Age: 28
Text: Interviewer – “What kind of ghost stories have you been told, told yourself, or know? Where did you learn them?”
CB – “There is a one specific ghost story for my family. A long time ago they used to own a ranch in Tecate. Near the southern edge of property was an old graveyard. According to my mother local cartel would double stuff the graves there with people they are getting rid of and one of those victims stayed around. Sometimes late at night, you can see him standing out the side of the road like he was waiting for a ride, for the afterlife or to a job you’re supposed to go to nobody knows. My mother swears she saw him once when they were out hunting rabbits in the evening. Normally, they weren’t allowed in the area at night because of the cartel, but she could see the access road from the hilltop and swore there was a man there that her sister couldn’t see.”
Interviewer – “Have you shared this story with anyone else outside of your family?”
CB – “Nope. Not really.”
Interviewer – “Thank you for sharing it with me, then.”
Context: This ghost story was told to CB by their mother, detailing the events of their own upbringing and paranormal stories. This being one of the many stories that their mother shared, usually ending with multiple spines of cacti, though with this ending in a much more supernatural atmosphere, unsure of what she saw was actually there or not. The story itself, until me, was only circulated within the family’s own folk group of believers and nonbelievers, whether it be something spooky to be feared or silly to be laughed at.
Analysis: Stories of the paranormal run deep within areas of burial, death, or where spirits would be inclined to seek revenge. Given how the circumstances of the cartels pressence within CB’s mother’s story lines up, the tale aligns itself with others of its kind where the point of origin is a crossroad of death. Additionally, CB’s mother’s perspective aligns with an environment which would encourage one to become more naturally accepting of the paranormal, supernatural forces, or spirits/apparitions. Given the setting, an old graveyard with a trouble history of unrest at night all with only one other person, CB’s mother, regardless of whether she actually saw something, would be automatically more inclined to agree that she did due to the mood and environment. Furthermore, attaching stories to the deceased is a classic trope of ghost stories, imposing their own subtales onto the larger tale at large, whether it be a woman in white, lonely hitchhiker, or in the case of CB’s mother, a victim of the cartel waiting for a ride to work.