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code Thank you. Thank

0:33

you. Hey everyone, you're

0:36

you're listening to Code to

0:38

I'm B .A. Parker I'm B.A.

0:40

happy New Year happy new year. Or

0:42

not? Have the New Year year

0:44

you prefer. me on the

0:46

mic today is Code Switch

0:48

switch producer Xavier Lopez. Hey, Hey, Hey Parker,

0:50

happy. Happy New new year. New Year.

0:53

All year. the people you're the

0:55

people Parker, whenever time year rolls around, I

0:57

time of year rolls around, I start

0:59

thinking about traditions we and about how

1:01

we celebrate another turn around the know,

1:03

before we get you know, before we get

1:05

started, I wanted to ask, you do

1:07

you do anything special? Celebrate the

1:10

new year? Year? Yeah, I I usually eat shrimp,

1:12

drink drink sparkling cider, and and watch

1:14

the Twilight Zone marathon. on Parker,

1:16

classic. This is the dimension

1:18

of imagination. It

1:20

is an area an we call we

1:22

call the Twilight Zone. What do you do?

1:24

Yeah, well my family and I moved

1:26

to the US my family and I moved to

1:29

the 22 Ecuador about 22 years ago. we we usually

1:31

just have a family dinner and then I

1:33

go out to party with my friends. I go But

1:35

I always think about the way that we

1:37

used to celebrate back in Ecuador. think

1:39

about At the end of the year, we used to

1:42

an back in Ecuador. Who's

1:44

that? That's my with Jenny and I'm

1:46

it with a certain, so different

1:48

material. Who's that? That's my mom,

1:50

Jenny. And she's she's talking about this

1:52

tradition called the called the Anyo Yejo,

1:54

the old year. And it it

1:56

involves building these

1:58

effigies, or monigottes, made of... paper and

2:01

By the way, we also way, we

2:03

also called the so you'll hear me

2:05

use that term to talk

2:07

about the effigies like interchangeably. me use

2:09

of the anyo viejo as talk

2:11

about the effigies, like is like an

2:13

old man with Think of the It's

2:15

kind of a pun. as the old year

2:17

but for us it's a

2:19

tradition because father time is like an

2:22

old man with year or what

2:24

we to It's kind of a

2:26

new year. you. So my my

2:28

mom says that this tradition for us represents

2:30

burning away what we don't want to

2:32

carry into the new year. don't And she

2:34

says carry at midnight, new right at the end

2:36

of the year, people threw out Ecuador, right

2:38

other parts of Latin America for that

2:40

matter. They bring out these and

2:42

into the streets in their of

2:45

Latin they all simultaneously light them

2:47

on fire. moneygottes

2:49

into that sounds fun,

2:51

their neighborhoods and they all simultaneously

2:54

light them on fire it's all of

2:56

the above. Okay, so how big big are

2:59

these effigies? They're like human-sized, they can

3:01

range from toddler to adult size,

3:03

but they can also be huge

3:05

but they can them burn in the

3:07

streets. It all somehow brings people

3:09

closer together brings people closer together. What's

3:11

it? I see. Do you have seen a better

3:13

person than a hour or a better person,

3:15

or a better person, or Happy better

3:17

happy New Year, or a better person.

3:19

My mom says that you might end you might

3:21

end up hugging the neighbor that you

3:23

were fighting with an hour an hour beforehand.

3:25

in the chaos and danger of lighting

3:27

these of people put their conflicts aside put

3:30

watch the old year burn away. aside figuratively

3:32

year of away, Oh,

3:35

that sounds kind of nice. literally. Oh,

3:37

that sounds kind of nice. It is Parker. So

3:39

for today, I want to So for

3:41

today, I want to actually

3:43

celebrate the annual Okay, I like me. This

3:45

is going, Havi. Good, because we're

3:47

going to dive to dive deep into

3:49

the origins of the Anu-Yu-Yaho. how

3:51

it's celebrated in Ecuador, and

3:54

how I, as an immigrant in

3:56

the United States, can continue to to

3:58

that tradition in my life life today. in

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5:02

today. Every January millions of people

5:04

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5:06

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If you're one of them, count

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the tools you need to pull

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it off. From NPR. Okay,

5:38

so have you? Yes, Parker. How

5:40

much do you remember about the

5:42

Anyo Viejo celebrations growing up? Not

5:44

much. You know, I was eight

5:46

when we came to the States,

5:48

so my memory of it is

5:50

very hazy, which is why I'm

5:52

bringing my parents into this. Yeah.

5:55

I sat down with a mutter,

5:57

creaky table in their apartment. All

5:59

right, right. What they tell

6:01

tell you about Anuvejo?

6:03

Yeah, so they so they told me

6:05

quite a bit, you know, my mom is

6:07

one of 12 kids, so she has

6:09

a lot of fond memories of building the

6:11

money go out there with all of

6:14

her siblings. building the says that they would sew

6:16

together old shirts with pants and old

6:18

socks, sew and they would stuff this giant,

6:20

long, man -shaped sack that they've made with

6:22

old newspapers and long we

6:24

sack that they've made with old

6:27

llaman ustedes and cotton. Fireworks.

6:30

Fireworks. Yeah. And even fireworks.

6:32

Oh, that's Oh, that's definitely

6:34

not safe. we do? Because are we

6:36

doing? the voila, the

6:38

voila bacíes, it's the idea of

6:41

the academia. Well, yeah, she says

6:43

she says the goal for them was

6:45

to make them want to go them kind

6:47

we go to fly, kind of. No. I know. My know. family has

6:49

family has fun, you know, setting fire

6:51

to last year. year. On my On my

6:53

dad's side, they're also very enthusiastic

6:55

about the Anyo Yeho. about to,

6:57

we had we like this porch. the house,

6:59

we and we used to chair

7:01

a chair. two on your bejos a table

7:03

and a drink like a table two

7:05

a drink, like, like, you know,

7:07

like two guys very you know the drinking, the

7:10

year this is the more of the

7:12

year. This is the more traditional

7:14

representation of the of old man on of

7:16

old man on a chair, maybe

7:18

he's got a drink. you know over time

7:20

you know, over time, the creations

7:22

changed, and Ecuadorians started getting very

7:24

artistic with their Anyo Riejo, their

7:26

there monigo And this was exacerbated by

7:28

neighborhood competitions throughout the country. throughout

7:30

the country. like some healthy competition

7:32

to get the creative juices going. juices

7:35

going. Exactly, There was a competition a

7:38

who made the best the best

7:40

there was a contest. a contest. Yes.

7:42

Yes. Yes. una competencia de

7:44

los mejores Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

7:46

My. My mom inscribían. My mom says

7:48

that people would sign up to see if they could

7:50

build the best One year my One year, my

7:52

uncle actually built a giant Pikachu. But

7:54

yeah, these like these onyoveos get really get really

7:56

creative. are And people are really able

7:58

to express themselves artistic Wait, but what

8:01

does Pikachu have to do with

8:03

the old year? I don't, again,

8:05

like, Pikachu has nothing to do

8:08

with the old year. He didn't,

8:10

like, do anything wrong. This at

8:12

this point is just, like, what

8:15

do you want to make that

8:17

you think is fun, you know?

8:19

Like, what are you, what are

8:22

some, uh... What's something fun that

8:24

you could set on fire? Exactly.

8:26

And what are, what's a challenge

8:29

that you could build, like, like,

8:31

sand sculptures that monks make that

8:33

they immediately like shake up and

8:36

destroy after they finished making them?

8:38

Exactly. Yeah, I think there's something

8:40

beautiful about the artistry that goes

8:43

into something that ultimately you are

8:45

like making for you to enjoy

8:47

for a very brief period of

8:50

time before then you're like completely

8:52

gonna tear it apart and burn

8:54

it. You know, like completely just

8:57

set fire to it literally. But

8:59

yeah, you know, like these competitions,

9:01

they got really big and more

9:04

and more people kind of would

9:06

come out to them. And over

9:08

time, the artistry becomes a bigger

9:11

deal in Ecuador. And then this

9:13

kind of becomes, you know, our

9:15

big New Year's Eve tradition. This

9:18

is how this becomes our version

9:20

of watching the ball drop in

9:22

Times Square. Or, you know, like

9:25

watching Twilight Zone reruns, like you

9:27

do, Parker. And it's a beautiful,

9:29

fiery spectacle. She's an independent researcher,

9:32

she told me. She's an independent

9:34

researcher studying Ecuadorian history. She called

9:36

the Anuvejo celebration a great festive

9:39

funeral. I spoke to Calvache because

9:41

she studies the social, political, and

9:43

public aspects of these kind of

9:46

traditional ceremonies, both by reading histories

9:48

about them and performing them, she

9:50

told me. Wait, so Calvache has

9:53

like a PhD in Fiestis? Yeah,

9:55

kind of her. And she says

9:57

that the annual year who is

10:00

a hybridization of cultures. She tells

10:02

me that some of the She

10:05

tells me that some of the earliest

10:07

recorded histories of end -of -year celebration

10:09

burnings in Ecuador date back

10:11

to the 1600s and 1700s. She

10:13

says that the Otavalo people

10:16

had ritual and Encontramos crónicas

10:18

She says that de

10:21

Otabalo señor

10:23

feudal

10:25

ritual burnings.

10:27

and that quemaban figuras de

10:29

frutas, know, burn figuras de

10:31

animales, figures of their la

10:33

recomposición. Para quemarlo malo, me

10:35

esto es un festejo

10:37

de reno. of their

10:40

burn or of their feudal lords,

10:42

or fruits, that or even animals. were

10:44

And that these to, were supposed

10:46

to, you know, burn away

10:48

the bad and bring some kind

10:50

of renewal. effigies

10:52

of their of their feudal

10:55

lords is kind of of metal,

10:57

right? She says Pero no en

10:59

31 de diciembre, sino

11:01

el 21 de diciembre. in

11:04

el 21 de diciembre es hostísimo.

11:06

with the solstice.

11:09

She says says celebrations happened in

11:11

conjunction with the solstice in

11:13

June and December. happened

11:15

fiestas paganas

11:18

del carnaval. the solstice

11:21

in June and en

11:23

España. that's how we

11:25

get on your vejo. And that

11:27

when the Europeans arrived and that

11:29

when the Europeans arrived and that

11:31

when the Europeans arrived the indigenous

11:34

the indigenous ceremonial burning traditions

11:36

got mixed with the

11:39

new European celebrations. case, with some In

11:41

this case with some ceremonial

11:43

end of year burnings dating back

11:45

to Roman times. So that's how

11:47

we get on your vejo. colonization. Yeah, I

11:49

know. I know I know like I'm from Latin from Latin

11:51

America, it's just super hard to escape to

11:53

but it. But putting a positive spin on

11:55

this. spin on so? so? Well, you

11:57

know the way that Kolbutcha put it...

12:00

There's something so hopeful about

12:02

the Anujo-Ejo tradition, and I

12:04

think we all need a

12:06

little bit of that. I

12:09

mean, yes, I would like

12:11

hope. Yeah, you know, it's

12:13

a tradition that accepts that

12:15

there are things in life

12:17

that we can't change, but

12:19

still clings on to the

12:21

hope that there's a better

12:24

future to come. called that

12:26

says that whenever there is

12:28

a capital B bad year,

12:30

it's like a reindication of

12:32

the Speranza. called that just

12:34

says that whenever there is

12:37

a capital B bad year,

12:39

more people come out to

12:41

the streets to watch these

12:43

effigies burn. It brings a

12:45

lot of neighbors together in

12:47

this fiery exercise of hope.

12:49

Now that sounds sweet like

12:52

it feels like a lot

12:54

of people are missing out

12:56

in community nowadays They are

12:58

a parker even my parents

13:00

told me this I love

13:02

this country because you know

13:04

This country welcome us, you

13:07

know, I love this country.

13:09

I'm very grateful, but I

13:11

miss this kind of celebration,

13:13

you know, equality or people

13:15

is a little You know,

13:17

being together with people you

13:20

know, you know, you know,

13:22

you know, you know, you

13:24

know, you know, your friends

13:26

your childhood friends, high school,

13:28

college friends, you know, see

13:30

them now, enjoy with them,

13:32

catch up, remember it all

13:35

the time we've been together,

13:37

all the experience, you know,

13:39

the good and bad experience

13:41

in the past. It's a

13:43

good moment. It's a good

13:45

moment. And I love it.

13:47

I miss my family. I

13:50

would like to be one

13:52

year over there, celebrating the

13:54

new year with them. No,

13:56

we are a big family.

13:58

I miss them. You

14:00

know You know Parker, my mom only gets to see

14:03

her family once a year, a but she

14:05

talks to them every single day. single she's one

14:07

of 12, so those bonds are really, really

14:09

strong. really, really my mom does a lot to

14:11

hold on to those bonds. I think we

14:13

all do in different ways. we all do I

14:15

wanted to ask my parents about this, about

14:17

the ways we, you know, hold on

14:19

to home. about drinking right now, hold on to home. We're

14:21

drinking right now, tropical, uh, Sabore Quatoniano.

14:24

We have have Ecuadorian cheese

14:26

in the fridge, fridge. have

14:28

a bunch of Ecuadorian things.

14:30

¿Por qué es que a

14:32

qué creen que, like,

14:34

we hold on stuff from

14:36

back home? Why? Ecuadorian nice to

14:38

see it. She says that it

14:41

feels nice having a piece of your country with

14:43

you. I hold

14:46

on stuff

14:49

from

14:51

of my family,

14:53

home. up. She

14:56

says that she carries all of these things

14:58

with her, her family, her country. carries

15:03

all of these things

15:05

even fighting, learning

15:08

English, and

15:10

being a professional

15:13

here, and her

15:15

family, her I don't stop missing

15:17

my land, I don't stop feeling,

15:20

in sorry to apologize. a piece

15:22

of cheese, to make you apologize. I

15:24

am in my country. tell

15:26

you, I'm sorry. de extraneous.

15:29

country. killed my I have

15:31

family there. got all my family,

15:33

yeah. I've extraneous

15:35

my piece of It's

15:38

a new, kind miss of,

15:40

kind of situation here, I'm sorry. I'm sorry

15:42

to to make you cry

15:44

mom I'm sorry to make

15:46

you cry, mom. Howie. You made your

15:48

your a cry. Parker, I'm sorry. I feel

15:50

I'm sorry. I feel bad about that them

15:53

I brought them into this thing I

15:55

was trying to figure out only to make

15:57

my mom cry and I really didn't

15:59

mean to. didn't mean to. She said it's... It's nice

16:01

of a piece

16:03

of her country

16:05

to bring with

16:07

her, whether it's

16:09

a tradition or

16:11

some form of

16:13

food item. It's

16:16

nice to feel

16:18

that tether home.

16:20

And my dad

16:22

agrees. It reminds

16:24

him of old

16:26

memories. Talking

16:32

to my parents about the

16:34

Anyo Yehogami thinking about how

16:37

traditions can live on, even

16:39

when we migrate. We cannot

16:41

carry some people. So what

16:43

we carry are traditions. Like

16:46

if we could put everything

16:48

in a suitcase or a

16:50

backpack, what do you choose?

16:52

I mean, you cannot put

16:54

a lot of stuff there.

16:57

So you have to carry

16:59

the acts. So when we

17:01

come back Parker, I bring

17:03

you all to a little

17:05

Anujo-Yejo celebration of my own.

17:08

We burn some stuff. Yeah,

17:10

we burn away toxic masculinity,

17:12

Parker. Yeah, all right. Got

17:14

you. That's coming up. Stay

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Xavier. Code switch.

19:02

The Ecuadorian Anouvejo celebration.

19:04

This is

19:06

a celebration of

19:08

reflection, renewal,

19:12

and healing By fire. go.

19:14

We're on cool There you go, let it go. stuff

19:16

to let it go. years since I It's

19:18

been 22 years since I

19:20

celebrated Ecuador, in Ecuador, and

19:23

I've been exploring the tradition to see if there's

19:25

a way I could recreate it here. recreate it Given

19:27

that I can't really just build a human -sized

19:29

effigy, stuff with fireworks, to burn in the

19:31

middle of the streets of New York. build a

19:33

they're taking you away immediately, for sure.

19:36

to burn Let's see if there were other

19:38

Ecuadorian of were feeling the Oh, Viejo itch like I

19:40

was. I wanted to see what they did. sure.

19:42

I I spoke with Kat Turner. Cat was Kat

19:44

was born in Ecuador, but she came

19:46

to the States very young. young. didn't have

19:48

many memories of the Año of the Anjovio in

19:50

Ecuador. back But her family still wanted to

19:53

keep the tradition going after they moved to

19:55

the tradition going after vaguely remembers

19:57

the first remembers the first

19:59

one I can remember. I I was a kid my

20:01

my family made a really small one. We

20:03

just burned it it house. Over Over

20:05

time, their Anyo Viejo celebration evolved

20:07

into a new tradition. I do

20:09

remember, you know, my family family down down

20:11

on pieces of what they wanted they wanted

20:13

to let go of that year,

20:15

which is very cool. still

20:18

celebrates way. She in this way. She

20:20

lives in California now hopes to and she hopes to

20:22

burn them go go with her mom at a

20:24

bonfire at the beach. the beach at the beach. I I

20:26

asked Kat. What was it about 2024

20:28

that she wanted to burn? burn? For this year, Zangiviyo,

20:30

I to pick out a great to

20:32

great a great dude a great dude, a great

20:34

and I want to put in just

20:36

basically to my fears just all of

20:39

them literally all my fears all up

20:41

those literally all my fears. Light up those I

20:43

also talked to I also talked to

20:45

Peter Rodriguez myself So I consider who

20:47

was born in Toronto. His family moved

20:49

back to Ecuador His after he was born.

20:51

back So he kind of had an

20:53

opposite life to back to Ecuador, who

20:55

he's in Vancouver, and Peter told

20:57

me, me, oh, you you know, he's not much of

20:59

a a guy, but that his

21:01

wife, his wife, Anno really is, is, and

21:03

that after they moved, they she

21:06

really wanted to make an to make an

21:08

and celebrate the celebrate the Anjou Bejo.

21:10

not being she'd have to

21:12

adapt the tradition. she'd have to

21:14

adapt the tradition. the middle

21:16

of the street. in the It could

21:18

be the worst a way

21:20

to to start the

21:22

year right, here in in Canada

21:24

or somewhere else. else. So,

21:26

so she took the idea took

21:29

the idea of this small aniouvejo

21:32

with, do you know those paper

21:34

towels that you have you know kitchen? The

21:36

towels that you have at the

21:38

kitchen? that was in the middle,

21:40

I that was the first. the I

21:42

mean, that's the main portion of

21:44

the Año Viejo. Anna built a small

21:46

little Año Viejo, and Anito Viejito,

21:48

if you will. Absolutely

21:50

not. Nothing. Okay. So they burned the little

21:52

guy because so they burned the

21:54

little that they just gather just gather

21:57

less attention. But the but the

21:59

premise and the sentiment. behind the

22:01

Anyobiyo is still there. It's a

22:03

way to, to born, to kill,

22:06

to forget, to, you know, to

22:08

just leave behind everything that was

22:10

bad on the year that's ending,

22:13

right? What I liked about both

22:15

Cat and Peter Stories, potential, you

22:18

know, fire hazard aside, is the

22:20

fact that they were both able

22:22

to carry the tradition. at all,

22:25

even in their own adapted ways.

22:27

Why do we keep thinking about

22:30

our cultures and when we are

22:32

outside of our countries, we keep

22:34

writing about them? That's Lorena Kuyah.

22:37

She's a professor of Latin American

22:39

cultures at Arizona State University. She

22:42

specifically studies emotional aspects of migration.

22:44

I reached out to her because

22:46

I wanted to know, where is

22:49

this deep desire inside me to

22:51

celebrate Yanyo Bejo coming from? Kuyah

22:54

broke it done in a way

22:56

that really resonated with me. She

22:58

said that by carrying on the

23:01

traditions, we're cementing our connection with

23:03

our motherland, our people there. We

23:06

are honoring the community we left

23:08

behind, and we are establishing or

23:10

re-establishing a connection, not only with

23:13

the people we left in space,

23:15

right, in a land, in a

23:18

specific location, but with our ancestors.

23:20

Like it's like, this is my

23:22

my genealogy. So traditions are like

23:25

kind of for this in a

23:27

way, little acts that connect us

23:30

with a larger history, which is

23:32

our grandparents, our great-grandparents, etc. And

23:34

then that tells the world who

23:37

we are, the stating of ourselves

23:39

in a community. We want to

23:42

belong. And we also invite people

23:44

to belong to that. So then

23:46

you start sharing traditions. Right, so

23:49

we we need to carry them,

23:51

we need to care, we need

23:54

to hold on them

23:56

strong who we

23:58

are, who how we

24:01

want people to

24:03

see us. to

24:05

see we want to keep celebrating.

24:08

to keep I think there

24:10

I think there is a that that idea

24:12

of of like our sense

24:15

to keep celebrating, it's also

24:17

a desire to, it's also a desire to

24:19

to to keep belonging, to keep to

24:21

a way like in a is, this

24:23

is me. like this is this is

24:25

me and I want to keep

24:28

Keep this part of me. me. She she

24:30

said that traditions are like

24:32

old friends. friends. we we them,

24:34

especially when we are out, because

24:36

we cannot carry some people. some

24:39

people. So what we carry

24:41

traditions. Like if we

24:43

could put everything in a in a a

24:45

backpack. or a backpack, what do you

24:47

choose? mean, you I put a lot of stuff

24:49

there. a lot of so you have

24:51

to carry the the acts. Oh wow,

24:53

I think I think that's beautiful. Like

24:56

I've never heard I've never heard of that way.

24:58

I think that's lovely. that way.

25:00

I think that's lovely. So, Havi,

25:02

is the Anuvejo celebration

25:04

what what you're

25:06

carrying in your backpack from Ecuador? Yeah,

25:09

I think it is. It's it is one of least

25:11

one of the things know. know I

25:14

obviously want to keep celebrating this

25:16

and I want to keep it alive

25:18

to keep it alive. I like it feels like

25:20

a burning ember of hope in dark times,

25:22

hope in dark it does feel like a connection

25:24

to home, a you know? to home, think that's

25:26

why I've been so obsessed with exploring

25:28

the tradition, so and that's a realization I

25:30

only just made while I was talking to

25:32

my parents for this episode. just made

25:35

while I was talking to my I

25:37

feel like my obsession with

25:39

this tradition I just asked because like,

25:41

I you know, it my

25:43

obsession with tradition, it feels like that,

25:45

you know, sessinte, like, like the

25:48

roots. my roots, you Because I know? know

25:50

much about it. Because I don't know much about it. the

25:52

United know a lot about the United States,

25:55

you guys know a lot, I'm, I like reading about about

25:57

history, but it's not the same, Like, I'll never never

25:59

be able - don't know as

26:01

much Monday? No, no. I

26:03

asked the need of the

26:06

opportunity, with the rise, is

26:08

the two rise, is not

26:11

the need of the opportunity.

26:13

But we don't see. And

26:16

we've, we've, we've, we've, we've,

26:18

we've, we've, we've, we've, we've,

26:21

we've, we've, we've, we've, we've,

26:23

we've, we've, we've, we've taught

26:26

here. It's different. My mom

26:28

said that I didn't get the opportunity

26:30

to know the history of her country

26:32

and my roots the way that she

26:34

did. Just completely wrecking me emotionally. Mom's

26:36

good at that. Yeah, they are. So

26:38

yeah, I think you're hearing my attempt

26:40

at connecting with that history more by

26:42

carrying the Anujo-Ejo tradition and all of

26:44

its meanings and you know, sharing it

26:46

with you all. That's why I invited

26:48

you and some of our NPR colleagues

26:50

to a little Anyo-Yjo-Ejo celebration of celebration

26:52

of my own. Have you? I'm curious

26:54

though, why did you share it with

26:56

us and not with your parents? You

26:59

know, Parker, even though I'm lucky enough

27:01

to live close to my folks, and

27:03

I get to see them pretty often,

27:05

which is really nice, they just like,

27:07

they lead busy lives. My mom's a

27:09

nurse and she works odd, unpredictable shifts,

27:11

as you might guess. And my dad's

27:13

a doorman, so these days off are

27:15

usually when I'm at work. And not

27:17

usually they say my mom has off

27:19

either, so, so yeah. We don't... have

27:21

a lot of opportunities to all get

27:23

together at the same time. It's why

27:25

I caught them after dinner on a

27:27

Sunday for an interview. So that's why

27:29

I asked y'all to join me. But

27:31

also because I want to spread this

27:33

tradition and because I don't have any

27:35

kids, you know, I thought that this

27:37

was the best way to keep this

27:39

going for now. Wait, so we're like

27:41

your kids? Padre! Padre! No, no, no.

27:43

After work one day a few of

27:45

us got together at the NPR office

27:47

and met We make like a

27:49

a thing, each one

27:51

gets a little

27:54

piece of this, this. I'm

27:56

to make a

27:58

little glue mixture in

28:00

this, and then

28:02

we have all of

28:04

this paper to

28:06

wrap around of whatever

28:08

way you want. Yeah, you

28:10

know a little it in whatever way you This is why

28:12

I agree to it. We

28:14

were in this conference room with

28:16

some newsprint paper, some box

28:18

pieces, glue, and a and a stapler

28:20

to cobble something together from nothing.

28:22

nothing. It It was an exciting

28:24

challenge. challenge. This lends itself to, like,

28:26

a cube. to like a cube. You We got

28:28

one hour to, like, We build

28:30

a thing. hour it work. Make it

28:32

work. thing. Make it do like the

28:34

word of it work. Our effigies

28:37

were simple.

28:39

structurally, conceptually.

28:41

But the But the

28:43

meaning had depth, You're so right.

28:45

You're so right. so right. We need

28:47

tape. We We don't have tape.

28:49

I do have staplers for you.

28:51

You for the you trust me?

28:53

Worth a stapler? I can get we're

28:56

in an office.

28:58

I can Saturday, we got together

29:00

And then on Saturday, we got together in

29:02

Queens. where our executive

29:04

producer, Jasmine Romero, kindly

29:06

offered up her fire pit

29:08

for the for the burn. Let's start

29:10

start fire! something

29:13

really There's something really special about

29:15

how all of this came together,

29:17

Javi. hobby. So Jasmine's parents also

29:19

immigrated to the United

29:21

States, hers from El

29:23

Salvador. El And here she

29:26

was she her very

29:28

New York City porch to

29:30

help create this tradition

29:32

from your parents' homeland. I mean

29:34

got one black person and three

29:36

Asian people in the people in the

29:38

Ecuadorian celebration, celebration.

29:40

we're bringing we're bringing the communities

29:43

good old melting pot of

29:45

America. a good old the one

29:47

little log We all gather is a

29:49

very New York little log. smell it. a very New

29:51

of us huddled around I can

29:53

trying to get warm on

29:55

us huddled day. close, trying Brown. on the

29:57

super cold day. So Charlie brown. And

30:00

once we warmed up, we started

30:02

the burn. And we're here to

30:05

burn our effigies, which represent some

30:07

of the things that we want

30:09

to leave behind in 2024. It's

30:11

been kind of a rough year

30:14

for some people. And even if

30:16

it hasn't, I feel like there's

30:18

things that maybe you don't want

30:20

to take with you into the

30:23

new year. And this year I

30:25

am leaving behind overstretching myself. I

30:27

do too much and I feel

30:29

like I just do too much

30:32

and I feel like I'm constantly

30:34

rushing from thing to thing to

30:36

thing to thing to think. Yeah,

30:38

Parker, what are you, what are

30:41

you burning today? I'm burning toxic

30:43

masculinity because I feel like it's

30:45

been stressing me out in the

30:47

universe, especially in 2024. If I

30:50

see another cyber truck I'm gonna

30:52

cry. And if another man tries

30:54

to explain something to me while

30:56

I'm in line at Dwayne Reed,

30:59

I will fight them. So, uh,

31:01

I don't know. That's all I've

31:03

been thinking about. That's real. All

31:05

righty. Jasmine, what are you burning

31:08

behind this year? I'm burning a

31:10

little jenga tower that represents... Holding

31:12

everything together, I feel like I

31:14

spent a lot of time this

31:17

year being the person that kept

31:19

everything from falling apart. And I

31:21

think this year I'm going to

31:23

try to allow myself a little

31:26

room to be the one that

31:28

falls apart. That's beautiful. In the

31:30

words of Chinawa Chepe, things fall

31:32

apart. Sometimes, things fall apart. Yeah.

31:35

I just want to say, Hobby,

31:37

it felt like such an honor

31:39

to get to share this tradition

31:41

with you as my new stepped

31:44

at. Oh, Parker. Thank you. I

31:46

feel the same way. How do

31:48

you feel about the burning that

31:50

we did? I loved the community

31:53

of it being. with

31:55

people that I

31:57

adore to, you know,

31:59

were figure out

32:02

what we were

32:04

trying to get

32:06

rid of. year for the

32:08

new year was like a really a a

32:11

beautiful exercise, beautiful. Yeah,

32:13

well, but beautiful. Yeah,

32:15

well, it's usually warm in

32:17

Ecuador. I'll just remind you so that's

32:19

So that's an aspect that we

32:21

didn't really factor into this we

32:23

didn't really happens, but but did

32:25

you feel? But how did

32:28

you feel? It was daunting at first, I'm

32:30

I'm not gonna lie. to lie. I was

32:32

I was kind of making it up

32:34

as we went along. went along. But it

32:36

it was kind of a lovely experience

32:38

bringing you guys into this tradition into

32:40

also our listeners. and also our I hope

32:42

it kind of in a way

32:44

on through you guys guys maybe through

32:46

them. through them. And it it feels like it's

32:48

brought me closer to my parents to my to

32:50

my traditions and to my know, my identity. and,

32:52

you know, my identity. I think

32:54

that part of it is of it

32:56

is like, I know, it's know, it's... It's

32:58

hard to be an immigrant. an immigrant,

33:00

like -immigrant sentiment is pretty high

33:02

right now, you know? pretty it's you

33:05

know? But tough, that aside. and And

33:07

there's different levels of of that

33:09

it feels like you go

33:11

through like your entire life. It

33:13

just feels like a never -ending

33:15

identity crisis sometimes, crisis and it's

33:17

one that I that we don't

33:19

really talk about. Like I feel

33:21

extremely feel extremely blessed that

33:23

I've gotten to explore that. this this

33:25

episode, and just I'm just generally... on myself.

33:28

but I worry but I worry about my parents

33:30

sometimes. and other and other people

33:32

age age or immigrants who come come here don't

33:34

maybe don't really get to talk about some

33:36

of this stuff, you know? stuff Mm.

33:38

know. I think a lot I think a lot of

33:40

immigrants don't. really get to get

33:43

to process their feelings think they have

33:45

time don't don't think they have

33:47

time to like think don't get to

33:49

how much about the much they miss

33:51

the community that they used to have.

33:53

different from the different from the one that

33:55

they're able to have have. they are now. now. And

33:57

I think I think kind of

34:00

why I wanted to report

34:02

on this tradition, because it's

34:04

like, I don't know, I

34:06

can't replicate the Anyo Yejo

34:08

that we celebrated in Ecuador,

34:10

but I can at the

34:12

very least help bring some

34:14

kind of tradition that reminds

34:16

some folks of back home,

34:18

something that we can celebrate

34:20

here in a unique American

34:23

way, you know, as a

34:25

way to build some community

34:27

with loved ones. But also,

34:29

hopefully bring some people closer

34:31

to their homeland. And that's

34:33

our show. You can follow

34:35

us on Instagram at NPR

34:37

Code Switch. If email is

34:39

more your thing, ours is

34:41

Code Switch at MPR Code

34:44

Switch. and subscribe to the

34:46

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34:48

or wherever you get your

34:50

podcast. You can also subscribe

34:52

to the Code Switch newsletter,

34:54

where this week I'll be

34:56

writing about an aspect of

34:58

the Yanya vehicle tradition that

35:00

I didn't have time to

35:02

get into on the pod.

35:05

You can read that by

35:07

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35:09

And just a reminder that

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find out more at plus.npr.org/Code

35:26

Switch. This episode was produced

35:28

by me, Xavier Lopez. It

35:30

was edited by Dahlia Mortata,

35:32

our engineer with Josephine Neenai.

35:34

And a big shout out

35:36

to the rest of the

35:38

code switch massive. Jasmine Romero,

35:40

Christina Kala, Jesskung, Lea Denella,

35:42

Courtney Stein, Vierlin Williams, and

35:44

Jean Denby. Special thanks to

35:46

Jasmine Romero again for letting

35:49

us use her backyard into

35:51

Hanchen, Margaret Sereno, and Janet

35:53

Ujang Li for participating in

35:55

the Silly Silly Silly exercise

35:57

with me. I had

35:59

fun. I'm

36:01

B .A. Parker. Parker.

36:03

I'm Xavier care. Hydrate.

36:07

Take care. think I know what

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