Dia de Los Muertos

Informant information
Nationality: Afro-Latina American  
Occupation: Teacher 
Residence: California
Date of Performance/Collection: Apr 9, 2022
Primary Language: English 
Other Language(s): Spanish

Background
My informant is my co-worker who is Afro-Latina and while sitting at the front desk, we started talking about Dia de Los Muertos.

Performance 
X-  Whatever you put on your altar is supposed to– it’s like– so on your altar, you’re putting, ideally, you’re putting objects and food and bread that were like favorite dishes from the person who died, so you’re celebrating the person who died and usually celebrate on the first and second. The first I believe is for the children or that’s the second, the second is children,  the first for the adults, and what happens is on the first, the veil comes down, and that allows for the souls to pass back onto the land of the living and they are supposed to come and see the altar and eat the food and drink the liquor and you just celebrate with your family members or whoever and that celebration in the evening. And cultures go– go down to the graveyard and go build their alters around the gravestone then they go back to their houses and they eat all the food and they celebrate the life of the person who passed because day of the dead isn’t about mourning, it’s about celebrating them and so you’ll put their photos of who died and it’s it’s it’s really just like a celebration of living like a grand party. 

Thoughts
I didn’t know much about Dia de Los Muertos before having this conversation with X, but I learned a lot in understanding that it is not a day of mourning but of celebration and I think that’s really beautiful.

Brazilian Superstitions

Informant Information 
Nationality: Brazilian American 
Occupation: Student
Residence: California 
Date of Performance/Collection: Apr 27, 2022
Primary Language: English 

Background 
My informant is a good friend of mine and we started talking about her Brazillian culture in McDonald’s after our bible study.

Performance 
S- There’s so many random superstitions. So like this one scares me because it’s happened to me once so I believe it now but maybe it was just bad timing and chocolate but it’s if you point at the sky and point at the stars and the moon you going to end up with a big mole or pimple on your nose like a witch. So I got it one time and I had a pimple the next morning and so I was so mad about it so now when I point at the sky, I use my knuckle. Or like if you keep your flip-flops up like upside-down, that means you want your mother dead. There’s some weird witchcraft ones.

Thoughts
I didn’t know that the superstitions existed and after talking with S, I’m definitely going to make sure that I don’t point at the moon or the stars or keep my flip-flops upside down.

New Years in Brazil

Informant Information 
Nationality: Brazilian American 
Occupation: Student 
Residence: California
Date of Performance/Collection: Apr 27, 2022
Primary Language: English 
Other Language(s): Portuguese

Background
My informant is a good friend of mine and we started talking about her Brazillian culture in McDonald’s after our bible study.

Performance
S- So for New Year’s, everyone wears white to symbolize new beginnings. So everyone has on a white outfit and then you basically party all night, watch the fireworks that’s all normal. Everyone makes wishes and dreams but it’s mostly wearing white and a night full of dancing and celebration and stuff but when we say a night full of dancing, it really is like It’s not fake like America like we danced for an hour and then we call it a night, like we are dancing, we’re celebrating we’re feasting and dishes of fish and so usually on more celebratory days fish is the option because steak is a common thing and there’s a famous meal called bacalhau, which is I forget what type of fish it is in English but it’s a fish dish with potatoes and vegetables and it’s so bomb and it’s the steakhouse the rest of the time, we’re all carnivores.  

Thoughts
This is the first time I’ve heard of wearing all white as a New Year’s. If carnival is any indication of how long and hard Brazilians can party, I believe that New Year’s would be no different.

Batman Jingle Bells

Background

The informant is a freshman at USC and is originally from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. She is the roommate of a fellow informant and offered to be interviewed when I went to their apartment to conduct my interview. She has no specific religious affiliations nor does she identify with any ethnic subgroup within the United States. She is referred to as “BS”.

Context

I asked about any humorous jingles or tunes that the informant was aware of.

Content

“Jingle bells

Batman smells

Robin laid an egg

Batmobile lost its wheel

and the joker played ballet.”

I don’t know if that’s where it ends. Is that where it ends? Cause that’s all I remember- the kids singing it on the school bus. School bus was horrible.

Analysis

This rendition of Jingle Bells, using Batman characters, is fairly ubiquitous among children. The origins of it are unknown, but most kids know some version of it. I personally heard a different version, where the last line is “and the Joker got away”, but that is part of the essence of this tune being folkloric in origin – it doesn’t have one set of lyrics but has options. This tune is also demonstrative of the humor of children; they take things they’re aware of (Jingle Bells and Batman) and make it ridiculous. Jingle Bells is not the only song I’ve heard funny versions of – kids do it to all sorts of songs for fun. Children frequently begin to ridicule or joke about subjects they previously liked as a way to demonstrate their maturity; to show that they are old enough to find those “childish” things ridiculous.  

The Sailor Children game

 “Marinero que se fue a la mari mari mar, 

para ver que podia veri veri ver 

Y lo único que pudo veri veri ver

fue el fondo de la mari mari mar”

             Me:okay, if you’re ready for your second one

HV:Okay, So this one’s a little bit it’s a children’s game and it’s called Marinero que se fue a la mar, And okay, this one might be harder for you to like get written down, but i’ll try my best to explain it. i’ll give you the context first again, I don’t know if it’s specifically from Mexico but its in Spanish, so maybe some Hispanic country is the place of origin.  It’s played by children and then my mom taught it to me actually like I was a little bit older, so maybe like end of elementary school. middle school.  I didn’t play with my friends or anything but it was something that she played with her friends, and then once she taught it to my siblings, and I we would play with each other. But it wasn’t really something that like was passed down and so it’s… what is it called like hand games, like you remember, like Patty cake type of stuff. So maybe Paddy cake would be a good  American version of it. but I will type the lyrics in basically or actually, let me do the translation. So marinero is sailor who went to the sea that’s the literal translation. The song it goes “Marinero que se fue a la mari mari mar, para ver que podía veri veri ver Y lo único que pudo veri veri ver fue el fondo de la mari mari mar” Okay I will try my best to translate this. So the first part is the sailor that went to the sea, sea, sea to see what he could see. Okay so this is what’s interesting is mar in spanish and ver both mean sea. So its like sailor that went to the sea went to see what he could see and the only thing he could see was the end of the sea. So its a play on words when its translated. I hope that was a good explanation and I can show you how its done..

(Informant shows the hand motions that are done with the game including a series of claps and sailor saluting motion)

HV: Its usually played with two people and usually played by elementary schoolers.

Me: What do you think the significance is of it? Does that make sense?

HV: Yes! I honestly think, my mom and I were talking about this, I was interviewing her and she was telling me about a different game I actually did play growing up and I was asking her because I have a younger brother, “do you think that your youngest child knows this game or will know this game” and she was like “No” because children now just play on computers and watch television and so I think to me it just kind of shows people, older generations in my gamily they played outside and they played those kind of games. I’m grateful that like we were the generation that liek we were probably the last  kids that played outside adn that was the end and that’s so sad.

Me: Yeah its all IPad kids now…

HV: Exactly yeah and I feel like thats so valuable and something lost, and im not anti tenchonoly in schools but there is something lost in the physicality in children playing together. Also its a tongue twister, it rhymes and just goes to show how play, music and contact are really important when you are a little kid.

Me: Do you think you will pass it down?

HV: I hope my siblings if they do have kids they do and I would encourage it with future generations. Its also a language thing because like my brother struggles with Spanish a lot and I just think if kids knew a little more like the games and music it would be easier to keep the language.

  1.  Marinero que se fue a la mar is played by children. The informant was taught it at the end of elementary middle school by her Hispanic mother who played it as a child.The informant described it, and perfomaned it as a  hand game. They drew similarities to the game “patty cake”. The informant discussed how it shows older generations played outside and with one another compared to the way our current generations interact and play via technology. 
  2.  Informants performed the proverb over a video zoom call. The informant was taught this game verbally by her hispanic mother. Although the informant is unsure if its specifically from Mexico it was performed to them in Spanish and then performed to me in Spanish followed by translation. 
  3. My Reflection: This is a genre of folklore games which usually serves as a practice of entertainment, this example does that specifically for children. The teller belongs to the Mexican folk group which is highlighted in the sharing of this piece as it was taught and continues to be passed down in the Spanish language. For other children that learned it as a child who are in the same folklore group I think this piece would also be a reminder of their childhood and something that reflects their family and language similar to the informant who shared this piece with me. To others outside the folklore group I think once translated and given the context of where the game was taught they would be able to relate to it and find meaning by drawing connections of this game to other popular children’s games in their own folk group culture. For example, once the informant drew a connection between what was being taught and patty cake I further understood the purpose of the game because of my familiarity with patty cake (the purpose being an interactive, entertaining and language/movement based activity for children).