The Blessing

“Darle a alguien la bendicion se usa con todo mundo. Es algo que se usa para despedirse de con alguien y ala ves desearles que todo les salga bien. Pues en si es como pidiendole a dios que llegen bien a cualquier lugar que esa persona tenga que ir… me recuerdo que esta bendicion no la daba mi mama mucho a mi y a todos mis hermanos. Pero mi mama no era la unica, todas las senoras en el rancho tambien les daban la bendicion a todo mundol. No es necesario que una mama le de la bendicion a un hijo, tambien se le puede dar la bendicion a cualquier persona.”

“Giving someone the blessing is used among everyone. It is something that is used to say goodbye to someone and at the same time hope everything goes well. In a way, it is as if one were begging God to let that person get to wherever they have to go and arrive there safely… I remember that my mother used to give her blessing to me and my other brothers often. But my mom was not the only one doing it. Every other woman in the ranch was out giving her children the blessing as well. It is not necessary for a mother to be the one who gives her children the blessing, anyone can give anyone else the blessing.”

The informant is a native Valparaiso, Zacatecas; in the country of Mexico. She was born in the year of 1952 and lived in Mexico until the age of 26 which was when she migrated to the United States of America. As a native Mexican, proverbs, myths and other sorts of folk tales she knows, all have been influenced by her Mexican culture. Furthermore, she learned most of her proverbs from the household setting, from family members, friends and others who she was in direct contact since according to her, she had no recognition of what a TV was; media did not influence her knowledge of folk tales, people who she had contact to were the ones to influence her knowledge of folk tales. She grew up hearing these proverbs and other folk tales constantly on a day to day basis from people all around her. Because of the constant exposure, the proverbs and other folk tales have now become a part of her daily life vocabulary.

I found this story to be interesting because I got the feeling that giving someone a blessing is something that has become like a normal thing in the informant’s society. In other words, giving someone the blessing is a way to interact with one another. It is also a form to hope that the person receiving the blessing stay well so I can only infer that blessings are only given to specific people for whom one cares for. Ultimately this is a really nice way to keep in touch with people because it lets one another know how fond that person is for the other.