A few days ago a friend of mine told me of her conversation she had with a man at the grocery line. The whole conversation started because of the man’s curiosity with Mexican culture mainly superstition.
Needless to say ignorance is bliss when this man asked why Mexicans or Latinos for better words are superstitious. She turn and smiled and said what do you mean? He said for example he had a lady touch his shirt and said to him I wanted to touch your shirt because I don’t want to give you ojo. (or maybe it was an easy way to come on to him without him knowing )
If your not familiar with the term giving you ojo, it’s a term used to wish someone bad luck unintentionally because you like what that person is wearing or eating or anything involving that person in front of you.
So the superstition to counter it is to touch the item or sometimes if someone is admiring your baby to touch the baby.
She went on to explain that El Mal Ojo’s origin is pretty much a universal superstition such as in Greece or in many religions and regions such as in Turkey where glass amulets are worn to ward off the evil eye.
You hear it more with Hispanic culture because of the cultural belief such as people placing a horse shoe on top of their door, or carrying a rabbits foot or wearing green for saint patricks for good luck. Superstitions are a form of traditions which have been passed on from generation to generation.
Which is why when latinos have babies they are given an amulet for a baby to wear what is called el ojo de venado(eye of the deer(which is not a real eye) It is a sea bean given to babies to counter any Mal Ojo.
Well the man looked at her indifferent I guess because she had a pretty extensive insight on where the Mal Ojo came from. As he was walking to his car his phone fell . Could it have been the Mal Ojo? Who knows but my friend walked a away with a smile knowing that she was able to give this guy some insight that the Evil eye is not just an isolated belief.
Anyway speaking of Latino folklore the belief is if you think you got the effects of the evil eye you can cure yourself with an egg which is called curar con un huevo.
Next article on what the Curar con un Huevo. Which means cure with an Egg. Stay tune for the next article.
