Latin American Childlore. The subject matter of childlore includes the traditions of children
between the ages of about 6 and 14 such as “games, riddles, rhymes, jokes, pranks superstitions,
magical practices, wit, lyrics, guile, epithets, nicknames, torments, parody, oral legislation,
seasonal customs, tortures, obscenities, codes, gang lore, etc”(Sutton-Smith 1) as well as
individual activities such as “solitary play, daydreaming, fantasies, imaginary companions and
heroes, collections, scrapbooks, model worlds, comic reading, mass media interests,
dramatizations, stories, art, etc.”(1) As a branch of folklore, childlore is concerned with those
activities which are learned and passed on by children to other children. The stories and games
taught by adults to children are not considered childlore except insofar as the children adapt and
make them their own. We are primarily concerned with children who are interacting with their
peers. In western culture “most folklorists are concerned with children after they join their peers
in elementary school or kindergarten. The traditions of childhood generally stop after the child
enters intermediate school, which coincides with puberty and adolescence.” (Grider)
So far as I have been able to determine, the study of Latin American childlore has barely
begun. I have not been able to find anything from Latin America that approaches the study of
British children carried out by Iona and Peter Opie.(Opie and Opie) This British study suggests
what might be found in Latin America. Opie and Opie demonstrate that the culture of children is
quite distinctive and is “as unnoticed by the sophisticated world, and quite as little affected by it,
as is the culture of some dwindling aboriginal tribe living out its helpless existence in the
hinterland of a native reserve.”(2) Children tend to preserve quite ancient traditions, “Boys
continue to crack jokes that Swift collected from his friends in Queen Anne’s time; they play
tricks which lads used to play on each other in the heyday of Beau Brummel; they ask riddles
which were posed when Henry VIII was a boy. Young girls continue to perform a magic feat
(levitation) of which Pepys heard tell ... They learn to cure warts (and are successful in curing
them) after the manner which Francis Bacon learnt when he was young.”(2) Opie points out that
the words of one game “had survived from the time of Nero.”(v) The conservatism of childlore
contrasts with the way adult folklore is rapidly modified to fit changing circumstances. This
suggests one possible value of additional study of Latin American Childlore. Would it not be
fascinating to discover among indigenous children verses unchanged since before the conquest?
Or perhaps in a large city, traditions preserved from the civilization of Granada?
Not that there have been no studies done in Latin America. But these seem to be
collections without much analysis. Frances Toor’s Treasury of Mexican Folkways (Toor) has
several sections devoted to childlore. On pages 66 and 67 he discusses “the Mexican toy world.”
Included, of course, are the toys made by adults for children. But also “children are clever at
inventing substitutes. They make them of bones, stones, sticks, and rags. Their make-believe
world is generally like the adult world, filled with belief in magic and miracles.” ( 67) He briefly
discusses the childhood and youth of young people (120) and has nine pages of children’s games
and songs. ( 261 ff.) Here is an example of a children’s circle dance,
“Sweet orange, divided lemon
Tell Mary not to lie down.
Mary, Mary she did lie down;
Death came and carried her off”. (271)
I would love to see an analysis of that verse, where it comes from and its original meaning.
Vincente T. Mendoza has published a book in Spanish of some 193 children’s songs of
Mexico.(Mendoza) The songs, with words and music, are organized into groups such as cradle
songs, religious songs, children’s games, songs that can go on forever, story songs, and nonsense
and miscellaneous songs. For example, a popular song, this version from the Valley of
Teotihuacan, that has the flavor but quite different lyrics from “The Old Lady Who Swallowed a
Fly” is “La Rana”,
“Cuando la rana quiere gozar,
viene el sapo y la hace llorar. (bis)
El sapo a la rana;
La rana al aqua;
Se echa a nadar.
Cuando el sapo quiere gozar,
viene el mosca y lo hace llorar. (bis)
El mosca al sapo;
El sapo a la rana”
Etc.
The final verse of the eleven that Mendoza records is,
“Cuando la muerte quiere gozar,
Viene Dios y la hace llorar. (bis)
Dios a la muerte;
∙ ∙ ∙
La rana al agua
Se echa a nadar.”(185)
Judy Sierra and Robert Kaminski have written a book of children’s traditional games from
137 countries and cultures.(Sierra and Kaminski) The games from Latin America include games
that were introduced to the native peoples by the Spanish and games introduced to the Spanish by
the native peoples as well as traditional games of the two communities still played within those
communities.
Finally, Herbert Halpert has published a Childlore bibliography (Halpert) which while
“concentrating particularly on England and Scotland” includes “a smattering from other
continents, concluding with the West Indies and Latin America.” (205)
Based on the paucity of studies I have found, I would think that the study of Latin
American Childlore would greatly repay the attention of scholars.
Mike Dante
Works Cited
Grider, Sylvia Ann. "The Study of Children's Folklore." Western Folklore 39.3, Children's
Folklore (1980): 159-69.
Halpert, Herbert. "Childlore Bibliography: A Supplement." Western Folklore 41.3 (1982): 205-28.
Mendoza, Vicente T. Lirica Infantil De Mexico. Letras Mexicanas. 2a ed. Mexico: Fondo de
Cultura Economica, 1980.
Opie, Iona Archibald, and Peter Opie. The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. Trans. Peter
Opie. Oxford Paperbacks. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Sierra, Judy, and Robert Kaminski. Children's Traditional Games : Games from 137 Countries and
Cultures. Trans. Robert Kaminski. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1995.
Sutton-Smith, Brian. "Psychology of Childlore: The Triviality Barrier." Western Folklore 29.1
(1970): 1-8.
Toor, Frances. A Treasury of Mexican Folkways. New York: Crown Publishers, 1947.
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