Author Archives: Marie Griffith

The Crying Lady – Mexico

When I was little, my grandma used to tell me this story called, “The Crying Lady.”  

It’s a Hispanic story about this beautiful woman named Maria.  She was beautiful, the prettiest woman ever alive, and she was very conceited and full of herself.  She wouldn’t give anyone the time of day, she wanted the most handsome man in the world.  She then met a man that was just as beautiful as she was, a guy that can play guitar, a guy that can sing.  But not really knowing him, just knowing that he was a good looking man, she ended up marrying him.  They were happy for a few years, had a couple of boys, and he then returned to his old ways: he would party, not come home for months at a time.  One day on her way home, she caught her husband with another woman.  She was so angry and hurt that she drowned her sons in a nearby river.  She regretted it right away, and tried to save her sons but it was too late.  She died of grief on the river bed, and is still said to haunt Mexico.  And so goes the story of Maria the Crying Lady.
Just because you are beautiful, doesn’t mean you are beautiful on the inside.  You must be humble, and nice to people even if they aren’t beautiful on the outside, because it is the inside that counts.  I just remember growing up she would constantly tell me this story.

Francine thinks of this story as a lesson of character, not a ghost story.  However, she told me that this story isn’t generally seen as a “moral story,” but is instead a very well-known ghost story in Mexico.  But her grandma, who wanted to instill good morals in her, told her the story stressing the character flaw in Maria.  She told me that, even though her grandma told her this story quite frequently as a child, her grandmother would sometimes even leave out the part of Maria still haunting Mexico as a grieving ghost, because she didn’t Francine to focus on the ghost aspect of it.  The message really resonated with Francine, as a pretty Mexican woman herself, and plans on telling her children the story once they are old enough to understand.

This is not an uncommon theme in stories.  When a person is so wrapped up in themselves that they somehow end up being bitten in the butt later on (e.g. the story of Narcissus). But I can really appreciate the fact that Francine’s grandmother wanted the emphasis of the story not to be the superstitious element, but the moral element.  Especially in regards to children, ghost/superstitious stories can stick with a person for their whole lives, as I saw with many of my other informants.  Maybe telling more superstitious stories at an older age would not have such an effect, because children are very, very impressionable at a young age.  I mean this isn’t the most horrible/gruesome ghost story around, and the moral component is very evident, but I still think it was smart of the grandma to play that part down.

Kyoto and Osaka Frogs – Japan

These 2 frogs lived in Japan but did not know about each other: one lived in Kyoto, and one lived in Osaka, and they were both happy frogs.  But they would both wonder what the other town looked like.  The Kyoto frog thought, “I wonder what Osaka looks like,” just as the Osaka frog thought, “I wonder what Kyoto looks like.” And so coincidentally, on the same day, both of these frogs decided to leave their happy homes and travel down a road to the other city to see what it looks like.  They set out on their journeys on opposite ends of the country on the same road, and little did they know that a long and hard journey laid ahead of them.  They both reached this mountain and thought, “Oh man, I will never be able to climb up this mountain!”  But they did it anyways, and right when they reached the very top of the mountain, they saw each other and couldn’t believe what they saw.  They started talking about where they were from, and what they were doing, and decided to take a rest on the mountaintop.  And then they got this great idea: if they were a little bit taller, then they could look over the mountains and see what the other city looked like, and wouldn’t have to venture all the way to the opposite city.  One of the frogs said, “what if we stand and lean against each others’ shoulders, then maybe we can see the cities?”  So frogs stood up, shoulders leaning against each other and noses pointed towards the city they wanted to see.  But little did the frogs know that their eyes are on the back of their head, so they were actually looking at the city they came from.  So the Osaka frog thought, “Kyoto looks just like Osaka!” and the Kyoto frog thought, “Osaka looks just like Kyoto!”  Both of them decided there was no point in traveling any further, so they said their goodbyes and headed back to their respective cities, and lived out their entire lives thinking Kyoto looked just like Osaka, and Osaka looked just like Kyoto.

Lisa says that this story did not have any particular meaning to her, but she enjoyed hearing it as a child.  Her grandmother, or obaachan, wanted to instill some Japanese heritage in Lisa, since she is only half Japanese and lives in America.  She says that it has helped her feel more connected to her Japanese side, because she feels like her family has been very Americanized.  And since her children have even less Japanese blood – they are only a quarter – she plans on passing on these stories so they have some appreciation for their Japanese heritage.  She has also been to both of these cities, and she finds this story amusing because the cities are both extremely different.

I can appreciate the fact that her grandma is trying to connect Lisa to her Japanese heritage, because my mom tried doing the same with my brother and I when we were younger.  Except we didn’t really understand what she was trying to do at that point, so we weren’t very receptive and my mom stopped trying.  But even now, through this project, I feel a little more connected to my Filipino heritage, and, like Lisa, want to pass it on to my children so they don’t lose appreciation for their ethnic culture.  I have also found learning about other heritages very very interesting, as these stories play huge roles in cultural identity.

I mean I’ve never been to Japan, so the story probably isn’t as amusing to me because I have no idea what either city looks like.  But it has been on my brother and my bucket list for a while, so when we finally go I want to make it a point to go to both Kyoto and Osaka so I can compare them.  Also, I never knew that if a frog were to stand up on their two feet, their eyes would be looking behind them.  So I guess I learned something from this story!

The White Lady – Philippines

When I was little, all of the stories I was told tended to be very supernatural oriented, as the culture in the Philippines tends to be very superstitious.  There were a lot of ghosts, exorcisms, and other spooky stuff.  So I remember a story that my dad, grandpa, used to tell me, which was an account of something he actually saw when he was a teenager.  I didn’t know this was even a folktale until much later in life. 

He said he was walking along the road with his friend at night, it was dark, and he felt like there was somebody behind him.  So he looked behind him, and he said it was a lady with dark hair, long dark hair, wearing all white.   She was wearing a long white dress, and he thought she was real. He yelled to her, and he said she was just kind of floating and coming towards him, so he and his friends started to run.  And I remember he told me that story when I was a little girl, so I went into the closet with my friends and I swore if we just sat there and waited we would see the lady in the white dress. 

Then I started looking at Filipino folklore stories – I even bought you and your brother a book, but you found it to be very boring – and I came upon a story called “The White Lady”  and it is a very popular folklore ghost story that the Filipinos tell.  It is about a Caucasian-European descent female  that had been killed on the side of the road by a taxi driver.  And she appears as this ghost in a long white dress with long dark hair.  However, she is sighted all over the Philippines, and continues to be seen by many Filipinos, whether it’s in the mountains, on the road, by the beach, so I don’t know.  Apparently grandpa saw the white lady in the white dress.

I remember that because ever since grandpa told me that story, I’ve been afraid of walking alone by myself in the dark.  So I always sleep with a small night light or a candle or something whenever Dad is gone and I have to sleep by myself.  When people tend to Westernize, or come to America, they don’t seem to talk about the ghosts anymore.  And when I was little, I remember seeing voodoo dolls.  I didn’t know what they were then, I didn’t figure it out until I was much older.  Witch doctors were huge as well.  So superstition huge in the islands.  But once they come to America the superstition seems to evaporate – which is a good thing.

Like I said in one of the earlier posts (“The Crying Lady – Mexico”), superstitious/ghost stories resonate with children of young ages.  As seen by my mother, the effect of this story has stayed with her: she is still afraid to be alone in the dark.  I didn’t even know that.  But according to my mother, these Filipino superstitions seem to evaporate as the later generations come to America.  She told me that she used to be much more afraid when she was actually in the Philippines, but now that she lives in America, she feels like the stories only apply to those living in the Philippines. But her fear didn’t completely go away.   I myself am SUCH a baby when it comes to scary stories, so if I lived in the Philippines I would probably sleep with the lights on every day.  That’s probably why my parents never told us scary stories, showed us scary movies, and discouraged me and my brother from sharing scary stories with each other.  And it’s not like we really lived by anywhere “haunted,” because I feel like superstitious/ghost stories in the United States if very dependent on location, while stories in the Philippines, such as this one, transcend throughout the whole country.

Polydactyly – Philippines

A belief that was pretty popular in our Santo Domingo Illocos Sur township, and I am pretty sure that it was believed in other provinces in the Philippines…  But it doesn’t matter, because folklore is beliefs and superstitions and parables that fall under the same guise.  I was told this ever since I was a little girl about having extra fingers or extra toes. 

It has been said in our little town that any baby that is born with an extra or an extra toe is going to be very lucky in life, and most likely going to be very wealthy and successful. 

So, obviously, with my having the extra toe (that I got removed), I believed since I was a little girl that I was going to be very successful in life.  And I wonder if that is why I was always kind of started new projects without any fear of failure, without any doubt that I was going to do extremely well and you know, better than it was ever done before, so to speak.  So that is a belief that was obviously important for me.  I think everyone in the province as well was much more convinced about the accuracy of that belief because of Lola Maria [Lola Maria is my great-grandmother, who is currently 103] because she is the wealthiest woman in our township and she was also born with many extra digits.  The Filipinos are very superstitious,  so it is no surprise that everyone sees that as the reasoning behind Lola’s success.

This folk belief was instrumental in my mother’s self-identity.  She has always told that she had no fear of failure in the business world, and went very far very quickly because she had the utmost faith in her abilities.  I had no idea that this was why my mom had such a supreme work ethic.  And it’s no surprise that she looked at her grandmother as a perfect example of this folk belief, as she is the wealthiest woman in our township and basically runs the place.  Polydactyly, for some reason, has been passed in my family for generations.  My mom was never ashamed of her polydactyly, and in fact saw it as a blessing because it aided in her success.

I myself was born with an extra toe that was removed as an infant (no, my feet are not super deformed), and I grew up being extremely self conscious about that part of me.  Even though the only remnant is a thin scar on the side of my foot, I always felt like a freak growing up.  But now that I’m older, I’ve come to terms with  it, and this belief has helped me cope as well… I didn’t know this folk belief until this project.  If my mom can take it and make it into a positive, so can I.

Momotaro – Japan

This is a story my obaachan (grandma) told me as a little girl, the story of “Momotarō,” which means “peach tarō” or “peach boy.”
Momotaro was sent to earth in a giant peach, and he was found floating down a river by an elderly couple who were washing their clothes in the river.  And the old woman took the peach home to her husband, and he helped her cut it open, and lo and behold he found inside little Momotaro.  He told the couple he was sent from the heavens to be their son since they had never had children.  They gave him the name Momotaro and raised him happily as their son.  When Momotaro grew up into a big boy, he ran away to a far away island to fight Japanese demons.  During this journey, he met 3 animals: a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant.  He became friends with these animals, and all four of them fought these Japanese demons together.  They were successful in their venture: they captured the chief, plundered the treasures, and brought them back to Japan where Momotaro, his friends and his family lived happily ever after.

Lisa says that this story did not have any particular meaning to her, but she enjoyed hearing it as a child.  Her grandmother, or obaachan, wanted to instill some Japanese heritage in Lisa, since she is only half Japanese and lives in America.  She says that it has helped her feel more connected to her Japanese side, because she feels like her family has been very Americanized.  And since her children have even less Japanese blood – they are only a quarter – she plans on passing on these stories so they have some appreciation for their Japanese heritage.

I thought it was a cute story, and kind of reminded me of James and the Giant Peach, even though the premise is a little different.  I can appreciate the fact that her grandma is trying to connect Lisa to her Japanese heritage, because my mom tried doing the same with my brother and I when we were younger.  Except we didn’t really understand what she was trying to do at that point, so we weren’t very receptive and my mom stopped trying.  But even now, through this project, I feel a little more connected to my Filipino heritage, and, like Lisa, want to pass it on to my children so they don’t lose appreciation for their ethnic culture.  I have also found learning about other heritages very very interesting, as these stories play huge roles in cultural identity.