Cucuy

Me: Do you have any other folklore to share with me?

CP: I actually do have a proverb!

Me: Okay perfect!

CP:The proverb is right is right wrong is wrong and right never wronged nobody!

Me: I’m familiar with this proverb also growing up.

  1. Background: The informant was always told it by her dad growing up when they were fighting with their sister to remind them of their “integrity”. The informant explained to them it was a lesson to not to sink to a level of unkindness in arguments. The informant said that they took it as a reminder to always be a good person even in situations where the other person may be acting unkind. They said that this proverb stuck with them throughout growing up and they believe that it was one of the beginning inspirations of what made them want to become a lawyer. They explained the notion of finding the right solution and dealing with conflict in a mature way connects back to the foundational characteristics of becoming a lawyer.
  2. Context: The informant verbally performed the story to me at the The Ronald Tutor Center on the main USC campus. The informant was verbally told this proverb by their father  in the context of arguments in order to teach them a valuable life lesson. 
  3. My Reflection: This performance is a proverb that acts as a way to teach a moral, valuable lesson on the importance of being kind, holding yourself to a standard in which you do not stoop to a level of unkiness even if others around you are. The informant’s father told this folklore during arguments between their sibling and them which is interesting because it then becomes family folklore in a way since it is directly applied to their immediate families behavior and experience growing up. Although I am not a part of that particular folklore (the tellers immediate family) I still immediately understood the meaning of the proverb as it is applicable to many aspects of life not just sibling rivalry. I think the overarching relatability that probers present is what makes them so impactful and carried on not just within one folk group but through many (even though there may be variations the main theme and lesson is at the foundation). The lesson taught reflects the teller’s identity by reflecting what they were taught to be important while growing up, the family values and expectations are highlighted through the performances of this text.
  1. Me: How do you spell the title of this next piece?

CP: It’s Cucuy.

Me: Okay thank you!

CP: Okay so, Cucuy are these ghosts, demon creatures that hide in the dark. They only appear to children who have been really bad and you don’t have to be outside to see a Cucuy, they can come to your room. So, if you are being a really bad kid the Cucuy come and they have scary bone faces that basically scare you straight. Basically if your mom sends you to your room after being bad  and it’s late at night they will come to you. 

Me: Why do you remember this story and like it?

CP: I like this story because I like ghost stories, it’s scary and somewhat of a warning and a fun Halloween story. 

Me: And where did you hear it from and what does it mean to you?

CP: So I was at a family gathering with my aunts, my mom and her side of the family, they are all Mexican. They were all telling us stories of their childhood and someone brought up and told us Cucuy. They were like, “oh yeah that used to scare me so much, seeing the Cucuy at night” and their mom used to warn them because they were really bad. Why are the stories I remember so dark!

Me:It’s okay that’s how mine is as well! So what does this story mean to you?

CP: For me it doesn’t really mean anything  because I know they aren’t real and my mom didn’t use it as a scare tactic for me but it’s just fun to see some of my mom’s childhood.

  1. Background: The informant likes this story because they enjoy ghost stories. The informant heard it at a family gathering with their moms side of the family who are all Mexican. They were sitting together and telling each other stories of their childhood when one of their aunts brought up this story. The aunt talked about how scared it made her and how they often got it told to them. The informant said it’s not as personal to them because they were never really told it by their mother as a scare tactic but it stuck with them as an interesting part of their mothers childhood. 
  2. Context:The informant verbally performed the story to me at the The Ronald Tutor Center on the main USC campus. The informant was told this story by her Mexican side of the family at gatherings. 
  3. This piece acts as a folktale, specifically a fairy tale with the use of mythical creatures. Fairy tales are entertaining but also convey key messages, lessons and truths sometimes through fear (this text specifically is more scary and a warning sign to the consequences of bad behavior in children). This example reflects the teller’s identity in that it was told by their Mexican family which highlights the cultural aspects of their Mexican heritage as well as family values and culture in teaching children the importance of being well behaved or else creatures will punish you. Others in the same folk group (children, Mexican) would likely find the same main meaning of the consequences of bad behavior but they may apply it to different situations of their childhood. I think those outside of the folk group would be able to understand the intended message but culturally may be met with a disconnect as all groups possess their own key values and beliefs. Although the teller wasn’t told the story by their parents as a scare tactic in their childhood, the presence of the story within their mothers side of the family shows a glimpse into the mothers childhood and culture which makes this piece of folklore relevant to the teller.

For further reading and another version of this folklore see page 57 of “Chicano Folklore.” Google Books, Google, https://books.google.com/books?id=v72wKX9I6lgC&pg=PA57#v=onepage&q&f=false. 

La Llorona

CP: The story of La Llorona is the story of the crying woman. So in old Mexico, there was this girl who lived in a small village. She was the most beautiful girl in that entire territory, she got many suitors, everyone basically wanted to have this girl. Back then you would have a dowry.

Me: Wait what is that again?

CP: A dowry is when you have money that you give to someone who marries you. Your father would also have to consent, it was like a  contract. Before that though, you would have to bring an offering to the falling. All these men would bring cows, pigs, sheep, money, clothes, fabrics, everything you could want back then that was thought as the finery in order to get acceptance of the proposal. So she was like “no no I like being single, I’m beautiful I shouldn’t settle for less” and so one day this soldier comes. He is so handsome, the most handsome guy she’s ever seen in her life and she’s like, “I want him.” And so she seduces him, dances with him, and they basically fall in love. He offers marriage and she says yes so they both accept. They get married and after they get married they have two kids. So, the soldier then has to leave when the kids are little to go to war again and he’s gone for a long time. The woman is so in love with him and is waiting on him, waiting on him because she wants him to come home, be with the family, raise the kids and have this wonderful life together. So when he comes back, he tells her “I’m leaving you.” and she says “what? You can’t leave me.” and he says “yeah I can.” He leaves, he takes his stuff and leaves. He comes back the next day with another woman to see his children. The woman is just as beautiful as La Llorona, he takes the kids out for visitation and La Llorona is so jealous, and filled with this rage that she can’t get over it. So when he brings the kids back she tells him “you will never see your kids again” and he’s like “you can’t make that happen, i’m going to take them from you” and he leaves with the other woman. La Llrona is so angry she drives herself crazy and delusional. She takes her children to a nearby river for a picnic. While she’s with her children she gives them kisses, feeds them great food, takes them and says “let’s go swimming, i’m going to teach you how to swim.” So, she takes them one at a time and while she’s in the river with her children she drowns them and kills them.

Me: Oh I did not expect that.

CP: After she’s done what she’s done, she’s so upset and sad that she just cries and cries and cries and so she drowns herself. The bottoms of her kids and La Llrona wash up on the river and the townspeople find them. When the ex husband comes back to take his kids the townspeople tell him they are all dead. So now La Llorona is told to children to tell them to behave and not to be out late at night. The story goes that she comes back as a ghost crying and  if you can hear her crying late at night that you need to go home because she misses her kids so much she steals little children and drowns them. 

  1. Background:The informant talked about how it’s a testament to her Mexican culture.It’s a ghost story that she was first told in the first grade by her teacher who would always tell them in October. The informant said it always stuck with her because they like scary stories and they also like how it’s somewhat of a lesson to men not to cheat and for children to behave and be good kids. 
  2. Context The informant verbally performed the story to me at the The Ronald Tutor Center on the main USC campus. The performance is a hispanic story told verbally to the informant by her teacher as a child. The performance acts as a scary story and lesson to both children and men. 
  3. My reflection:Coming from a Hispanic background specifically Ecuadorian I found this performance very intriguing as it is one I was not familiar with at all. This folk legend serves as not only entertainment through scary storytelling and characters but also teaches a lesson specifically children to not be out late at night and behave well.​​ The teller is apart of the Mexican folk group and this specific story reflects that in the use of the Spanish language, the location of the story (Mexico)  as well as its origins of being shared by their Mexican teachers, family and friends. Although the folktale is aimed at children aged folk groups (similar to many American ghost stories), other groups such as men may interpret the meaning of the scary story as a lesson to not cheat. 

For further reading and another version of this folklore see “La Llorona – Weeping Woman of the Southwest.” Legends of America, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/gh-lallorona/. 

The Lady of the Lady

TW: Mentions of suicide

Background

Informant is a friend of the mine and a freshman at USC. She is originally from Bethlehem in upstate New York. She does not have any religious affiliations nor ties to any ethnic subgroup within the United States or her specific region. She is referred to as “AK”.

Context

I asked the informant about any urban legends or ghost stories from their hometown.

AK: There was a lake nearby. And I remember going up to visit it for a friend’s birthday and her mom told us a story about how a lady committed suicide by rowing out into the middle of the lake. And then just, I think she must’ve had attached something to her, like a rock or something and she died and she was missing. And then 30 years later, scuba divers went down just to like explore the area and they ended up finding her body like completely preserved. And it looked like she hadn’t aged or like decompose, but when they touched her, she like floated and misted away. And then she was the lady of the lake after that.

Analysis

I asked AK about ghost stories or local legends as she is from upstate New York, and ghost stories are abundant in the Northeast. In this case, the lore of the “Lady of the Lake” is being passed down from a parental figure (although not AK’s specific parent) to children as a story. The origin and accuracy of the story are completely questionable, as there is no specific claim for either.

Coins for Styes

Description (From Transcript): “I don’t know if you know what styes are but like they’re an eye infection sometimes, and what they would tell us to do, or what my grandpa would tell us to do is to get either like a cold penny, or a cold spoon that you would put on the ground first (which I don’t know why). And then you would put that on your eye, and it would somehow help it go away. He (my grandpa) would leave it (The penny or spoon) outside and then put it on the stye to heal it. There were other things they (my grandparents) did. If they had like cuts, or like burns, they would wrap it in like banana leaves, or things like that, so they (the rituals) never had specific names. It was just kind of known things they would do and then they were passed on. And I actually was just talking to one of my friends, who’s Korean American, and she was talking about how they have similar things that they would do. But they would pull out an eyelash for styes as well.They would pull out the eyelash that’s near it (the stye) and then they put the eyelash on the ground. So it’s always having to do with something outside, I feel like which is interesting. Because, especially in Ecuador, for my grandparents growing up, they were very connected to the land and farming and things like that. I feel like, for them, it (spoons and coins) was just like things that were accessible to them. Maybe just like single household objects, because they didn’t necessarily…I know my grandparents growing up didn’t necessarily have the means to have the most medical things, if that makes sense”.

Context: T.M. is a student at USC. She is part Ecuadorian and part Native Alaskan. She explains that her grandparents are originally from Ecuador, and this was a medical tradition their parents taught them. Her grandpa then taught it to her mom, and her mom would tell her about it, even though has never personally done it. Even though she has never personally done it, she does believe that it works because her mom told her that it worked for her. She remembers it from early childhood because she always had a problem with styes. Her parents would take her to a doctor and she would get medicine. But when she would tell her grandparents about it, she got to hear their history and what they would do. Since then, it has always stayed with her. 
My interpretation: I thought the use of a metal object was important because metal can become cold easily, especially if it’s placed outside when the weather is cold. The fact that it has to be cold is also important because the cold (like ice packs that get placed in freezers and are used when a child gets injured) is known to lower swelling, which can sometimes happen with styes. The overlap with the informant’s friend over aspects of the outside world is also very telling about how medical treatments are connected to the resources people have in the geographical environment they are in. In this case, the informant’s grandparents being from Ecuador, a developing country with a rich ecosystem, reveals why they used affordable items and made sure to physically place them on the land.

100 Days Chant

Background

Informant is a friend of mine from high school. She is now a junior at USC. She is a first-generation Vietnamese American, and is from Woodbridge, Virginia. She does not have any specific religious affiliations. We both attended The Madeira School, although she graduated two years before I did. Various alumnae were interviewed to compare versions of the same lore from the school. She is referred to as “AH”.

Context

I asked the informant to recite a chant sung by the seniors at our high school.

Content

Interviewer: Can you recite the Madeira chant senior chant for me?

AH: Oh my God. Wait, hold on the 100 days one?

Interviewer: Yeah.

AH: Do I even remember it? Um, how does it start? Oh!

Hark the Herald angels shout!

A hundred days till we get out!

A hundred days till we are free

from this penitentiary

(While clapping)

back to smoking

back to drinking

back to sex!

and evil thinking

hark the Herald angels shout!

A hundred days till we get out!

Analysis

Unlike the other traditions from Madeira, I only asked AH about this tradition, as it has become “canon” at Madeira. This chant is specifically sung after 100 Days, a special day that marks 100 days to graduation. The seniors perform the chant on 100 Days and at all-school events until graduation, counting down to graduation. For example, if graduation is in 35 days, then 35 would be subbed out in the lyrics instead of 100. The origins of this chant, however, are unknown. It is also questionable about how it became endorsed by the school, as it includes references to illicit behaviors, which are very much not allowed by the school. Unfortunately, I had stopped recording at this point, but AH remarked on the hilarity of the statement “back to”, as if Madeira students had been engaging in those behaviors prior to high school. Madeira is extremely explicit in their policies against drugs, alcohol, and lewd behavior, and gets referred to as “Prison School” by some boarding students due to the strict check-out policies for boarders. This chant is entirely satirical and humorous, poking fun at the school, as well as a tool for the seniors to celebrate their proximity to graduating high school.