Author Archives: yuchima

Prince and the Lion

10) Prince and the Lion

-) There was a prince who was born in a castle. It is said by a prophet that before he reaches the age of 12, a lion will look at the prince and cause the prince to die.

Thus, the King and Queen locked the prince in the castle, and never let him outside, fearing for any sorts of accidents to happen.

One day the prince (age 11 and a half) was bored and was wandering in the hallway, he sees this intricate design of the lion on the wall paper. The prince imagined that he was playing with these lions and thus he was tracing the lion’s shapes on the wall.

However, in the place of the lion’s eye, there was a nail; and so when the Prince accidentally traced it with his finger, he got cut and got tetanus, and he died from it.

-) The moral of this story is that no matter how hard you try to avoid something, what is bound to happen is bound to happen. This is widely believed by many Greek people, and it is a theme that is deeply ingrained in their culture. In many greek plays and myths and legends, we can see that when the main character tries to escape their fate, fate just leads them right back into where they tried to run away from. (ex: Oedipus.)

-) My Greek friend heard this story from her grandmother, and her mother; it was one of the bedtime stories that was told to her. She performed this to me when she heard that I was collecting folklore stories; but rather than a performance it was pretty concise and flat.

-) I think it is very interesting how the theme of fate is so ingrained in greek cultures; from ancient greek plays, myths, to different folklore tales. Even my friend told me that this is something she believed in. These tales must have played a pretty significant role in shaping her belief.

 

The Lion who thought himself wiser than his mother

9) The Lion who thought himself wiser than his mother

A Lion, a man, a baboon, a buffalo and some other animals were playing together in the land of Aroxxams. There is a thunderstorm area and a rain area in Aroxxams and the lion and the man both wanted to go to the thunderstorm area. Since they couldn’t agree with each other or reach a compromise, they left angry.

That night, the lion went back to his mother and told his mother about the quarrel. The mom lion in turn told him that he should be careful of the man that walks on his feet, has weapons, wear tiger tails on his neck and keeps white dogs as pets. The lion however, refused to listen to the mom and said that he doesn’t understand why he needs to beware of someone that he knows already.

The next day, the Lion went to the same place they quarreled and he hid in the bush preparing to ambush. Eventually the man came with his dog; they went by the river to drink, and by the time they finished drinking, the lion jumped out and tried to attack the man, but before he even knows it, the man had speared him, and the dog had came to capture him. The Lion suddenly realized that he has been captured and he is struggling but he can’t get out. Then, the man ordered the dog to let the lion go, and said “let him go, so he can learn to listen to his mother.”

On his way back, the lion fell down and is too weak to continue. So he cried and cried for his mother to come save him.

Finally, the mother heard his wailing, and said “My son, this is what I’ve warned you about:

“Beware of the one who has pinching weapons,

Who wears a tuft of tiger’s tail,

Of him who has white dogs!

Alas! thou son of her who is short-eared,

Thou, my short-eared child!

Son of her who eats raw flesh,

Thou flesh-devourer;

Son of her whose nostrils are red from the prey,

Thou with blood-stained nostrils!

Son of her who drinks pit-water,

Thou water-drinker!’

I personally have never heard of any African tales before. My friend Mo told me this tale, and she also told me that lots of african tales involve animals as examples. Mo could recall this story pretty easily, but she had to look up the poem bit of it. From this story, I could really feel a different vibe to it, and that it seems to really value the maternal link/power.

Our lady of Guadlupe

8) Our lady of Guadalupe

Our lady of Guadalupe is the mexican reincarnation of Virgin Mary.

Long time ago in Mexico, the Spaniards/white mexicans were in charge of both property and the Catholic church while the Mestizos and the Native Americans and in general darker skinned mexicans were the peasants and doing all the hard work, and it was basically a feudalism situation.

There was one peasant named Juan Diego, and one day when he was just going about his daily routine, he heard a voice calling for him. Thus he followed the voice, and ended up on a hilltop where the Virgin Mary appeared to him; she was pregnant and and praying and she was standing up on a dragon. Virgin Mary told Juan Diego that she wants him to build a church on this hill.

However Juan Diego was full of doubts; he argued that since he is  peasant, he has no power and money, and that no one will listen to him, and thus he left. Since then, Virgin Mary appeared to him and requested this of him two more times, till Juan Diego finally decided to try to make it work.

Juan Diego went to the local priest that was in charge of the area, and told him that he has had a vision, but the priest laughed at Juan Diego and told him that Juan Diego doesn’t know what he is talking about; he is a peasant. Thus, when the Virgin Mary came to him one more time, he told her that he was sorry and that there is nothing he can do for her. The Virgin Mary then told Juan Diego that she’ll help him.

The Virgin Mary made a rose bush grow even though it was the middle of the winter; she told Juan Diego to pick these roses and carry them in his clothes (a serape) to go see the priest again. When Juan Diego reached the priest, he let the roses and the serape fall to the floor and somehow the image of the Guadalupana appeared. The priest then was shocked and hurried people to go build the church.  

Now Juan Diego is a saint, and the Guadalupana is really really important to the mexicans.

Miriam told me this story after I asked her to tell me some stories of her hispanic culture. Miriam is an artist, and she really likes the portraits of the Guadalupana and thus why she is all the more interested in the Guadalupana. She had always knew this story growing up because her family is religious, and out of the three stories that she told me, she performed this one with the greatest enthusiasm and the outmost details.

I had always known the symbol and the image of the Guadalupana but I never knew the story behind her before. This was pretty eye opening to me, but again it is very similar to many other religious stories that involves people who were sent visions.

 

Quetzalcoatl and Corn

7) Quetzalcoatl and Corn

Before the arrival of Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent-god of intelligence and self-reflection), the Aztecs only ate roots because the corn was hidden behind the mountains.

So the Aztecs sent priests to Quetzalcoatl (also overseer of priests) and asked him for corns to which Quetzalcoatl agreed to.

All the other gods beside Quetzalcoatl already tried to cross the mountain but none of them had enough wit and courage to succeed. Quetzalcoatl decided that he will turn himself into an insect to cross the mountains and he brought back a single grain of corn to the Aztecs.

The Aztecs planted the seed of that corn, and eventually the crop worked out more and millions more corn came and eventually became a staple crop for the Aztecs.

Miriam told me this story after I asked her to tell me a story. I also knew this story from before, because we were taught this back in 7th grade, and I guess Miriam, having gone to the same school as me, learnt the story there too. She had vague memories of certain parts so the performance was not perfect and had many doubting moments, but the big story was definitely comprehensible.

La IIorona

6) La IIorona

La IIorona is a mother that drowned her two children in a river, and she then committed suicide. Legend has it that she goes throughout Mexico looking and calling for her children; she always appears and wanders up and down the river.

Apparently “historically,” La Malinche gave birth to two sons by Cortes; The king and queen of Spain, fearing the Cortes is betraying them and building his own empire here in America, demanded for his return and used a beautiful Spanish lady to seduce him to come back. Cortes finally agreed and told  La Malinche that he is going to take their two sons, go back to Spain and leave her behind. La Malinche, realizing that she has helped the enemies destroy her people, she grew very desperate and prayed to her god to help her. The god told her that if she lets Cortes take her babies away, one of them will return and destroy her people.

Thus, the night before Cortes’ departure, La Malinche grabs her babies and escapes; however, Cortes soon discovers this and orders his soldiers to go hunt them down. They discovered them near a river. La Malinche stabs her babies in the heart and then the two falls into the river and dies. People later discovered La Malinche dead near/in the river.

Since then, rumor has it that she comes back as a woman in white dress, wailing all night long for her children.

(*For more information, see the film The Cry.)

My friend Miriam told me this story after I asked her to tell me some folklores of her culture. She is half hispanic so this is the story she told me. She could not remember a lot of the details really well, so I had to look up some of the informations myself. She knows this story just from growing up, her parents used to tell it to her, so that she’d be too afraid to go out at night alone.

I have heard of the story of La IIorona before and I have learnt about the history of Cortes and La Malinche but I never knew that there is a relationship in between the two, so honestly that was really interesting to learn.