Category Archives: Childhood

“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. 

“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/. 

The Desk Fairy

Content:

LC: In my class, we do the desk fairy. So, she sometimes comes if your desk is really clean and she leaves you a treat. The, so what I do is not, I don’t do it regularly. I probably should do it more than I do. Um, but my students are in first grade, so they have some responsibility for their belongings. Um, they know that they need to, you know, keep their desk neat. They know if they don’t have a pencil that they can always get another one. But if you got one this morning, you really should be able to keep up with it for the day. Um, things like that. And our school specifically requires them to be ready, respectful, and responsible. That is our like mantra or whatever every day. And so one way that I teach responsibility is that you have to keep your desk clean. And so a few times a year, I probably should do it like monthly, but you get busy, you forget. But a few times a year I will go through, especially like maybe right before a day when we’re gonna be gone for a week or more. And I don’t want ants and things. Um, I will tell them to clean their desk out, like on a Friday or whatever. And then I go through after school. And if it’s clean enough to my standards where I feel like they can find everything, stuff’s not falling out of their desks, they don’t have trash in it. Then I give them a little treat. Sometimes it’s like this year it’s been little Smarties, you know? Um, they get that on a note that says that the desk fairy visited them. Um, and so it’s really fun to do it. Like the first time you do it, it’s really fun to have, like, almost everybody get one. Cause then they know what’s at stake. But then like as the year goes on, I might walk around the room and only, you know, six kids really have neat desks. And so they come in that morning and like those six kids are super pumped that the desk fairy visited them. But the other kids they’re like, Hmm. And some kids really don’t care and they’re like, my desk is gonna be a mess all the time. And then other kids they will actually clean their desk that day and hope the fairy will come right back and leave them something. So it’s just kind of a way to teach them to keep their space neat and just reward those that all always have their stuff together.

Me: Where did you get the idea for the desk fairy from?

LC: I think it originally, I think maybe I heard it from a, a colleague or a friend or I saw it like on Pinterest or something. Um, or Teachers Pay Teachers. The, the little note that I stick on it is from Teachers Pay Teachers. It’s like, it was a free resource that somebody posted. I know that it’s something that I had growing up. I think a couple of my teachers did it over the years.  

Background: LC has taught first grade in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia for seven years. She graduated from the same school district that she now works in. Teachers Pay Teachers is an educational resource sharing website. 

Context: This story was told to me over a phone call. Analysis: This immediately reminded me of another classroom tradition I collected, the leprechaun that visits on St. Patrick’s Day. However, I found it interesting that the Desk Fairy doesn’t have a specific time associated with her arrival. L said that the fairy often comes before a break, or when the classroom is getting particularly messy, but the continuation of the fairy tradition is ultimately up to the teacher.

Whistling witches in the trees

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 55
Occupation: Waitress
Residence: Texas
Performance Date: 2021
Primary Language: Spanish

A. is a 55-year-old mother of two in San Antonio, Texas. She grew up in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, a small town nearing the center of the country. She immigrated in her mid-twenties to join her husband in Chicago. She claims in this story that she saw a witch and describes the personal experience in detail every year near Halloween or Dia de los Muertos.

This performance was over the dining table. I was bringing her family conchas and other traditional Dia de los Muertos’ breads like pan de muerto.

Intv: Ok entonces, puedes reiterar ese cuento que siempre me contaste? / Ok then, can you reiterate that story you always told me

A: Claro, claro. Primeramente, el cuento tomo lugar en San Luis Potosi, mi hogar. Allí, viviamos en este casa de dos niveles y dentro del centro habia un patio real lleno de arboles de fruta. En el segundo nivel habia un pasillo que siempre recuerdo nuestro perro, Willie, corria por para saludar visitantes, tambien se podia ver los arboles de nuez que crecieron alrededor de la casa y tambien la entrada de la casa. Claro que esos arboles crecieron un poco mas alto, y por ese pasillo dormia Willie anoche. Acuerdo este noche donde cual Willie no tranquilizaba. Le invite dentro mi cuatro que mi mama, la abuela de Mili, prohibia pero sabia que ella pusiera de peor humor si le deje ladrando. Willie no quizo, y finalmente sali a media noche en mis pantuflas para ver que se notaba Willie. Al abrir de mi puerta escuche un silvando. Acerce al frente del pasillo y vi una figura donde escuchaba el silvando. De repente acorde de un cuento de mi ninez del vecindario. En las noches acerando la noche de todos los santos salian sombras en los arboles que silvaron. El cuento seguia que esos fueron brujas o gente embrujada invitando ninos para sequestrar.

//

Of course, of course. First, the story took place in San Luis Potosi, my home. There, we lived in this two-level house and inside the center there was a courtyard full of fruit trees. On the second level there was a hallway that I always remember our dog, Willie, ran through to greet visitors; you could also see the walnut trees that grew around the house and the entrance of the house. Of course, those trees grew a little taller, and willie slept down that hallway at night. But one night Willie wouldn’t calm down. I invited Willie into my room, something that my mother, Mili’s grandmother, forbids but I knew she would be in a worse mood if I left him barking. Willie didn’t want to, and finally I went out in the middle of the night in my slippers to see what Willie saw. As I opened my door, I heard a whistling. I approached the front of the corridor and saw a figure where I heard the whistling. Suddenly I remembered a story of my childhood. In the nights approaching the night of all the saints, shadows came out in the trees that whistled. The tale followed that these were witches or haunted people luring children to kidnap them.

This myth seems closely linked to the myth of La Lechuza, the bewitched owl women. As aforementioned in the annotation for La isla de las munecas, cultural syncretism plays a large part in La Lechuza’s etymology as well. Owls interestingly are a shared omen amongst many cultures, often developed worlds away from their parallel symbols. This bird of prey with empty black eyes and a scientifically proven silent flight brought chills to dozens of indigenous cultures, being cited as an omen of death repeatedly. La Lechuza moved into Tejano folklore easily with the frequent migration between Mexico and Tejas. As a tejano, I’ve encountered many barn owls near the Gulf of Mexico that glide atop the coastal winds and seem distinctly out of place with their white feathers and habit of flying at eye-level of humans. La Lechuza’s mythology capitalizes off the owls’ nocturnal habits and follows the myth of a persecuted witch that shapeshifts in the night hours and perches in trees as a 7ft tall woman with an owl face luring children. Rumors also dictate the unlikeliness of surviving an encounter with La Lechuza, once again solidifying it as a death omen. Some of her rumored powers are controlling the weather, causing supernatural accidents and deaths and amidst many other claims, gripping a child with their talons and flying off.

To read more about La Lechuza, see “Owl-Bewitchment in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.” Humberto Garza in the Celebrating 100 Years of the Texas Folklore Society 1909-2009 Page 38. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc271470/m2/1/high_res_d/9781574413601.pdf 03+

Pombinha Branca

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 55
Occupation: Stay at Home
Residence: Brazil
Performance Date: 2022
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: Spanish

S. is a 55-year-old female Brazilian immigrant from Sao Paolo and the rural vineyard areas of Brazil. She has lived in the U.S. for about seven years. She says this song was popular around the rural areas and her mother sang it around the house as she cleaned.

This was near an area in San Antonio with a large Brazilian population around all the Brazilian steakhouses. We were picking her and her family up from their work.

Pombinha branca, que está fazendo?
Lavando roupa pro casamento
Vou me lavar, vou me trocar
Vou na janela pra namorar
Passou um moço, de terno branco
Chapéu de lado, meu namorado
Mandei entrar
Mandei sentar
Cuspiu no chão
Limpa aí seu porcalhão!

/

Little White dove, what are you doing?

Washing laundry for the wedding.

I’m going to wash up, I’m going to get changed,

I’m going to the window to flirt.

 A young man in a white suit,

 Hat tilted to the side, my sweetheart,

 I had him come in,

 I had him sit down He spat on the floor.

 Clean up your filth there,

Have better manners.

Pombinha Blanca is a folk song or traditional lullaby sung in a playful key that quickly turns furious both in tempo and key after the “spitting on the floor.” S. mentioned the lullaby reinforced some funny gender norms, encouraging harmony, but presenting the consequences of masculinity spilling over into sloppiness. In this entry, the folk song intended for children indirectly teaches gender norms just as Oring cites in his chapter, Children’s folklore in Folk Groups and Folk Genres. After establishing the social norms of feminine presentations and its rituals.