Superstitions in the DR

[Forbeca]

Originally Posted by El Jefe

The biggest superstition I ever heard in the DR is that certain people (usually uglier women) poseessed the ojo malo (evil eye) and if they looked at you you were in for bad times or worse.

I've heard of this also but with a slight twist to it. The ugly women with bad hair would claim that they had nice straight hair once until someone gave them the evil eye, (envidia) hence their bad hair.

[hollywood north]

I have heard the 'Don't put your purse on the floor" warning from a Jamaican friend. And I really try to follow this one....There's some cockroaches that could carry a purse away.......

[Talldrink]

Dont cut your hair at certain times of the month, depending on the moon. And also how some people 'tienen mala mano' to cut hair. Supposedly if they have 'bad hands' your hair becomes stunted and will never grow back.

The Roaches in DR should have first and last names, they are NO joke!

[NY1]

Originally Posted by MrMike

So there was no 'lectricity for irons, but there was for the fridge? Did your grandma have to watch television by candlelight, too?

Well what was more of a necessity, an ice box to keep food from spoiling or an iron for your clothes?

Doing a bit of research because I was bored. The original irons were either heated on an open flame or had a compartment to put hot coals in. Electric irons didn't actually see the makret en masse, until the 1930's. Even then, only about 50% of Americans had electric irons by the early 1940's. Thus that number would be significantly less in DR.
Now the refrigerators as we know it, were invented in the early 1900's, but people had ice-boxes as early as the late 1800's.

Thus its not entirely impossible to have a refrigerator, ie ice-box and not have an electric iron.

Boy, I need to find some work to do, as I have just researched more about the electric iron, than the average human should know.

[Hillbilly]

Electricity came into Santiago in the 30s or late 20s. The 5 or 10 richest families would naturally be the first to get the new refridgerators.
It matters not what kind of irons were being used. The fact that all of the early housing was never grounded is the key to the myth. Shoot, 99% of all houses built today are not either. There are no codes so why bother?

The idea that heat-cold will produce paralysis is pure bull. Look at all the Dominican women in NYC that work in sweat shops, live in stuffy, hot apartments and have never yet suffered "un spasmo" going from house to subway, subway to work, work to subway in -20 degree temperatures.!! Never, ever!

HB

[NY1]

Aren't all of these myths anyways hillbilly?

I was referring to "El Campo" not the City. The folks there would have possibly had an ice-box, and an ancient iron, not electric of course. Heck I remember as a child, late 70's-early 80's going to "El Campo" where only one family had a telephone in the entire town.
We are thinking of refrigerators, as the one's we are used to today. Just curious hillbilly, where your theory originates from. It makes sense as well, I just had never heard of it. Since many people in "El Campo" didn't really have electricity, let alone grounding.

[Hillbilly]

that the folks in the campo were imitating the city myth. "Oh goodness, I can't open this< I have been ironing...and I heard that So and So
'se spasmó" in Santiago.
At least that is a good hypothesis....

HB

[Tom F.]

The wife's family was one of the few with a generator in the campo when she was growing up in the 70's. They were ironing. You can watch TV by candlelight when you run it off a car battery.