Author Archives: yuchima

David Crockett

5) David Crockett

David Crockett was a texas hero. He was supposedly a famous bear hunter, but he was best known for his ability to hunt raccoons/coons–he could just walk into the forest and hunt one down right away. He famously wore one of their pelts on his head at all time, and was almost viewed as the god of the forest.  

When the mexican army was closing in on the Alamo, he was there fighting amongst the ranks of the Texan Militia. When the mexican army began to prevail among the ranks, the legend has it that he was one of the last ones to go down fighting. He’s seen as a symbol of bravery and the raw spirit that made up the Texan revolution. However, a legend floated around the Mexican camps that Davy didn’t actually have a last stand. Supposedly the found him hiding crates with a few other men; he begged for mercy but they stabbed him to death with their bayonets.

This story was provided by my Texan friend Ben Butler. He told me this story after I asked him to tell me some folklores. He knew the story really well, and told it in a very heroic, storybook way.

I think this story is very typically texan, reflecting their pride in being a texan, in the whole ordeal of the Alamo, and the fact that Texas used to be a Country. It definitely reflects the whole texan mindset and culture really really well.

Las Mananitas

Las Mañanitas

Instead of the english birthday song, every time it was a kid’s birthday in my elementary school class we would sing Las Mañanitas before taking turns hitting a piñata. It’s a traditional mexican birthday song sung at parties. YOu usually replace “mi bien” with the person’s name.

 

Lyrics:

Estas son las mañanitas que cantaba el rey David.

Hoy por ser día de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti.

 

Despierta mi bien, despierta, mira que ya amaneció

ya los pajarillos cantan la luna ya se metió.

 

Qué linda está la mañana en que vengo a saludarte

venimos todos con gusto y placer a felicitarte.

 

El día en que tu naciste nacieron todas las flores

y en la pila del bautismo cantaron los ruiseñores.

 

Ya viene amaneciendo, ya la luz del día nos dio.

Levántate de mañana mira que ya amaneció.

Translation:

 

This is the morning song that King David used to sing.

Today being the day of your saint, we sing it to you.

 

Wake up my dearest, wake up, see now that the day has dawned

the sparrows are singing, the moon has finally set.

 

How lovely is this morning, when I come to greet you

we all come with joy and pleasure to congratulate you.

 

The very day you were born all the flowers first bloomed

and in the baptismal font all the nightingales sang.

 

The dawn has come my darling, and the sunlight is here for us.

Rise up and shine with the morning and you’ll see that here’s the dawn.

I do know of similar things before, as where I went to for middle school in San Antonio, Texas also had similar traditions where they sang long spanish birthday songs. Having never learnt Spanish however, I never knew what the lyrics meant.

Train Tracks

3) Train tracks

  • I had a friend in San Antonio who would suggest going to the “train tracks” every night when we would be looking for something to do, insisting that it was the scariest haunted thing she had ever experienced. One night we finally gave in, and she drove us to the South Side of town and told us the legend as we approached. Apparently a school bus stalled on the tracks one morning as a train approached. The conductor tried to stop it but couldn’t, and the train barreled into the schoolkids, killing all of them. Their ghosts still haunt the tracks to this day, and they say that if you park your car on the tracks and put it in neutral it will start to move uphill from the children pushing it out of the way of possible trains. You will even find their tiny fingerprints on your car if you sprinkle baby powder or something on it. We got there and parked. It was very eerie, and once we put the car in neutral it moved a tennsy bit. We got the hell out of there, but I’m pretty sure the car just moved because of an incline.
  • I asked Annalise again, to tell me a folklore myth that she has experienced in her life and this is the story that she told me. When she performed this it was at night, and we were sitting in her dorm, and really added to the creepy vibe of this whole experience.
  • Again, I have never heard of this story before, neither have I been to the south side of town, but it all sounds very interesting and makes me wanna go and experience it. It kind of sounds along the line of those ghostly hitch-hiker story though; that probably something else in nature caused certain things to happen, but people, out of superstition think that it is something supernatural.

Chupacabras

2) Chupacabras

  • The chupacabra is a legendary creature that looks like a freaky mangy coyote thing with big eyes and huge fangs. Chupacabra means “goat sucker” in spanish, because when goats and chickens start turning up dead, completely drained of blood, it means there’s a chupacabra around. Parents/friends/teachers used to threaten that chupacabras would eat us if we went out by ourselves late at night. I remember seeing a tiny mangy chihuahua out on a walk at night and thinking it was a chupacabra and running the hell outta there.
  • Annalise told me of this story when I asked her of specific San Antonio related folklores and folk creatures. She heard of this story because her parents and texan family used to tell this to her as a kid so that she won’t go out late at night. She kind of said this as a joke, something along the lines of big foot.
  • I have never heard of Chupacabras before even though i’ve lived in San Antonio for 6 years. I do know about Big foot though. I wonder why Chupacabras are not as “famous” as Big foot; maybe it is because Big foot is present in more cultures.. but why??? Chupacabras kind of sound like a creature that people invented to justify wolfs and predators that killed their lifestock.

This too shall pass

18) This too shall pass

Once upon a time there was a really wealthy King. His son was used to the lavish lifestyle and the King thought that he need to go through some hardship to appreciate all possessions more. Thus, the King told his son that he wants him to find an item that can make the poor happy and the rich sad.

The prince then set on his journey and eventually he returned with a ring.

On this ring, it has a writing carved on it. The writing was: This too, shall pass.

Upon looking at this ring, the King started crying nonstop.

The idea behind this story is that when a rich man sees the ring he/she will think of his own future in that everything he owns right now are meaningless because in the long run they are all going to disappear. As he dies, these riches will grow useless.

When a poor man looks at this however, he/she will be reminded of no matter how hard it might be right now, anything will pass, and that there is always a new tomorrow.

Max, very familiar of jewish culture as a jewish kid, told me this proverbial story. He performed this to me with great enthusiasm after I asked him to tell me some jewish tradition stories. I really like this story actually because it is so right and truthful, and like everything about is very accurate and wise.