“it’s spitting outside” for a light rain

Age: 20s Hometown: Tampa, FL (Originally Boston, MA) Occupation: Student

Context: The participant and I talking in our kitchen in our apartment. She is from the east coast, born in Maine, and has lived in Boston and Florida.

Text:

Me: “How heavy is it raining outside right now?”

Them: “Oh, it’s only spittin’ outside.”

Analysis: This is an example of folk speech, specifically a regional idiom used to describe a state of weather. When asked about where they heard it used most commonly, they said their family and grandparents who are from Boston originally even after moving to Florida they continued to use this idiom to express a light rain. Both places on the east coast are know for a lot of rain, so it is understandable that they might have multiple phrases to describe various degrees of precipitation.

Satanic group on Turnbull Canyon trail

Age: 20s Location: Whittier, CA

Context: This legend was shared during a classroom setting by a female participant (JG) who has lived in Whittier, CA her entire life. As a local, her knowledge of the area is rooted in community sharing and knowledge.

Text:

JG: I guess mainly from where I live there’s a trail called Turnbull canyon.

JG: Basically there’s legend going around that in between one of the trails there’s this satanic group that does animal sacrifices and other rituals.

Me: And where are you from?

JG: I live in Whittier, CA.

Me: So, have you ever gone to this specific trail or just heard about it?

JG: I just heard about it mainly. I’ve never been, at least I don’t think?

Me: Do you know where this spot is said to be located?

JG: It’s never really specified where it is on the trail. But I think it’s on the border between my town and the one over. Somewhere in between.

Me: Who told you about it?

JG: It’s a very popular story. I think I just heard about it in passing from friends and stuff.

JG: But I heard about in depth when I went to a track training camp near this trail and one of coaches had a lot to say. They even mentioned that the city has been trying to cover it up.

Analysis:

The legend of a satanic group Turnbull Canyon serves as a classic urban legend, placed on the border between towns, enhances its status as a dangerous, liminal, and mythical space. The classic satanic elements, such as animal sacrifice and occult rituals, are commonly rumored to exist in outlying areas between suburban towns. JG’s mention of a city cover-up adds a conspiratorial element that explains the lack of physical evidence while simultaneously increasing the story’s validity. Furthermore, the transmission of the lore through an authority figure like a coach validates the legend, elevating it from a story passed peer to peer to a cemented truth about the canyon.

Diaz de los Muertos and One’s Ancestral History

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Age: 28

Text: CB – “Known well as Diaz de los Muertos or day of the dead, its a very important holiday in the Hispanic calendar. It has a lot of crossover with the Americanized Halloween, but it’s distinctive differences go far beyond the costumes and candies. The point is to remember our dearly departed. During it, we bring out all the old photos from my grandmother’s family and my grandfather’s family, my mother side (Nana, and Tata respectfully). Specifically what we do is help my Nana and Tata arrange all their family photos on the banister and dining room table so that they may join us for one last meal. We offer our prayers to them and little candies of their favorite and light candles in their honor. As the photos come out, my grandparents and my aunts and uncles will begin telling stories about these people Somehow, we’ve heard 1000 times and never interrupt. Others are new to us and add another source of identity to where we came from.”

Interviewer – “What is the most memorable story you’ve heard about your ancestors?”

CB – “My big Nana (great-grandmother) was a loving, but firm woman. All her children learned to dodge at a very young age, for she was proficient with wooden chanclas. One time my mother snuck out at night to go see a movie when she got back they had closed and locked her window This wasn’t that unusual. Typically they would just spend the night on the roof at this time, however she went to big Nana‘s house, knocked on the door and gave her a sob story about my grandfather locking her out. This caused my great grandmother to storm over to their house (my Nana’s family lived very close to each other) and hammer on the door. When my mother’s father opened it, he was immediately hitting his head with a wooden chanclas. She chased him around the property for about an hour while my mom darted to her room and laughed from her window.”

Context: Diaz de los Muertos is an annual Hispanic holiday to celebrate the dead of one’s family. Typically it involves large gatherings, bringing together members of extended family to celebrate and share stories about those who have passed. In the case of CB and their family, some stories pop up and stay the same each year, and each year each family member listens on with respect and fondness. Besides, the candy, feasts, and decorations this holiday is additionally anointed with, at the heart of it rests the tales of those gone to show that they are and never will be forgotten. CB has been told this story about his mother sneaking out a number of times, year after year, and it never gets old.

Analysis: Being both an annually calendrical holiday, there is an air of spiritualism, belief, but also prolonged familial ritual for Diaz de los Muertos for CB and their family, as is with most families who celebrate it traditionally. The art and act of gathering around to tell stories about those who have passed to allow their spirits to not fade into obscurity is a prime example of continued tradition and using a holiday as the medium to come together to do the sharing. This family-based festival, where food is offered and made, candy is eaten, stories are exchanged, and to take pride on those who have passed is a wide mixture of many folk group mediums, from foodways, to folk belief, to folk speech and narratives, and finally this annual holiday which encompasses it all. Diaz de los Muertos is a rich example of folk culture for the Hispanic community, and continues to shine on for each family regardless of how they celebrate it.

Tamales as an Annual Christmas Tradition – Foodways

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Age – 28

Text: CB – “Every Christmas, my family come together to make tamales in a very specific way. Precise amounts of masa, sauce with potato, cheese, meat, and a green olive. This blend is very important to the tradition as it’s what was grown in the garden when my grandmother was little. They grew up very poor and tamales can keep for a very long time so they would all go over to my big Nana‘s house to make hundreds of tamales for everyone to enjoy throughout the year.”

Interviewer – “That’s really cool, is there a specific method to making them? Is it a whole team effort or is it just a few people?”

CB – “It’s that, a team effort. The whole family turns up and we divide into stations. Team one is unfolding the cornhusks. Team two is putting in the Masa and then every other team puts in a separate ingredient! It’s an assembly line to make that much, taking a whole day. This whole train is actively coordinated by my Nana. It’s a family effort, but her operation.”

Context: This annual holiday ritual around Chistmas food ways was shared by the informant, CB, during a discussion about their family, the holidays, and if any kinds of special events took place every year like clockwork. CB and their family are of Latino origin, with them and their family partaking in this massive production line for tamales each year on Christmas, though the tradition originally came from CB’s Nana and has since been passed down throughout their family.

Analysis: The act of making tamales is a food-based annually calendrical ritual during Christmas, marking its importance in the symbolism of the holiday itself, while also allowing the entire family tree to reflect back on their humble upbringings. CB’s Nana grew up where this ritual was out of necessity to ensure enough food was put on the table, and has since transformed into a craft to commune with their own family members and large extended family, recollecting the history they actively draw from, and as an immense gesture of care, love, and familial belonging as feasts are ritualistic in their own right. Being a force to bring people together, for discussion and intimacy, the art of constructing tamales en masse acts as the foundation or precursor, establishing the connection between each family member, their lineage, and the love they all share for one another, the holiday, and the food they make.

Mystery Man on Tecate Ranch

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Age: 28

Text: Interviewer – “What kind of ghost stories have you been told, told yourself, or know? Where did you learn them?”

CB – “There is a one specific ghost story for my family. A long time ago they used to own a ranch in Tecate. Near the southern edge of property was an old graveyard. According to my mother local cartel would double stuff the graves there with people they are getting rid of and one of those victims stayed around. Sometimes late at night, you can see him standing out the side of the road like he was waiting for a ride, for the afterlife or to a job you’re supposed to go to nobody knows. My mother swears she saw him once when they were out hunting rabbits in the evening. Normally, they weren’t allowed in the area at night because of the cartel, but she could see the access road from the hilltop and swore there was a man there that her sister couldn’t see.”

Interviewer – “Have you shared this story with anyone else outside of your family?”

CB – “Nope. Not really.”

Interviewer – “Thank you for sharing it with me, then.”

Context: This ghost story was told to CB by their mother, detailing the events of their own upbringing and paranormal stories. This being one of the many stories that their mother shared, usually ending with multiple spines of cacti, though with this ending in a much more supernatural atmosphere, unsure of what she saw was actually there or not. The story itself, until me, was only circulated within the family’s own folk group of believers and nonbelievers, whether it be something spooky to be feared or silly to be laughed at.

Analysis: Stories of the paranormal run deep within areas of burial, death, or where spirits would be inclined to seek revenge. Given how the circumstances of the cartels pressence within CB’s mother’s story lines up, the tale aligns itself with others of its kind where the point of origin is a crossroad of death. Additionally, CB’s mother’s perspective aligns with an environment which would encourage one to become more naturally accepting of the paranormal, supernatural forces, or spirits/apparitions. Given the setting, an old graveyard with a trouble history of unrest at night all with only one other person, CB’s mother, regardless of whether she actually saw something, would be automatically more inclined to agree that she did due to the mood and environment. Furthermore, attaching stories to the deceased is a classic trope of ghost stories, imposing their own subtales onto the larger tale at large, whether it be a woman in white, lonely hitchhiker, or in the case of CB’s mother, a victim of the cartel waiting for a ride to work.