Arts and Media Basics:
Folklife Resources

Time changes the way people live. People move from one country to another, or from one part of the United States to another. When people move to a new region or country, they have to [bold] adapt to their new surroundings. Each generation does things a little differently from the previous one. Did your parents and grandparents dress the same way that you do when they were young? Did they listen to the same music that you do today? The traditions we live with today give us clues about our history, and tell us something about the way things change.

Ernesto Guijarro, Ontario

Ernesto Guijarro with his FIshing Boy sculpture

Some pieces of folk art are made using the skills people learn at their jobs. Since people working together at the same type of [bold] occupation are considered a folk group, the arts that evolve from their work skills are called [bold] occupational folk art. For example, Ernesto Guijarro began learning to [bold] weld forty years ago at his uncle's shop in Zacatecas, Mexico. Mr. Guijarro uses the spare parts from the shop where he works to create metal sculptures. He has made a cowboy, a fisher boy, a bicycle and an Aztec warrior. Mr. Guijarro traces his talent to a family [bold] heritage that includes doing things carefully and well, and to a Mexican tradition of building and repairing things for oneself. "We do a lot of impossible things in Mexico," says Mr. Guijarro.

Nielo Hill, Otis

Chainsaw carvings by Nielo Hill

Nielo Hill has been a logger for most of his eighty years. He still lives on the site of his family's homestead, which was settled by his parents when they came to Oregon from Finland in 1904. Mr. Hill remembers the earliest chainsaws which were a lot larger, louder and more dangerous than the lighter electric saws he uses today. He began carving sculptures with a chainsaw in 1975 when he retired from working in the woods. Now Mr. Hill likes to carve bears that have faces and poses that look real. Mr. Guijarro's welded sculptures and Mr. Hill's chainsaw carvings are examples of traditional skills that are transferred from one kind activity to another.

Cape Kiwanda Dories

Fishermen pushing motorized dories out to sea at dawn in Pacific City

Traditional Cape Kiwanda [bold] dories were flat-bottomed and double-ended boats. This means they were pointed at the [bold] bow or front and [bold] stern or back of the boat. The dories were made this way so that the fishermen could ride on the waves easily and not tip over. Before outboard motors, fishermen rowed out to sea using long spruce oars. The dorymen always fished in pairs because it took two people to safely handle the boat.

Gradually, outboard motors were added and newer dories were made with square [bold] sterns to [bold] accommodate the new [bold] technology. This meant that the style of [bold] launching and landing the boats also changed. Cape Kiwanda may be the only place in the world where you can watch these boats slide onto the beach with their loads of salmon, albacore, sea bass, red snapper and ling cod.

Fernando Sacdalan, Portland

Filipino Christmas lantern by Fernando Sacdalan

Fernando Sacdalan (sock-DOLL-an) learned to make the [italics] parol or Filipino Christmas lantern, from his family when he was growing up in Manila, Philippines. Every year making the [italics] parol is a family event and each family member helps to make the Christmas lanterns. Mr. Sacdalan remembers driving around the Philippines at Christmas time and seeing a [italics] parol in every home. He says, "To me, it's more a Filipino thing. It's not religious, it's about not asking for too much. As long as they have one lantern, that's good enough."

The lanterns represent the Star of Bethlehem. Mr. Sacdalan believes that the [italics] parol may have developed from a combination of Chinese paper lanterns and from the celebration of Christmas which the Spaniards brought to the Philippines. People hang the [italics] parol in their windows during the Christmas season. In the Philippines today, the colors, sizes and shapes of the lanterns are different from when Mr. Sacdalan was growing up. In the United States, Mr. Sacdalan still makes the [italics] parols' traditional form but he now uses them for other celebrations such as weddings and special birthday parties. The Filipino [parole] and the Cape Kiwanda dories demonstrate the ways traditions change over time.

Activity 1: Traditions in My Life: Sometimes traditions are so commonplace in our lives that we do not recognize them for what they are. Use the questions and categories below to help students recognize different kinds of traditions in their lives. Have students answer each question, with the help of parents or family members if needed, and then have them pick one to explain in detail. Do some research about other countries or cultures to learn how other young people might answer these same questions.

1. What does your name mean?
2. What is the story of how you got your name?
3. Do you have a nickname? If so, how did you get it? If not, why not?
4. What is the polite way to address adults?
5. What holidays do you celebrate?
6. What homemade foods do you eat for holidays or other celebrations?
7. What colors do you wear to weddings? Funerals?
8. What numbers are lucky?
9. Share a playground rhyme (for jump rope, choosing "it", etc.).
10. Tell a favorite joke.
11. Tell a ghost story.

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Traditional Arts are Made by Hand
Traditional Arts Reflect Our Identity
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