Seafood proverb

Nationality: African American
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/8/17
Primary Language: English

Informant: My grandmother who lived in Indiana and her father told her this

Original Script: “Only eat seafood in the months that have an ‘r’ in them and don’t eat seafood in the months that don’t have an ‘r’ in them.”

Background:The months that don’t have an ‘r’ in them the weather is hot so the water is not good and the months that do have an ‘r’ the weather is cooler so the water is good to eat fish.

Thoughts: I thought this was kind of silly, I believe its just an old saying to warn you about seafood because they didn’t have to technology to know when fish is contaminated.

Oklahoma ghost story

Nationality: African American
Age: 51
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/20/17
Primary Language: English

Informant: My dad told me about how my grandfather and his brother had an encounter with a ghost.

Original Script: “In the 50’s, in Oklahoma, in the town my dad lived in it was a known fact in the town not to go across a property line because the land behind it was Native American land that was guarded by the spirit. The land had an old covered wagon on it so they towns people called it the spirit of the covered wagon. My grandad, his brother and their dates went on the land one night, and swore they saw the spirit and were chased away by it.”

Background: The haunted land were Native American grounds which is most common area of haunted spirits.

Thoughts: The story was a typical ghost story, that was cliche because most Native American grounds are claimed to be haunted. My grandfather swears he saw the spirit but I don’t necessarily believe him.

American Proverb

Nationality: Cuban/African American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oakland
Performance Date: 4/12/17
Primary Language: English

Informant: My friend whose mom would tell her this.

Original Script: “you got caviar dreams and tuna fish money”

Background: This proverb means that a person has expensive taste, in my friends case likes expensive clothing but she didn’t have expensive clothing money.

Thoughts: This proverb was very comical, it matched up with the American lifestyle we live, everyone wants the next new expensive product but, no one as the money to buy it.

I’ll Hug Your Neck

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 25, 2017
Primary Language: English

Informant:

Reid is originally from Memphis, Tennessee, but moved to Los Angeles right before he started high school.

Original Script:

Reid: “In the South, one thing that people would say there but I have never heard anyone say here is the phrase ‘I just hugged her/his neck.'”

Context:

To “hug someone’s neck” means to either say bye to someone or to say hello to someone.

My Thoughts:

When he said the phrase, I initially thought it had some sort of sexual connotation, for hugging or kissing a neck usually has some sort of sensual anterior meaning. It always blows my mind when I hear something that comes from a different part of the United States that I do not understand, for I often forget that there are so many different cultures within the umbrella of the American culture.

La Llorona

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 19
Residence: Mexico City, Mexico
Performance Date: April 22, 2017
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Informant:

Mario is from Mexico City, Mexico, who said himself that he is “extremely interested in his Mexican roots and traditions.”

Original Script:

Mario: “The story of La Llorona is one that literally everyone in Mexico knows. Well, like maybe not everyone, like, knows it but most people have definitely at least heard it. It’s about a girl that basically kills her children by drowning them because her husband, like, left her, so every night at 3 or 4 am, she starts screaming ‘Mis hijos!‘ because she regrets killing them so much. And the point of the story is to, like, make sure that we, as kids, do not cry or whine too much because La Llorona could do to us what she, like, did to her kids.”

Context:

Whenever a child is exhibiting bad behavior.

My Thoughts:

I read about this story earlier this semester, but I did not know how relevant it still is today. I find it almost disturbing that parents still use this story as a parenting method because as a child, I think I would be horrified if I thought there was some way that this La Llorona could somehow drown me like she did to her kids. Parenting is practiced in very different ways in different cultures.