Folklore in Utah David Stanley Published by Utah State University Press Stanley, David. Folklore in Utah: A History and Guide to Resources. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2004. Project MUSE., https://muse.jhu.edu/. For additional information about this book https://muse.jhu.edu/book/9243 No institutional affiliation (8 Oct 2018 01:02 GMT)
Latino Folklore Studies Sarah M. Rudd Today, even the untrained eye will easily find evidence that the traditions of Utah s Latino communities thrive. Just the other day, while waiting for a Sandy City traffic light to turn, I watched two girls drive by me in a sporty car. Their beautifully braided hair adorned with flowers and their white gowns decorated with colorful ribbons revealed that they were on their way to a fiesta where they would dance in full regalia to the sounds of traditional Mexican music. These young women brought to mind the words of Margarita Mendiola, dance instructor for the Cache Valley group Citlali: When you come from a foreign country, the minute you hear your own music, the mariachis, all of it, your feet and eyes are moved. Then you sing, and not just songs for the shower, but you sing to share your music, and you feel more proud for knowing it, having it, and sharing it. Mendiola s passion for teaching and sharing her art is not uncommon. Everywhere in Utah, Latinos dedicate themselves to maintaining their traditions and keeping their beliefs alive for their families and communities. But while many of Utah s Latinos find pride in enjoying and sharing their cultures, much of their folklore remains hidden from the majority of the Anglo community by shrouds of disinterest and lack of extensive study. Within the last two hundred years, both Spain and Mexico have claimed Utah as their own, and many Chicanos still claim that Utah is the mythical home of Aztlán. Utah continues to carry the DNA of these cultures within its lifeblood, yet until the 1990s, relatively little folklore research had been conducted in Utah s Latino communities. Even the terminology can be confusing to non-latinos: Chicano, Hispanic, Mexican-American, Mexican, even Spanish-American can be heard, although the most accepted usage seems to be Latino for a man, Latina for a woman, and Latinos for a mixed group. In 1973, in a study on folk medical practices called curanderismo, E. Ferol Benavides asked why so little research had been done, noting that although comparatively speaking Utah has historically had very small nonwhite populations, the invisibility of the Chicano extends even into areas where he should be most clearly visible. In a state internationally recognized for its rich folklore tradition and its distinguished folklore scholarship, Chicano folk tradition has gone unrecognized and unseen. I would contend, however, that Utah Latino 156
Latino Folklore Studies 157 folk traditions were not unseen, despite the fact that they were not given due attention. In 1992, in an effort to give such attention, to stimulate interest, and to familiarize more of the public with Utah s Latino culture, the Utah Arts Council published Hecho en Utah: A Cultural History of Utah s Spanish-Speaking Communities. Edited by Carol A. Edison, Anne F. Hatch, and Craig R. Miller, Hecho en Utah is a fine collection of essays and photographs that uses both chronological history and traditional folk arts to tell the story of Utah s Latino peoples. David Knowlton introduces the collection with America, América y Utah. Orlando A. Rivera writes of the Spanish Colonial New Mexicans who came to Utah, Edward H. Mayer gives a history of the Mexican community, and Sonia Alarcon Parker introduces more recent immigrants, the Latin Americans. Edison completes the volume with Hispanic Folk and Ethnic Arts in Utah. Even the bibliography, Hispanics in Utah, will prove helpful to today s scholars. Hecho en Utah is accompanied by three cassettes of music produced by Miller. He includes the musical traditions being played today by Utah Latinos from (1) the Caribbean and South America, (2) Mexico, and (3) Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Taken together, Hecho en Utah achieves its goal of contributing to a greater understanding and appreciation, among all Utahns, of Hispanic history, culture and arts. It certainly ensures that Latino folk tradition in Utah is recognized. Before Hecho en Utah, most of the publications that featured elements of Latino folklore were publications primarily dedicated to recording the history, migration, and integration into Utah s mainstream culture of the state s Latino population. Wallace Stegner, for example, in telling the history of Mexican- American miners in Bingham Canyon, included the tale of the legendary strikebreaker Rafael Lopez, who allegedly shot three harassing lawmen, survived an attempt to be smoked out of a mine tunnel, and escaped to join Pancho Villa in Mexico (Mormon Country, 1942). Other publications primarily focused on Hispanic or Mexican-American traditions, since most Utah Latinos were from the American Southwest and Mexico. Apart from Barbara McKillop s thesis, An Ethnography of Foodways among Latin American Residents along the Wasatch Front, very little published material is available to those wanting to learn about the folkways of Utah s immigrants from Central America. Because folk practice remains an important and highly valued facet of culture for those Latinos who live far from home, most publications about Latinos in Utah include reference to their folklore. An example is found in the work of Vincente V. Mayer who, in 1970, participated in an American West Center project to collect oral history from minority groups. From the research collected in that project, Mayer edited Utah: A Hispanic History (1974), a textbook for middle schools, which chronicles the social history and population shifts of the Spanish, the Mexicans, and the other Spanish-speaking peoples of Utah. But Mayer also includes rich details of the folk beliefs they practiced. In After Escalante: The Spanish-Speaking People of Utah, Mayer explains how curanderas (healers)
158 Folklore in Utah Elisa y los Fronterisos perform at a Mondays in the Park concert in front of the Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts, 1989. The band members, who play corridos and rancheras, hail from Texas and moved to Utah in the 1960s. heal such illnesses as mal ojo (evil eye) and susto (fright) and also describes the colonias (settlements) of Utah. The Utah Historical Quarterly has been the primary publisher of articles that record the folklore of Utah Latinos. As early as 1928, Cecil Alter recognized the importance of the Spanish influence on Utah and published some of the journals of Father Escalante, leader of the first European group to enter what is now Utah in 1776. In 1972, Jerald H. Merrill contributed a history of Salt Lake City s Guadalupe Parish in Fifty Years with a Future: Salt Lake s Guadalupe Mission and Parish. But it was Benavides s 1973 article on curanderismo that was the first Utah Historical Quarterly article to be entirely folkloric in its scope. Benavides carefully records the names and practices of curanderos and curanderas in Utah and also stresses the need for further studies of Utah s Chicano folklore. Published in 1981, Edward H. Mayer s article, The Evolution of Culture and Tradition in Utah s Mexican-American Community, looks closely at the factors that have both preserved and modified Mexican-American culture in Utah, specifically language, religion, and compadrazgo (the spiritual relationship between a child s parents and godparents). Mayer explains how, during the early settlement of Mexicans and Hispanics in Utah, the pride of the first generation along with religious and family support sustained appreciation for cultural practices. Post-World War II years, though, brought much dissolution of language and cultural practices until the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s once
Latino Folklore Studies 159 again revitalized many of the values of the Mexican-American community. Mayer finishes by looking ahead and encouraging the Utah Spanish-speaking community to expend as much energy in preserving its language and customs as in attaining sociopolitical objectives. The Hecho in Utah collection affirms that Utah s Spanish-speaking community has indeed continued to expend such energy as it grows in population and develops more self-awareness. In Monticello, the Hispanic Gateway to Utah, William H. González and Genaro M. Padilla use descriptions of various folk practices to outline the early history and influence of Hispanics in Utah. Detailed descriptions of baptisms, marriage practices, funeral rites, and liturgical observances explain the strength and devotion of the early Hispanic pioneers who came to Utah buscando trabajo, looking for work (p. 27). González and Padilla beautifully illustrate how early Hispanic immigrants to Utah maintained their cultural and social identity by observing basic life-cycle customs in the midst of cultural change. Like Benavides s article on curanderismo, this article has thorough descriptions of early Mexican-American and Hispanic folk practices in Utah. Perhaps one of the most moving and accessible collections of Utah s Latino folklore is found in Missing Stories: An Oral History of Ethnic and Minority Groups in Utah, a collection of oral histories compiled by Leslie G. Kelen and Eileen Hallet Stone (1996). Edward H. Mayer prefaces the chapter on the Chicano-Hispano Community with a brief history of the Mexican, Hispanic, and Chicano presence in Utah. Like some of the earlier historical texts, Mayer s essay is addressed primarily to personal experiences and historical issues, but the folk traditions common to many of Utah s Hispanics and Mexican-Americans play a major part in the stories told in the collection. And the power of folk practices is underscored in each narrative. Food, courtship, and burial and religious customs, among others, are given as much detail as are the chronological events of each person s life. The narratives in this collection testify that family and belief traditions can sustain individuals and even whole families through economic hardships, drastic lifestyle changes, and discrimination. One such example of the power of tradition to sustain a community can be found in the songs of miners as they protested the injustices of large mining operations. Employment opportunities in the railroad and mining industries attracted many of Utah s early Latino immigrants. In 1986, Nancy Taniguchi and David Stanley were able to record Elias Baca s song Que Viva la Nación! Baca grew up in Colorado, participated in the Colorado Coal Strike of 1913 14, survived the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, and continued to sing the corridos and songs of the strike when he moved to Carbon County, Utah. In Harmonizing Corrido and Union Song at the Ludlow Massacre, Sarah Rudd explores how Baca combined corrido forms with union songs in order to bring strength and unity to his community. Baca s corrido is significant in that it reminds us that the voice of Hispanics is not silent during struggles, and it also reminds us that folk traditions change and merge in many ways with the new traditions and influences they meet.
160 Folklore in Utah Pueblo Nuestro, a group of Andean musicians living in the Salt Lake Valley, perform in Liberty Park, Salt Lake City, 1993. The only comprehensive recent history of Utah s Mexican-Americans and Latinos is Hispanics in the Mormon Zion: 1912 1999 (2000), by Jorge Iber, but it has very limited references to the folk traditions of Utah Latinos. In this work, Iber ventures into previously unexplored territory by closely examining the differences and ties between Católicos and Mormones in northern Utah. Iber also provides solid research and analysis of recent demographic and economic trends that affect Utah s Latino communities. Barre Toelken, in The Dynamics of Folklore, writes that we study folklore by coming to grips with serious and complex matters related to everyday expression and cultural dynamics. Certainly, the demographics and chronological history of Utah Latinos have been well documented in a historical context, and some descriptions of their folk traditions can also be found. But explorations of how the folk traditions of today s Latinos reflect the serious and complex matters they encounter on a daily basis remain to be undertaken. When we look at the wealth of tradition and monumental contributions Utah Latinos pour into the state, we cannot forget to pay more scholarly attention to their folklore. Just to be different, just to be seen, just to be noticed these are the reasons a young Cache Valley Latina gives for why her friend decorates his low-rider car. Let s take notice.