The Lucky 5K

Title: The Lucky 5K

General Information About Item:

  • Customary Lore – Tradition
  • Language: Spanish
  • Country of Origin: Ecuador
  • Informant: Valeria Ycaza
  • 05/20/2020

Informant Data:

Valeria Ycaza is from Quito, Ecuador. She is 22 years old and she is in medical school in Quito, Ecuador. Her entire family, especially her mom and her brother, have always been big fans of soccer and that has encouraged her to follow the sport closely and become a fan of Deportivo Cuenca, her mom’s childhood team.

Contextual Data:

Valeria’s family has always supported “Deportivo Cuenca,” a soccer team from Cuenca, Ecuador. Valeria was born and raised in Quito, but her mother is from Cuenca. Being a huge soccer fan, Valeria’s mother made sure she supported her team from a young age. Besides soccer, she enjoys running with his dad. The year her tradition started, Deportivo Cuenca was not having a great season. It didn’t look like they had a chance to win the league but this game was the beginning of an important winning streak that gave them the title.

Soccer is the biggest and most important sport in Ecuador. A majority of the population watches it, plays it or does both. The main competition is the league cup, a round robin tournament in which 20 teams play against every other team twice. The winner is the team with the most points at the end of tournament. A “Clasico” (Spanish for Classic) has become a wildly popular word in the world of soccer and it refers to a game between two long-time rivals. A “Clasico” might be between two teams from the same city or two of the biggest/most successful teams in a competition. In Ecuadorian soccer, one of the two “Clasicos” is the game between Deportivo Cuenca and Liga Deportiva Universitaria, teams from two of the biggest cities in the country.

Item:(Translated)

“Before every “Clasico” my team has, I run 5 kilometers with my dad. One day I was running with my dad and we happened to run 5 kilometers. This was the first time we ran this much. [A]fter this we went back home, and my team was not doing bad at all. I remember this game being the most important game of the year because it defined whether or not the team had a chance to win the season. After this game the team started playing much better and won the season. So that’s how the tradition of running 5k before every “Clasico” started.”

Transcript: (Translated)

“Well, my entire family has always supported this team from my country that is called “Deportivo Cuenca” and I remember that one day there was a “Clasico”, a game between this team and another that have a huge rivalry. I went on a run with my dad like we regularly did on weekends. Well you should know that during this season my team was not doing very well. So, this day where this game was going to take place I was running with my dad and we happened to run 5 kilometers. This was the first time we ran this much. This was about 8 years ago. So, after this we went back home and my team was not doing bad at all. I remember this game being the most important game of the year because it defined whether or not the team had a chance to win the season. After this game the team started doing much better and that’s how the tradition of running 5k before every “Clasico” started.”

Collector’s Name: Julian Ycaza

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Soccer
  • “Clasico”
  • Tradition
  • Sports
  • Sport Ritual