Author Archives: sgfuente

Ángel, Ángel!

MAIN DISCRIPTION:

AL: “When I was in Vietnam in 1967..we were out on patrol one day…and uh I was with a ground unit, so we pretty much always walked. Except this one day we got attached to an armor unit, and they rolled around in tanks-and..obviously as much as I hated to walk I asked for uh a hitchhike-One of the tanks, so I jumped on top and-and as we were patrolling they were moving along and uh..somewhere halfway through the patrol I heard somebody call my name…and I mean it was a loud call “Ángel, Ángel!” and uh, typically, in retrospect now that I think back..you know people didn’t call me ‘Ángel’ in Vietnam. You know they-they called me Doc-Doc Lopez, err some-something like that cuz I was a medic. But now that I’m thinking, in this moment somebody is calling me “Ángel, Ángel, Ángel” now I say-w-wait a minute..it doesn’t make sense. So, anyway I jumped off the tank to run back and see who was calling me..I got back to where that voice was coming from and..there was nobody there..So, meantime, the tank is still moving along. So I run back to catch up, so I can..you know, keep goin’ on the ride. But before I could get there the tank hit a mine, and as it hit the mine..it exploded. It-it was carrying around 6 g-guys, 6 soldiers in there. 3 of them were killed, the other 3 were severely wounded. And I think that uh..had I been on that tank obviously..I would’ve been wounded or killed, one of the two so..I…look back at the time and say..who was calling me? Well if we fast forward back, you know, to when I came back from Vietnam..I’m..sitting there talking to my dad one day and he says “you know, one night, your mother woke up from the middle of a dream..and she kept screaming: Ángel, Ángel, Ángel! They just killed Ángel! Ángel has just been killed! Ángel, Ángel, Ángel! And she would just not stop calling your name”..obviously I can not pinpoint the date, or the time when I heard my name being called in Vietnam..to the time when my mother woke up from the dream yelling “Ángel, Ángel, Ángel” but…inside of me I believe that..that might’ve been what it was. That, uh. It was my mother that was calling me, and I was listening to her calling me-and i think that-that’s what saved me that one day”

INFORMANT’S OPINION:

SF: “So do you believe it was a spiritual..uh warning or a ghostly encounter of some sort?”

AL: “I think..it was a spiritual connection. Something s-supernatural. Supernatural connection. Something that through, uh, space and time you know..It-it uh..there was that connection with my mom and I head her calling me. Even though she was waking up from a dream, you know back in the states, I was hearing her voice..In uh, in Vietnam that one day”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

The idea of a ghost or spirit spans several different realms of concept. Because of this, I believe that what the informant experienced was a ghostly encounter. Even though she is alive, the spirit of his mother called out to him. Ghosts and spirits are often regarded as entities of energy that are not confined by the concepts of space and time, and are able to appear whenever, and however they chose. Due to these reasons alone, it it quite possible that what the informant experienced is far beyond coincidental.

Babaeng Nakaputi (The Lady in White)

MAIN DESCRIPTION:

CP: “Oh my god in the Philippines it is CRAZY! These stories, these, um, all of these different things about ghosts..and-and the thing is the ghost stories they, they aren’t like ‘oh my god i was so sacred about it’ its usually ‘oh yeah i saw this person’..and its usually ‘oh it was great to see them’. You know? So um, so my..so my dad when he was in the Philippines he drove uh, he drove one of those Jeepies. So it’s like, like um, one of those taxi’s in the Philippines, right. So you when you’re one of those Jeepie drivers, you start early in the morning, start picking up people and you don’t, you don’t usually finish until late at night. Then you go home at night and usually everybody is already asleep, nobody is out on the streets anymore to pick up or anything. So I guess one night he was on the way home, and you know, there’s always all these stories of, in the Philippines, there’s something called “Babaeng Nakaputi” or The White Lady, Lady in White. That is the most famous ghost in the Philippines. They call her the White Lady because its always, its usually, a female that they find walking…out in the middle of nowhere late at night or something. And she’s all white. White dress, white everything”

SF: “Was she a bride?”

CP: ” Uh..nothing to do with a bride. No-nobody knows her story but everybody sees her. EVERYBODY sees her”

SF: “Is there a specific time of night? Or place that she likes to be?”

CP: “No-Not necessarily, no not necessarily because it could be in different town-it could be-..but it’s usually at night. And it could be, it could be, like early morning, or it could be at dusk, but its usually at night, right. So the thing is, so, so, the things is, everybody has the same story. It’s always this white lady, that’s what they always see, right. So he was um..I guess the story was he was on his way home..after a late night of driving, and he drove by and you know..the streets are empty! And the thing is um..usually she’s seen in the farm areas, in the farm lands. It’s never in the cities, it’s never in the cities where you find her, its always in the farm areas, right. So he was driving down on his way home and all of a sudden he sees a lady, sees someone, you know, thats walking down and..he notices she’s all white! He’s like ‘oh my god..’ and he passes by you know looks at her, and when he looks at his mirror to look back..she was gone. Right, of course she wasn’t there anymore. And the thing is, he-he thinks he recognized her as one of-one of his um, his old old relatives that had passed. And that’s usually the case, usually when you see a White Lady its usually one of your relatives that has passed on..”

SF: “Oh wow, ok. So-so the story goes..when people see her uh..she takes the appearance or a relative?”

CP: “A lot, A LOT of times, its someone that they’ve known, yeah-yeah-“

INFORMANTS OPINION:

SF: “so..do you believe in her?”

CP: “Umm…..I’m not going to say she’s not real?..That-uh-I’m sure that they probably have seen her, right. Of course I haven’t seen her myself but um, but I do believe in ghosts and spirits..and um..but the thing is I believe they’re around for a specific reason. To…finish something..There’s something that needs to be taken care of, there’s something that needed to happen before she goes on, and moves on to her world. You know, but um..yeah I definitely believe in the afterworld and spirits and stuff like that. But I think that comes with the religion, and um..yeah thats one of the stories, yeah.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

As someone who is Latinx, I was raised knowing and partially believing in iconic urban legends such as ‘La Llorona’. Having friends, acquaintances, and certain family members, from different countries in Latin America, the story of the mysterious woman in white varies, and changes depending on the culture or simply who’s telling the story. It was so interesting to hear and learn of something, someone, so similar to La Llorona, who is of general knowledge in the Philippines. I do agree with the informant that, though I’ve personally never seen Babaeng Nakaputi, La Llorona, or any ghostly apparition, I do believe in the supernatural. Though there are vital differences between La Llorona, and Babaeng Nakaputi, their similarities lead me to believe in the possibility of her, Babaeng Nakaputi, existence.