you and they (the person doing the cleanse) basically do this cleanse on your body. It (the person doing the cleanse) can technically be anyone as long as they know the gist of what you’re doing but I think it tends to be older adults who have more experience with it. 

So essentially, you take an egg, a raw egg that’s not cracked and you cleanse that energy from the person’s body that you’re doing the limpia on. And the way that my grandparents and mom would do it, they would do it saying prayers like “Santa Maria” or “Dios te salve Maria”. They would basically run the egg making crosses down your body from your head to your toes and then back up. I don’t know the exact number of how many times you say the prayers but that’s how you do it. And once you’re done, you crack that egg into a glass of water and you put that egg under your bed while you sleep and it’s supposed to essentially take all that bad energy and soak it into that cup of water. It’s a pretty old ritual but I distanced myself from religion and became a little more spiritual. I still believe in bad energy, auras and stuff like that but when I do limpias I do them on myself and instead of saying prayers I do positive affirmations. It’s literally the same process but not the prayers. I also crack the egg into the water but I don’t sleep with it under my bed. I just let it sit there for a little. 

Context: The informant (LV) is a first generation Mexican American woman residing in Denver, Colorado. She states that this practice is interesting because she adapted it from her grandma and mom. She believes it’s from Aztec culture, but she’s not sure. It’s in the same “area” as other Mexican Indigenous beliefs and practices such as “mal de ojo” (evil eye). In her culture it was intertwined with religion and Catholicism. She likes this practice because, even though she feels disconnected from her family because of religion, it helps her stay connected. 

My interpretation: What’s particularly interesting about this informant’s version of this practice is that by removing Catholic aspects from it, she is most likely performing it more accurately to the way it was done in pre colonial Indigenous communities. Her explanation of her version, along with her comments about finding online versions that also remove the religious aspects, also point to a generational shift away from organized religion and towards spirituality instead. Such shifts reveal how young people from ethnic communities continue to use and preserve folk practices but have learned to modify them to better reflect their own belief systems and socio-political stances.

“Zapatito Blanco, Zapatito Azul”- Mexican Children’s Game

Description (From transcript): “It’s like a game I guess “Zapatito Blanco, zapatito azul”. The literal translation is “White shoe, blue shoe” but it’s like the equivalent of “Bubblegum, bubblegum, in a dish” where you put in your feet and you count around the circle. We as kids would use it like before an actual game to see would start or who would be first or who would be ‘it’.  It’s like “Zapatito blanco, zapatito azul, dime cuántos años tienes tu” and whoever it would land on they would say how old they are and that number is how many times you would go around and tap each person’s shoe and whoever it would land on you would take out their foot… And you just kind of keep repeating that until you get to the last person and that’s who’s it. I remember playing it before playing tag and that’s who would be “it”. Or like hide and seek. And sometimes we would play it as a game itself just to play that. And “dime cuántos años tienes tú” is “tell me how old you are” and you would say how old you are but after a while if you’re playing with the same people, it gets repetitive to keep saying your age so you would just say a number like in “bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?”, you just pick a random number.”

Context: The informant (LV) is a first generation Mexican American woman residing in Denver, Colorado. Her mom taught her this game. She would play it with all the kids at parties so it was popular. She remembers playing this at school, as well. Mostly kids of any gender play this game. She does not see it as a gendered game. She thinks that children no longer play these types of games (hide and seek or tag). The game is in Spanish and belonged to Latin America. She would be interested in asking her friends from places other than Mexico in Latin America if they’ve ever heard of this. She said that as a kid you don’t really question the origin, but at parties, it is a part of Mexican culture. It takes her back to her childhood, which was very different than kids today. 

My Interpretation: Based on both the informant’s thoughts as well as the annotation listed below, I think that this game is very telling of generational and cultural change. It was originally a kinesthetic reliant form of play that required children to be physically in spatial proximity of each other, a characteristic that is no longer as popular with young children today, most likely because of internet culture and the social distancing that came with the pandemic. Furthermore, Mexican American children were also forced to use their native language each time they played this game, strengthening their connections to their ethnic heritage. Without games in Spanish such as these, Mexican American children are no longer maintaining linguistic and cultural practices that are crucial to their ethnic American identities and the politics that said identities entail. More can be said about the connection between these childhood games and socio-political implications in the further reading attached below. 

For further reading on this game, see: 

Anonymous. “Zapatito Blanco: Acknowledging Old Rules and Agreeing to New Ones.” Unbound, 18 Nov. 2019, justiceunbound.org/zapatito-blanco-acknowledging-old-rules-and-agreeing-to-new-ones/. 

“Vibora de la Mar”- Mexican Wedding Dance

  1. “Vibora de la Mar”- Mexican Wedding Dance

Context: CL is a Mexican American student at USC. Her parents are from Michoacan, Mexico and her family currently resides near Bakersfield, California.

Transcript: 

CL: Okay so this is a game played at a wedding. Okay there’s two different ones: The bride gets on a chair… I’m trying to remember if it’s the bride and the groom both get on a chair, and then they carry the bride’s veil, the groom carries the bride’s veil so that people grab each other’s hands and then they go around in circles. First, it’s the women that are at the party, and then after they’re done, it’s the men that go. I think they’re objective is to try to knock down the bride and the groom… 

HV: That’s so silly goofy *laughs*. To try to knock down who?

CL: The bride and the groom. 

HV: Oh they’re praying on their downfall?

CL: Yeah, pretty much. 

HV: Is it all the single people?

CL: Yeah maybe!

HV: Why do you think they’re trying to knock down the bride and the groom? Do you think there’s a significance behind that? 

CL: *quietly* let me look it up… 

HV: That’s not fair! What do YOU think it means?

CL: I think it’s just… it could be one of two things. It could be like “oh we’re celebrating the union of you guys”. Maybe the chairs symbolize… it’s the beginning of a new era, you guys are so happy right now but eventually, it’s just gonna be like any common thing, being married, and if you fall, it’s like you’re joining us, welcome back to the real world. 

HV: Is there music?

CL: Oh yeah! There’s a song! The song is called “La vibora de la mar”?

HV: Screaming, it has the same name? 

CL: uh, yeah. 

HV: How does it go? Sing it for us. 

CL: “A la vibora, vibora, de la mar, de la mar, por aquí pueden pasar, los de adelante corren mucho, los de atras se quedaran”. 

(To the snake, snake, of the sea, of the sea, you can pass through here, the ones in the front run a lot, the ones in the back stay behind). 

HV: What is the translation of “vibora de la mar”? 

CL: Ooooo, snake of the sea? I think it’s “vibora” because the people are holding hands and they’re going in a snake motion. I’ve mainly seen it with adults because it can get kind of aggressive so I don’t think that they want children to get trampled. I think it’s aggressive because they’re trying to knock down the bride and groom. If the men were to go first, since they tend to be a little more aggressive, then the women wouldn’t be able to go. Cause then what if the groom falls or the bride falls or someone gets hurt. 

My Interpretation: The significance of this tradition to me seems like it’s a way of testing the newlyweds’ bond. By physically trying to knock down the couple, who are now connected, literally through the bride’s veil, and figuratively through marriage, the community is giving them their first test of endurance in this new chapter of the life cycle. It’s also interesting to me how segregated the tradition is by gender because it demonstrates how separate men and women are in the culture and how their roles in marriage will also be separate and distinct.