General Information about Item:

• Superstition
• Language: English 
• Country of Origin: Cuba
• Informant: JP
• Date Collected: 11/03/2021

Informant Data:  JP was born in Havana, Cuba in 1957. He left Cuba when he was only five years old in 1962. He grew up in Bethesda, Maryland with his four siblings and parents, where he attended Catholic elementary, middle, high schools, and then Boston College. 

Contextual Data: JP was very studious and wanted to do well in school. His goal in high school was to attend Boston College and play soccer there. His parents and himself were extremely Catholic. Before entering a pew in Church, one has to genuflect, however, his parents always told him one has to do so with their right knee touching the ground, never the left knee. From there, he took that into going into classrooms where he had to take a test. He had to enter the room with his right foot first through the doorway or else he would not do well on the exam. He proceeded to do this throughout his entire academic career, even into college. I collected this when I talked with him last year. 

Item: Entering the examination room with your right foot passing through the doorway first.

Interpretations: This was very interesting to me because I was taught the same thing. I went to Catholic school starting when I was five years old, and everyone there also said it must be on the right knee. When told that one time, someone asked why and the teacher responded saying that they were not sure but to do so anyways. 

Collector’s Name: Isabel Robinson

Tags/Keywords:

• Cuba
• Superstition 
• Catholicism