Tag Archives: Mexico

La Malinche

Nationality: Mexico
Age: 62
Occupation: housewife
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: 4/09/14
Primary Language: Spanish

La Malinche

            “Nosotros le decimos la malinche a alguien que es un traidor. Como por ejemplo, si alguien va y le dice a otra persona algo que tu dijiste, eso viene siend traicion asi que le desimos ala persona que te traiciono, la malinche…Hasta lo que yo se mija, tenemos esa costumbre de decirle la malinche a los traidores porque en anos de los aztecas, la malinche fue la que nos traiciono y por eso fue que los espanoles nos conquistaron pero no me recuerdo como fue que me aprendi este refran. Alomejor de mi mama, porque me recuerdo que ella tambien usaba esta frase seguido pero quien sabe.”

“We call anyone who is a traitor, la malinche. For example, if someone goes and tells another person something you said about them, that would be treason, therefore we could call the person who turned against you, la malinche… To what I know darling, we have the custom of calling any traitor la malinche because in the years of the Aztecs, la malinche was the woman who turned us in and that’s why the Spaniards conquered us but I do not remember how it was that I learned this proverb. Maybe it was my mmom because I remember she used this phrase ofter but who knows.”

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.

In my opinion, this proverb is particularly interesting because it brings back a sense of where Mexicans originated from. By this I mean that Mexicans in specific use this proverb to recall of a time when their ancestors existed. The fact that this proverb has been kept in place only goes to show the strong ties that Mexicans have to their roots, in this case the Aztecs. It is impressive to see that future generations are still using this proverb however, it is interesting that the informant for this proverb cannot recall where exactly she first heard it. This can also give insight to the fact that this is a very common proverb in the Mexican vocabulary. Regardless, I find this proverb impressive due to its ties to Mexican ancestors.

 

La Llorona

Nationality: Hispanic
Age: 20
Occupation: Life Guard/Student
Residence: Alhambra, CA
Performance Date: 4/30/2014
Primary Language: English

La Llorona

Interviewer: where did you hear this story?

Informant: My parents.

Interviewer: How old were you when you first heard it?

Informant: Probably like 6.

Interviewer: Do you know were they heard it from? I think they just kept passing it on, it’s like a Mexican story, where my parents are from. They heard it from their parents, I believe.

It’s like a story that’s supposed to scare us into listening to our parents. Let’s see , La Llorona is about a mother and her two kids. The two kids would never listen to their mother and they would always whine, complain, and cause the mother to keep crying. One day the mother, La Llorona, drowned the kids because they kept whining. They were not listening, so that was their punishment. But then La Llorona realized that was a mistake and she just kept crying, and crying, and crying. That’s what La Llorona means, “the crier”. She kept crying herself to death, so her spirit is of her crying.

Interviewer: So why is that supposed to scare you into behaving?

Informant: Because, if you don’t you get consequences from your parents and also if you misbehaved, La Llorona would come and steal you away or haunt your dreams

Interviewer: Is there a specific time of day that she comes?

Informant: probably when the kids are about to go to sleep, when they’re sleeping.

Interviewer’s notes:

Of all the variations of La Llorona, I believe this one to be the most unusual that I have heard. Instead of the cautionary aspect of the tale lying with the vindictive, ghostly Llorona, it comes from the fact that whiney children run the risk of being drowned by their parents. So instead of behaving because La Llorona might get you, one should behave because your parent’s might drown you just like La Llorona did to her kids.

for a different perspective see:https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lxl01

Los Duendes

Nationality: hispanic
Age: 40
Occupation: Zumba Instructor
Residence: Alhambra, CA
Performance Date: 4/30/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

 Los Duendes

Informant: So my grandma, she used to tell me that when she was little, there used to be belief that these shoe-man, or shoemaker and he had a lot of little helpers and they were like little men, like elves. They were nice to children, but they were mischievous and they were mean to adults and they would destroy and mess up things around the house. When everybody is sleeping, they would go in the houses and they would like make a mess  and  . . .  they wouldn’t like hurt people, but they were just mischievous.

One of my friends told me a story also about a little man but this one was evil. She told it to me when I was little. She claims that she saw a little man sliding on the slide from her closet. The little man was on the top of a sled, and he slid down, and as he was going down he looked evil and he had a knife. A mean face with a knife. So she ran.

She said that at that time, her mom was pregnant and the baby was born dead. So she thinks that it was a sign, like the little man killed the baby. I don’t know, that’s what she told me.

Interviewer: Do a lot of people believe in duendes?

Informant: Yeah, a lot of people believe in like little duendes.

Interviewer’s notes:

I was very surprised to learn that Mexico also has a history of “little men” very similarly to other world cultures. It is interesting to see the dichotomy of the roles between the informants’ own account, and the one she picked up from a friend. In one instance they are seen as the protectors of children (albeit mischievous ones) and in the other they are seen as evil, or as bad omen.

La Llorona

Nationality: Hispanic
Age: 40
Occupation: Zumba Instructor
Residence: Alhambra, CA
Performance Date: 4/30/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

La Llorona 

Informant: The story of La Llorona is about this lady, who had some children. She drowned, or killed her children. And she would walk, late at night at midnight. She would like walk on the streets screaming out about her children in sorrow. She would be like “Ay! Mis hijos! My kids! My Kids!”

Interviewer: Where did you hear it from?

Informant: Back in my country when I was little.

Interviewer: Who told it to you?

Informant: The kids . . . at school in Michuacan, Mexico.

Interviewer: Do you know anything else about La Llorona?

Informant: She was all dressed in white, with a veil. She had like, I think, signs of blood on her.

Interviewer: Are there like specific people she appears to?

Informant: Anybody, but only at Midnight

Interviewer’s notes:

In this instance, it is notable that the informant remembers motifs and physical details, but not the plot details. Also, she heard the legend from the local kids and not from her parents which would explain perhaps, why the “cautionary tale” aspect has been omitted and why La Llorona can appear to anybody, not just children. The story has a generational skew where the ghost is not quite as vindictive toward the children

Los Melones de Tapachula

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 48
Occupation: Pediatric Oncologist
Residence: San Francisco, CA
Performance Date: March 15, 2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

My informant is a 48 year old pediatric oncologist at Stanford University. He is bilingual, binational and bicultural, born to a white American father and a Mexican mother. He grew up in both places but spent his formative adolescent years in Mexico City, where he learned this joke from a high school friend. He cracks up every time he performs this joke, which is often.

The joke in Spanish goes like this: “No es lo mismo los melones de Tapachula que tapate los melones chula.”

The literal translation is: “It’s not the same the melons of Tapachula as cover your melons cutie”.

This is a semi-dirty joke that employs wordplay, and is one of many “no es lo mismo” (“it’s not the same thing”) jokes. These jokes play with the sounds of a phrase and mix them up to make them something very different, as with this joke, which switches from the tame concept of melons from a certain town called Tapachula to a crude way of telling a attractive woman to cover up her breasts.

I love this piece and think it’s pretty funny, especially because the informant (my father) always laughs harder at it than anyone he tells it to. As a semi-dirty joke, it’s somewhat of a light taboo for him to break, especially in terms of telling this kind of joke in front of kids, so he gets a kick out of it every time he can perform it.