La Planchada

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 53
Occupation: Nanny
Residence: North Hollywood
Performance Date: 13 April 2019
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Text

Informant: Another one that my sister just told me, it’s about a nurse. In Mexico City, there’s a lot of hospitals. Like, basically my mom lives here, and all around her home it’s all hospitals. Everywhere you go there’s a hospital. So the legend says, that this lady, they call her La Planchada. So, why do they call he La Planchada? Because she was a nurse. She worked in a hospital, but the way people noticed her was her dress was always well ironed, you know, and crispy. You know how when it’s like… how it’s fine, like perfect, always. So she fell in love with a doctor, but the doctor, again, said, you know, he didn’t love her back. So she killed herself, and she, um, she became… before she killed herself she became a mean nurse. She was the best nurse. But then after she killed herself they said, that… after he left her she, uh… killed herself, and now it’s said that every hospital in Mexico City has a Planchada.

Interviewer: Like has a…

Informant: Like a lady. A nurse that they call La Planchada cause there’s patients that have said they’ve seen them… that they’ve seen her.

Interviewer: So it’s like a… wait so is it like a person designated or is it just like a…

Informant: It’s like a dead person in every hospital.

Interviewer: Oh, whos like La Plan-

Informant: Who’s La Planchada.

Interviewer: Oh. That’s cool.

 

Context– The informant is a middle-aged Mexican immigrant who grew up in Mexico City and then immigrated to Los Angeles in her teenage years. She has many family members still in Mexico City, so she learned many of these legends from those family members both while growing up and during her frequent visits and phone conversations.

 

Analysis– The existence of this legend can probably be attributed to the large amount of hospitals the informant said exist in Mexico City. Due to the large amounts of deaths that occur at hospitals it makes sense that there would be legends about haunted ones. I find it interesting that the ghost does not exist in one hospital but in many, and this fact could be due to so many hospitals being in proximity to one another that the ghost story from one spread to others. The idea of a mean nurse being the ghost could also be attributed to the common fear of hospitals, with people imagining a nurse as the representation of the anxieties people often have when they visit hospitals.

Dan & Phil Fandom Inside Jokes

Nationality: American
Age: 13
Occupation: Student
Residence: Arlington, VA
Performance Date: 3/16/19
Primary Language: English

Abstract:

This piece is about an incident-turned-meme that is widely known inside the Dan & Phil fandom about Phil falling off a stage.

Main Piece:

“L: This is a thing everyone in the Dan & Phil fandom know about. On their most recent tour, Interactive Introverts, their first or second night – one of the first few nights, Phil one of the two main people, fell off the stage and into the audience. Someone saw it and now there are jokes about it and everyone knows about it. Like someone turned it into a Valentine’s Day card.

M: They made memes about it?

L: Yeah, like “i’ve fallen for you like Phil fell off the stage.” Like that kind of thing.”

Context:

The informant is a 13 year old girl who is part of a Youtuber fandom for the youtubers Dan and Phil. She regularly keeps up with their videos and social media posts. She even went to their latest tour and bought their merchandise. She has kept up with inside jokes in the fandom, such as this, that have become memes that only those in the fandom understand. She has stated her affinity for the pair comes from their approach to comedy and reliability.

Analysis:

This type of obsession reminds me of obsessions with boybands like One Direction or even earlier boybands like NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. When One Direction was in their hayday, it was common for fans to have inside jokes about the specific members. The informant’s affinity for Phil over Dan also reminded me of this aspect of fandoms as well. It is common for a fan to prefer one member of a band over the others and almost “claim” them as theirs. This is more common in fandoms surrounding boybands or other musical groups than comedy groups. The fact that memes have been created from one specific moment and have lasted for awhile show how powerful the fandom can be.

 

The Mountain of el Espiritu Michoacan

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Uber driver
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

So where my dad lives, el Espiritu Michoacan, there’s a big mountain with a large cross that is visible to the naked eye at the top. I don’t know how long it’s been there, but they say that religious groups took it there on horseback. The wood used was so big that they needed a lot of people and lot of horses to move it or transport it. There’s a story that after it was built, many people were at the top of the mountain and I guess praying or worshipping… and because it’s at the top of the mountain, they got dizzy when they were staring at the cross. They thought that the cross was falling or that the sky was falling and they began to run, and some people maybe got hurt and fell down because it’s steep. They also say that the people might have been partying, so they could have been drunk or intoxicated or something. You know, your depth perception isn’t great under those circumstances. So they were being punished by God.

Context: The informant’s father is from Michoacan, and he has visited the state almost yearly since his childhood. He heard this story from his father.

Interpretation: This story has a cautionary element that warns audiences not to mix worship with intoxication for fear of punishment. It also seems reminiscent of Judgment Day, where worshippers are evaluated as the world appears to end (i.e. the sky is falling). It also suggests the power of religion, both in that it brought people together to build and transport the cross and that it is powerful enough to send a large group of people falling down a mountain. The fact that this story is widely spread in the area shows that the people of el Espiritu Michoacan value religion and are dedicated to spreading the word of Christianity (more specifically, Catholicism).

Stomach Ache? Try a Needle in the Thumb

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seattle, WA
Performance Date: 3/11/19
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Piece:

Interviewer: “Do you know any folk medicine?”

R.B.: “…oh my god… actually yeah. My mom used to tell me if my stomach hurt to stick a needle in my thumb and the it will go away.”

Interviewer: “R.B, what that makes no sense… did it work?”

R.B.: “… I mean I guess. It lets out all the bad blood”

Informant:

The informant is  half-Korean, half- caucasian young adult female, who grew up in Seattle, Washington. Her mother is an immigrant from Korea and spoke to her frequently in Korean growing up, but was not surrounded often by her asian family as they lived in Korea. Her father is white American man of European descent who grew up in the Pacific Northwest. She spent a lot of time with her white side of her family growing up because they lived nearby.  

Context:

Informant R.B. and I were at dinner when I was interviewing her for the folklore collection project. When asked if she had any weird medicines, this is the folklore she remembered.

Interpretation:

Informant R.B. took this piece of folklore very seriously. And, when asked later if she would still use this method of treatment, she responded yes and that she would tell her friends to because it worked. R.B. received this piece of folklore from her mother her learned it from her own mother in Korea. For their family, this folklore represented more than a cure, but a lasting family tradition. I found this piece to be very interesting because it showcased how different cultures treat their illnesses.

 

Tumeric and the Hidden Village

Nationality: Thai
Age: 60
Occupation: Restaurant Owner
Residence: New York
Primary Language: Thai (laotian)
Language: English

Context:

The following informant is a 60-year-old Thai immigrant who heard the following story growing up as a kid. This interview was carried out in a mix of Thai and English. In this I will be denoted as C and the informant will be denoted as S

S: This story, its kind of similar to the Amazonians. In Thailand near Chiang Mai, where I am from, there a place called Muang Laap Lae, which means it is invisible. Like if you look at it you wouldn’t be able to see there is a country there. It is a country that is so hard to get to and the path is so difficult to get there to that if you don’t know how to get there you can’t. this is why people call is Muang Laap Lae (Hidden Country) or Muang Mong Mae Hen (Invisible Country). Only people who are very good persons are able to see the hidden country. Mong Mae Hen means invisible.

There is a one good young man who enters into the forests and sees a bunch of beautiful women in the forest. At the end of the forest the girls hide large leafs. The man takes one of the leafs and wait there. Later the women return and start looking the leaves that they hid. Once they get their leaves they immediate disappear back into, into the forest. But one of them cannot find their leaf because the young man took the leaf. This one woman is very frustrated and annoyed and the young man gives the leaf back in exchange for, uh, in exchange for being able to follow the woman because he wants to see the invisible village people have been talking about. The woman agrees and takes the man to the hidden village. Once he gets to the village he realizes that the village only has women. The beautiful woman who took him to the village tells the young man, “The people who live in this village, are people who have a lot of merit and they never lie. If anyone does anything bad or lies they have to leave the village. And a lot of men tend to lie so that’s why all the men had to leave the village.”

Do you understand?

C: Yes, I understand.

S: So the young man is smitten with the woman who brought him to the village and asks if he can stay there and marry her. The mother of the woman agrees to the marriage on the condition that the man has to have merit and doesn’t lie. They get married and live together until they have one child together. And one day when the wife isn’t home and the man is taking care of the kid. The kid is crying asking for his mother non-stop. So the man playfully lies to his child “Your mom is here! Your mom is here!”

Now the mother-in-law hears this and is angry that her son-in-law is a liar. When the wife gets back she’s very, uh, disappointed that the husband did not keep his word and tells him he has to leave the village.

The pack the man a bag with stuff, his own stuff, stuff he needs to live, and also gave him a lot of heads of turmeric. A lot of turmeric because the husband cannot stay in the village. The wife takes him to the edge of the forest and points to the path to leave the village and the wife returns to the hidden village. The man has to follow the path that his wife pointed to. As he is walking the more he walks, the bag they gave him gets heavier and heavier. And the path is so long. So he eats the food and the drinks the water that they gave him. But all he can find in his bag is the turmeric. The turmeric that his wife gave him. So he starts throwing away the turmeric because it is heavy. When he finally gets back to his village his family and friends ask him where he’s been gone for so long. The man tells the story of the hidden village and also how his wife gave him a lot of turmeric that he threw away because it was heavy. There was once piece of turmeric left and he took it out to show them, and it turned out the turmeric was a bar of gold. It was a bar of gold. The man is surprised and feels regret for having thrown away all the turmeric he was carrying. Because he threw it all away, all the turmeric they gave him. And when he went back to look for the turmeric he threw away, he found it had grown into turmeric plants. And when he dug it up its just normal turmeric not the bars of gold they gave him. When he tries to find the hidden village again he cannot and just gets continuously lost in the forest. So he returns home back to his old village.

Analysis: I think there are two messages in this tale. One is to not lie, something which is important in Buddhism, and also to not take things for granted. The man in the story does both, but it seems like kicking him out for telling his kid a white lie is a little extreme.