“Frybread Face:” a Film about Family, Flocks + Defining Yourself

Benny on the bus. From the film Frybread Face and Me.

Imagine that you’re 12.

It’s the beginning of summer 1990, and you’re growing up in San Diego. You’ve got a Walkman, a neon green fanny pack, and annual passes to SeaWorld.

Then your mom effectively cancels all your summer plans when she tells you she’ll be sending you to stay at your grandma’s house on a sheep ranch in rural Arizona instead. [Record scratch.]

That’s the beginning of Benny’s story in the film Frybread Face and Me.

 

A hogan and mobile home in the desert. From the film Frybread Face and Me.

Welcome to the Rez

Benny, portrayed by Keir Tallman, is a sweet, Fleetwood-Mac-loving preteen, who marches to the beat of his own drum.

His Aunt Lucy drops him off at the home of his grandmother (played by Sarah Natani, who is a Navajo master weaver in real life, as well as in the movie).

Sarah Natani weaving. From the film Frybread Face and Me.

It’s the first time in years he’s been on the reservation, and it is a bit of culture shock for the city kid. Although he’s Navajo (Diné), he doesn’t speak the language and has grown up away from the traditions that weave their way into the life of many of his relatives.

Benny with his grandma. From the film Frybread Face and Me.

Grandma Lorraine only speaks Navajo. When it is just the two of them, her words are not subtitled. So unless you speak Navajo, you are as in the dark as Benny is.

His Uncle Marvin, who also lives on the ranch, speaks English but doesn’t have a kind word to say to Benny.

Benny with his relatives. From the film Frybread Face and Me.

Although Grandma Lorraine’s house is so remote that it doesn’t have running water or electricity, it is actually the hub that connects his extended family. It’s where they always return – especially in times of transition or difficulty.

 

Benny and his cousin. From the film Frybread Face and Me.

The City Cousin and the Country Cousin

Things begin to turn around for Benny with the arrival of his 10-year-old cousin (played by Charley Hogan), who everyone calls “Frybread Face.” Not only is she able to translate the Navajo language and culture for him, she can give him the scoop on their relatives, as well. The two cousins bond while working together to take care of sheep, fix fences, and find time to just have fun and be kids.

Frybread Face and Benny. From the film Frybread Face and Me.

Throughout the film, Benny is trying to understand who he is and how he fits into his culture and his family. He also learns that the adults don’t have it all figured out either.

 

"You need to learn to weave." From the film Frybread Face and Me.

Native American Heritage Continues

The film is beautiful with plenty of moments to both make you smile and to tug at your heart strings.

It was written and directed by Billy Luther, who is Navajo, Hopi, and Laguna Pueblo. While he has made documentaries (including the award-winning Miss Navajo) and television shows, this is his first feature film! It was filmed on location in New Mexico with shots that capture the wide open spaces and stark beauty of the high desert.

Frybread Face and Me is being released on Netflix and in select theaters today (November 24, 2023) in honor of Native American Heritage Day.

Frybread Face and Me film poster.


Film preview and photos courtesy of ARRAY.

Pysanky: The Easter Eggs That Came Before Easter

Easter eggs

Despite what you may have heard, Easter eggs were not invented in a New Jersey pharmacy.

In fact, thousands of years before there was Paas, there were pysanky – eggs decorated in the ancient Ukrainian tradition.

Pysanka- Ukrainian Easter eggs
By Colby Stopa via Flickr. CCL.

“Ukrainians have been decorating eggs, creating these miniature jewels, for countless generations. There is a ritualistic element involved, magical thinking, a calling out to the gods and goddesses for health, fertility, love, and wealth. There is a yearning for eternity, for the sun and stars, for whatever gods that may be.”
Luba Petrusha of pysanky.info

For agrarian societies dependent on seasonal crops, the end of winter brings the beginning of the growing season and the food to survive. So the return of spring represents life in a very real way.

Pysanky
By Bo&Ko. CCL.

With this in mind, it makes sense that many cultures of the distant past worshiped the sun, including ancient Slavic peoples. To them, eggs were associated with springtime, the sun god, and the life-giving cycle of the seasons.

Kistka
A variety of styluses for creating pysanky, from traditional to modern. By Luba Petrusha. CCL.

Writing Pysanky

Pysanky are created using a wax resist process (similar to batik). Traditionally, you would have prepared dyes yourself, using natural materials like onion skins or red cabbage for color.

Then you would make the first part of your design on the egg’s shell by using a specialized stylus (a kistka) to apply melted beeswax, like putting a pen to paper. In fact, pysanka comes from the Ukrainian word for “write.”

Making a Ukrainian Easter egg.
Pysanka Brunch by Olga Strachna via Flickr (@olga_strachna). CCL.

After laying out the first part of your pattern in wax, you’d submerge the egg into your lightest shade of dye (let’s say yellow). While most of the egg then comes out yellow, your wax lines preserve the original color below (presumably, eggshell white).

Next, you’d put wax over the parts of your design that should remain yellow and sink the egg into the next darker shade of dye (maybe green).

You repeat the process of applying the wax and then submerging the egg in the next dye color, from lightest to darkest, for as many colors as you want in your design (or have dyes for).

Finally, you soften the wax and wipe it from the egg to reveal the full design.

Pysanka diagram
Diagram showing the step-by-step process of creating a single “pysanka”. Originally in V. Shukhevych’s 1902 “Hutsul’shchyna”, via UMA Cleveland.

Since it may be a bit hard to visualize, I highly recommend the 1975 short film Pysanka: The Ukrainian Easter Egg. You can see the process demonstrated from start to finish, while the narrator explains the traditions and beliefs that go along with the ancient art form.

 

Pysanky Easter eggs
By Luba Petrusha. CCL.

Easter

So where does Easter come in?

Pysanky existed centuries before the life of Christ. However, as the Christian Church spread, it had a tendency to adopt/appropriate parts of the local culture wherever it went. Pagan symbols were reinterpreted with Christian meanings. Even the word “Easter” itself likely comes from the name of Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility and springtime.

Ukrainian Easter Basket
The tradition of blessing Easter baskets full of food continues to this day in Ukrainian Orthodox churches. Photo by Suburban Grandma.

Decorating eggs became less about the return of the sun god and more about the resurrection of Christ. Over time, the tradition lost many of its ritual components, becoming increasingly associated with the Christian faith and the Easter holiday specifically.

Simplified versions of the practice became Easter traditions in other parts of the world, as well.

 

New Jersey factory building
PAAS Easter egg dye company headquarters in Newark, circa 1931. Via NJ.com

Artificial Colors

By the 1800s, chemists had figured out how to make synthetic dyes. Among the products manufactured in the early days of this revolutionary technology were Easter egg coloring kits. So instead of using your own vegetable scraps or whatever, you could go purchase dyes at your local drugstore.

One of these drugstores was owned by William M. Townley in Newark, New Jersey. He stocked Easter egg dye kits imported from Germany (the top supplier of all things synthetic dye until WWI), but he wasn’t really happy with them.

So he came up with his own. While he didn’t invent Easter eggs, he did start selling dye powders in convenient pre-wrapped packets.

The product was such a hit that the Townley family transitioned from pharmacists to factory owners. The Paas Dye Company was created in 1881 and would soon be operating year round just to meet the Easter season demand.

 

Ukrainian Easter egg
By Orest Ukrainsky (@orest_u) via Flickr. CCL.

Hidden Easter Eggs

While springtime egg decorating became more common around the world, the tradition was officially prohibited in its country of origin when the Soviets took over in the 1930s. Perhaps the ban was because pysanky were associated with Christianity or perhaps because the art form is distinctly Ukrainian.

Still, the tradition survived, like countless other folk customs that empires have attempted to suppress. Some people made pysanky in secret. Others left Ukraine. These expats may have felt an even heavier responsibility to pass their culture on to the next generation.

 

Giant Pysanka - Vegreville
Giant Pysanka in Vegreville, Alberta by eileenmak via Flickr. CCL.

When Ukraine regained its independence in 1991, the art form experienced a resurgence. Today, you can see pysanky in museums or take a class on making your own. As fragile as pysanky may look, they are surprisingly durable.

 

– More Pysanka Info –

  • “Pysanka” is the singular form of the word, “pysanky” is plural. I’ve attempted to use Ukrainian terms correctly, but I do not speak the language, so don’t take my word for it!
  • I’ll mention again the film Pysanka: The Ukrainian Easter Egg. It’s only about 15 minutes long. If you’re at all interested in pysanky, watch it! And don’t let the slightly 1970s trippy intro dissuade you.
  • Pysanky.info – history, patterns, photos, all things pysanky
  • Symbols Used on Pysanky from University of Alberta
  • Ukrainian Easter Egg (Pysanka): Tradition And Design – firsthand perspective on Ukrainian Easter traditions from Suburban Grandma
  • “Eggs Hatch Rebirth of Ukraine Culture” – L.A. Times article published shortly after Ukrainian independence (March 1992) about Ukrainian-Americans being “keepers of the flame” of traditions like pysanka.
Easter egg
By Svitlana Frankiv. CCL.

Fundraisers for Ukraine:

Easter Egg (Pysanky) Workshop

  • April 30, 10am at St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church, Tucson.
  • $50 donation for registration benefits Ukrainian refugees and orphans.
  • Advance registration required.

May the 4th be with Ukraine

    • May 4, 6pm in the Hotel Congress Plaza, Tucson.
    • Live performances by Miss Olivia, Greg Morton, Salvador Duran, and Mark Insley.
    • All proceeds go to World Central Kitchen and the refugee resettlement efforts of Lutheran Social Services Southwest.
    • Donations online, at the door, and (if you’re unable to attend) checks payable to Hotel Congress LLC (memo: “May The Fourth Be with Ukraine”) and mailed to 311 E Congress St., Tucson, AZ 85701.

St. Mary’s Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Phoenix is raising funds for Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine.

  • Ongoing
  • So far they’ve donated $32,000 to support emergency relief efforts, like shipping medical supplies!
  • You can give via Paypal or credit card, check payable to St. Mary’s Protectress (memo: “Help Ukraine”), in person at the Ukrainian Cultural Center (730 W. Elm St, Phoenix, AZ 85013), or wire transfer (routing #021000021, account #767167682).

Drive-Through Rodeo Parade Museum

When the Tucson Rodeo Parade Committee realized they’d have to cancel the 2021 parade, they came up with a creative alternative to the usual crowded streets and packed grandstands – they’d turn the parade inside out!

Tucson Rodeo Parade drive-thru

Wagons and buggies would be pulled out of the Rodeo Parade Musuem and set up along a winding route through the rodeo grounds in South Tucson. For one day, you could drive through it, passing by the floats and entertainment that would normally be passing you by.

Tucson Rodeo Parade drive-thru

In lieu of charging admission, they’d accept donations for Casa de los Niños, a local organization that promotes children’s wellbeing by supporting families. You could drop off school supplies for them in a rodeo bucking chute set up in the Museum parking lot.

Rodeo chute for Casa de Niños donations

We tied a bandanna on Quijote and headed to the rodeo grounds to check it out.

Dog in a bandanna

When we arrived, cars were backed up from the entrance, up one side of the street, curled around the dead end, and down the other side. We inched forward, idling in front of a tortilla factory.

Carriage from Tucson Rodeo Museum

Once we were through the front gate, we caught a glimpse of 5 beautiful black draft horses taking a snack break. Apparently, these are Shire horses, a breed that’s supposed to be from Britain, but I suspect may have actually originated in Middle Earth.

Shire draft horses

Some of the horse-drawn wagons along our route were decorated by local businesses who were sponsoring the event.

Little Mexico restaurant float

Others had been used by early Tucson firefighters and police, and still others were used for ranching, mining, or making deliveries. We even passed a replica of a steam calliope and an old circus wagon with rodeo scenes painted on the side.

Tucson rodeo parade Horse drawn jail wagon

We continued on to see the Modelos y Charros de Arizona, a non-profit group dedicated to preserving their Mexican heritage.

Modelos y Charros exaggerated dress

The Modelos (models) were wearing super-sized versions of their trademark Mexican folklorico dresses. Since this would probably be the one year they wouldn’t need to be able to actually walk in their embellished hoop skirts, they could really go next level.

Modelos y Charros Roping

They were interspersed with Charros (distinctively-dressed riders of Mexican rodeo – or charrería) demonstrating trick roping.

Rogers from Tucson Boys chorus

Also showing off their roping skills were members of the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus, who swung lassos while recordings played from past choir performances.

Folklorico dancers at Tucson rodeo grounds

High school folklorico dancers performed in front of closed ticket windows.

Tucson rodeo museum film wagons

We drove through a section of wagons from movies and television.

A lot of classic westerns were filmed at Old Tucson Studios and on location in Southern Arizona. The Rodeo Parade Museum often provided antique vehicles for their shoots, like fringe-topped surreys (carriages) for the movie Oklahoma. Or the simple buckboard wagon that retired from working on a farm and went on to appear in the TV series High Chaparral and the film McLintock!

Tucson rodeo museum carriage from Oklahoma!

Farther down, the band Gertie and the T.O.Boyz played their signature Waila (old time dance music) tunes.

Gertie and the T.O. Boyz band

The final section was devoted to wagons made by F. Ronstadt Wagon Works, founded by Linda Ronstadt’s grandfather.

Rodeo

After that, we exited the west gate and went to get lunch. The band kept playing, the draft horses’ tails flicked away flies. But, like those antique wagons, we were history.

BK tacos

– More Tucson, Rodeo, and Parade Info –

  • La Fiesta de los Vaqueros 2022 will be held February 19-27 (with the parade on February 24).
  • 2020 Parade: Pre-pandemic photos that include many of the same wagons and carriages we saw, except with people in/on them!
  • 2021 Drive-through Parade
  • For more on charreada, “Mexico’s original rodeo,” check out this Q+A with painter Edgar Sotelo. (He also explains the difference between a charro and a vaquero.)
  • Wild Ride: The History and Lore of Rodeo by Joel H. Bernstein: Book they gave away copies of at the drive-through event and a great resource about rodeo history!
  • Why Tucson has a Rodeo Parade Museum: Basically Part 1 of this post.

Mission San Xavier del Bac

While you’re in the South Tucson area…

  • Visit the Rodeo Parade Musuem at 4823 S. 6th Avenue, Tucson. It’s open Thursdays through Saturdays. Admission is $10/adults, $2/children.
  • Alejandro’s Tortilla Factory storefront is located at 5330 S. 12th Avenue, Tucson. You can buy freshly made tortillas and chips and/or order breakfast or lunch from La Cocina Lorena (menu).
  • You’ll be in the heart of the Best 23 Miles of Mexican Food (north of the border, of course). Nearby 12th Avenue is full of places to get Sonoran hot dogs, tacos, birria, and all kinds of deliciousness!
  • We picked up food at BK Carne Asada + Hot Dogs after the Rodeo Parade Drive-through. Both the carne asada and the Sonoran dog were excellent!
  • South Tucson is also known for its abundant murals and mosaics, so keep your eyes open!
  • Mission San Xavier del Bac is about 10 minutes away. Visiting is currently  limited. However, it’s a really beautiful 18th-century Spanish Mission style building, and it’s worth checking out the architecture, even if it’s only from the outside.
  • The San Xavier Co-op Farm is a cooperative of Tohono O’odham landowners growing traditional crops. They sell honey, dried beans, mesquite flour, and other products in their farm store at 8100 Oidak Wog, Tucson. It’s closed Sundays and Mondays.

Veterans float

Why Tucson Has a Rodeo Parade Museum

Rodeo Parade Museum.

The phrase made me pause the first time I heard it, as I tried to make sense of those words together as a unit. I wasn’t aware that rodeos had parades or that parades had museums – until I moved to Tucson.

Tucson rodeo parade and museum wagon

Rodeo

Officially known as “La Fiesta de los Vaqueros,” Tucson’s Rodeo takes place for nine days in late February. It’s a big enough deal that schools take off the Thursday and Friday of Rodeo Week. There are roping and riding competitions, a large parade, kids’ events, barn dances, a rodeo clinic that’s also a fundraiser for local breast cancer patients, and something called “cowboy church.”

Rodeo parade

La Fiesta de los Vaqueros was first held in 1925, as a way to preserve Tucson’s cowboy-era culture, while also bringing in tourist dollars.

The idea came from winter visitor and Arizona Polo Associaton president Frederick Leighton Kramer. He met with local business owners, cattlemen, and probably some of his polo buddies to organize the inaugural Tucson Rodeo, which they held at a polo field near his house.

 

Draft horses at Tucson rodeo parade drive-thru

Parade

Before the competitions began, however, there was a 300-person parade down Congress Street. Among the participants were ranchers, U.S. Army bands from the Buffalo Soldier 10th Cavalry and 25th Infantry Regiments, Leighton Kramer’s polo players, and artist/cowboy/part-time Tucson resident Lone Wolf in the impressive regalia of his Blackfeet tribe.

 

Painting of a Buffalo soldier at George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, Phoenix.
Painting of a Buffalo soldier by Mary Gray at George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, Phoenix.

Now considered the longest non-motorized parade in the U.S.  (possibly the world), the 2.5-mile long procession of horses, carriages, bands, folk dancers, and decorated wagons continues to be a part of La Fiesta de los Vaqueros tradition. In past years, it has attracted around 200,000 spectators.

 

Tucson Rodeo Parade Museum

Museum

When the historic vehicles are not on parade, they reside in the Tucson Rodeo Parade Musuem on the west side of the current rodeo grounds in South Tucson. Specifically, they’re exhibited in a couple barns and a hangar that’s a holdover from the property’s previous days as an early municipal airport.

After the first Tucson Rodeo Parade, the museum started collecting horse-drawn vehicles and restoring them. In some cases, families donated carriages that they no longer used after switching to automobiles.

Carriage at Tucson Rodeo Parade drive-thru

In 2021, many of these wagons and buggies were put on display outside of the museum for a special event (which is where most of these photos were taken), but that is a story for another day


Tucson Rodeo Stagecoach

– More Tucson Rodeo Info –

  • Tucson Rodeo history
  • The Town of Marana and rodeo
  • As far as I can tell, “Rodeo Week” in Tucson refers to the 5-day workweek in the middle of the festival. The Rodeo also includes the weekend before and after that, making the whole thing 9 days.
  • La Fiesta de los Vaqueros is one of the top 25 professional rodeos in the U.S.
  • Professional rodeos are the ones where the competitors do rodeo full-time (like professional ball players). There are also regional amateur rodeo circuits for people who just want to compete on weekends.
  • I learned about Tucson schools observing “Rodeo Break” or “Rodeo Vacation” from a friend who grew up here. He always had those days off – and he never went to the rodeo.

The Force of Words

Star Wars in Navajo - Opening crawl

The Word

In many cultures, around the world and across time, the spoken word has been seen as having a power to create and destroy. In the Hebrew Bible, creation is spoken into existence with the words “Let there be light.”

The words of the Diné (or Navajo) people helped to bring an end to World War II. Diné serving in the U.S. Marines developed a code adapted from their tribal language that baffled the Japanese. These “Code Talkers” were able to communicate top secret information to aid the Allied Powers’ efforts in the brutal theater of war in the Pacific.

The Navajo Code Talker program has grown in public consciousness over the last 40 years and has been the subject of many books, documentaries, and even the 2002 film Windtalkers. Yet, with all this focus on what the language accomplished, you couldn’t watch a Hollywood film in Navajo until recently.

 

Star Wars Celebration - SWCA

A New Hope in Navajo

In 2013, Navajo Nation Museum director Manuelito Wheeler embarked on a project with Lucasfilm to dub the original Star Wars: A New Hope into Navajo!

It would be the first mainstream film to be translated into any Native American language.

I learned about this as I was preparing to go to Anaheim for Star Wars Celebration 7 (2015 convention celebrating all things Star Wars). One of the panels that intrigued me most was a discussion and documentary screening about the project.

During this panel, I was surprised to learn that there are a sizeable number of Diné that still speak the Navajo language, traditionally known as Diné Bizaad, almost exclusively. However, their numbers are slowly growing silent as many from the younger generations are no longer learning their parents’ language.

The panelists explained that, despite the admonitions of their parents about the importance of learning to speak their native tongue, the younger generation often see the language as a relic of the past, irrelevant to their lives.

 

Voiceover actor for Star Wars in Navajo
Diné voice actor in the documentary.

Film as a Cultural Force

The excitement that the Star Wars dubbing project generated was multigenerational, drawing voice talent and actors from throughout the Diné community.

When the project was complete, the newly-dubbed film was shown outdoors at rodeo grounds on the reservation. After the movie finished, a Navajo elder, who spoke no English, exclaimed through a translator that it was the best movie she had ever seen! The original 1,500 DVDs sold out quickly with profits going to the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department, which helped fund the dubbing project.

Indeed, this project was amongst recent efforts to blaze a trail for the resurgence of Diné Bizaad on the reservation. The movie has even been used in Navajo language classes for the youngest generation. In the eyes of the youth, it is giving a voice to their language that many find compelling. If a hero like Luke Skywalker speaks Diné Bizaad, there’s no denying that their parents’ language has cultural force!

 

Northern Arizona clouds

A Fresh Perspective

At the end of the panel, we were treated to a viewing of the Navajo-dubbed version of Star Wars.

Being a language geek, I knew that I would find the story behind this project enjoyable. But I was surprised by how moved I was by actually viewing part of the film in the Diné Bizaad language.

Because I couldn’t understand what was being said, I paid more attention. I watched the background and noticed how much the dry landscape of Tatooine reminded me of Arizona and the Navajo reservation. I noticed how objects looked rusty and well worn, like abandoned buildings along the old Route 66.

 

Star Wars opening text in Navajo.
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….”

I listened to the voices of the Diné voice actors. I was surprised to find out that, in this dubbed version, the voice of C3PO was a woman! But why not? It actually worked really well.

Even Uncle Owen’s words sounded more kindly and thoughtful than his English-speaking counterpart.

As the panelists wrapped up, one of the voice actors from the dub quoted something an older tribal member had said to a younger one, “Remember your language. Use it. One day your language will feed you.”

Words have power. They can start wars. They can bring peace. They have the force to create new ways of seeing.


SWCA

– More Info –

The next Star Wars Celebration convention is scheduled for August 27-30 in Anaheim, CA.

 

Films:

 

Language:

  • According to Ethonologue: Languages of the World, as quoted in a 2017 article in the Navajo Times, there are 7,600 Navajo-only speakers and over 171,000 fluent speakers worldwide.
  • The same article shows a steady decline in Navajo speakers, with U.S. Census data showing that 93% of Diné spoke the language in 1980, but only 51% by 2010.
  • However, there is a movement among some young people to keep the language and culture alive, such as traditional singers Taylor Begay and his brother Dylon Begay.

 

Museums:

 

Navajo code talkers display
From the Navajo Code talkers display inside Burger King in Kayenta, Arizona.