Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

Arbol Torcido Saying

Informant Info:

  • Nationality: Mexican
  • Age: 50
  • Occupation: N/A
  • Residence: Los Angeles 
  • Primary language: Spanish 
  • Relationship: mother 

Text:

“Arbol que nace torcido, jamas su tronco endereza.”

No literal english translation

 Closest english translation to the phrase above : “tree that is born crooked, its trunk never straightens 

Context:

EP says the saying has different meanings; she states, “Puede ser una persona o cosa que estaba hecho mal desde el principio, jamas va ser derecha o jamas se va corregir.” It can be a person or thing that was made wrong from the beginning, it will never be just. The informant says it’s a “refran” or “dicho,” which in English means it is a proverb, a saying, or a riddle. She first heard the saying from her parents when she was about 5 years old. She said at first she didn’t know the significance or true meaning of it until it was explained to her. However, she told me that it was also one of those things that was common sense because you could put two and two together when it is said in a certain situation. She also remembers hearing the proverb told during specific situations. An example she provided me with was of a son who was always reckless as a child and continues to live a reckless life. 

Analysis:

I had never heard this proverb before, and at first I was confused because of how the words are phrased in Spanish. Once the informant further explained what it meant, I was able to draw my own interpretation of the proverb. I believe the saying refers to a person who is believed to be unable to change due to the way they were raised or grew up. I believe that from a young age, the way we are educated and what we learn from the people surrounding us leave an impact on us. There are various factors that will help shape who you will become when you grow up. A crooked trunk will never straighten because it was born that way. This could be interpreted in the context of a person that holds negative values and attitudes from a young age. This individual will find it more difficult to change these bad characteristics and habits because they have been instilled into their being. Adopting new habits and values is always possible, but it will be more of a challenge to do so. The person must be willing to change and put in the effort to become better and “enderezer”(straighten).

A Saying on the Nature of Life

Informant Info:

  • Nationality: Mexican
  • Age: 50
  • Occupation: N/A
  • Residence: Los Angeles 
  • Primary language: Spanish 
  • Relationship: mother 

Text:

EP provided me with the following folk speech in Spanish, “La vida está llena de lágrimas y ricas.” The literal english translation is, “Life is full of tears and laughs.”

Context:

EP immigrated from Mexico to the united states about 23 years ago. She brought with her all the sayings, folkspeech, and proverbs from her culture. The informant first heard this saying from her mother. She emphasizes that her mother always repeated this to her because she recalls that her mother “sufre mucho.” Sufria mucho means that she suffered a lot. Growing up in her household, EP remembers her mother saying the proverb when there was family problems or when someone would die. EP said, “Ahora te estas riendo con esa persona, y mañana ya esta muerta.” This means that today you can be laughing with a person, and tomorrow that person could be dead. 

Interpretation:

I, myself have grown up hearing this saying as well, and I was first introduced to it by my mom. When she first told me it, I remember being in a crisis and it was her way of telling me it was okay. I interpreted this proverb as meaning life is full of ups and downs. There will be moments of suffering, but also joy. It is a way of accepting that life comes with difficulties, but we must also remember all the good moments. I know that this folk speech is typically said amongst Latin-x communities. The phrase is usually told during moments of hardship, mourning, or sadness. 

The Christmas Pickle

The Christmas Pickle. I learned about this Christmas tradition for the first time from one of my friends. To quote her explanation, “Every Christmas we use the same pickle ornament, usually my dad hides it in the tree, and whoever finds it on Christmas day gets to open a present first.” It’s a fun tradition that she has been doing ever since she was a little girl. She says that it didn’t start until her sister was at their neighbor’s for a Christmas party and took one of the ornaments, a pickle. It was later explained to her family by the same neighbors of the tradition and they have done it ever since. The tradition itself apparently comes from a story of a German-American prisoner who was taken prisoner during the Civil War. Starving, he begged a guard to give him one last pickle before he died. The pity pickle gave him the mental and physical strength to live on. This story is much harsher than its Christmas counterpart but nonetheless displays a sense of fortune and luck through a pickle.

Dead as a Doornail

Text:

“Dead as a doornail”

Context: 

M, my father, grew up in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and dates his introduction to this saying to “sometime in the 80s.” He stated that everyone in his community commonly used the phrase to describe something that was “really dead”; when asked to elaborate, some examples provided of “really dead” things were “birds that hit windows, long dead pets of friends, bugs, mice, and movie characters that get found dead after days.” M also expressed confusion about the origins and meaning of the phrase, saying that he “[didn’t] know what it actually means” before asking “what’s dead about a doornail?” He currently lives where I grew up in Seattle, Washington; I don’t remember hearing him say the phrase in conversation. 

Analysis:

I suspect that my father’s (and my own) confusion about the saying’s practical meaning indicates its original context has since been lost. The saying is therefore likely quite old in nature and feels like a testament to the lasting nature of elements of folk speech. Despite the unclear nature of the saying’s origin, it nonetheless reveals a lot about attitudes towards death in my father’s childhood community. Many examples M provided, like a dead movie character or long dead pet of a friend, convey a degree of distance or emotional detachment to the deceased being. That detachment is contrasted with the lack of deaths relating to close family, friends or pets. It seems as though this saying is only used in reference to beings whose deaths are considered less tragic or important to the person using the phrase. I also find it interesting that my father no longer seems to use it and has not passed it on to me or my sister, perhaps due to regional or generational differences.

“Mary’s Mother” Riddle

Text: 

Riddle: “Mary’s mother has five children. Her first four children’s names are April, May, June, and July. What is the fifth child’s name?”

Answer: “Mary”

Context:

H is currently a student at USC. She originally heard this riddle from someone at her elementary school in San Diego, California, where the students would tell it amongst each other. After sharing the riddle, H remarked that the important part of the joke seemed to be the “gotcha” twist. They also noted that the names of the four other children didn’t seem to matter as much as there being a pattern to them that might help trick the riddle’s recipient. 

Analysis: 

H already pointed out many interesting points of analysis about this riddle. Like H, I find it significant that the point of the riddle seems to be to fool the riddle recipient into forgetting the beginning of the riddle, leading them to give an incorrect answer that would seem logical to the sequence of names. I personally think that the desire to trick someone using this riddle ties in closely with the elementary setting in which H originally heard it. As has been discussed, much of children’s folklore stems from trying to establish a sense of authority in a world in which children have very little. By knowing the answer to this riddle, children may temporarily hold authority over a peer or adult who doesn’t. It is also worth noting that knowing the riddle or a similarly structured one creates an in-group; those children who have been tricked by the riddle can then go on to trick others. By learning the structure of the riddle, the recipient also learns to pay closer attention and look for important details in future riddles or logic puzzles.