Author Archives: fresolon

La Sihuanaba

Nationality: Guatemalan
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Orange County, California
Performance Date: 2/29/16
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The following story  is said to have occurred in Guatemala.

EO: “My aunt told me the story of the Sihuanaba and I’m not sure if it’s the wide one because like she told it to me very specifically, as if it were her that saw her. So it was like a first hand account sort of thing…I was terrified.”

What happened to your aunt?

EO: “She says she was riding a horse, and someone was ahead of her on a horse. And the person didn’t have a head or something. So they turned around, and it turns out the person’s hair was super messy, like a horse’s mane.” 

Did they interact?

EO: “No, she just looked at her, then went away. But that’s all I know about La Sihuanaba. She just looks at people and steals horses–so you can’t go alone.”

 

La Sihuanaba is a mythological creature of Guatemala and El Salvadoran folklore. Like many mythological creatures shared from parent-to-child, the story of La Sihuanaba is told by parents to convince their children not to roam alone away from the home.

Winchester Mystery House Tourist Site

Nationality: American/German
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Cruz
Performance Date: 3/25/16
Primary Language: English

The Winchester Mystery House is a house that was built in San Jose, California, in the 1800s, occupied by a husband and wife. As the story goes, as relayed by the informant, the woman in the story was paranoid that her husband’s ghost and others in the house would attempt to haunt her. Then, the woman, to avoid collisions with the supernatural, built several traps to fool her husband’s ghost: staircases that led nowhere, extra rooms, dead-ends, etc.

Interestingly, the house has since been turned into a tourist property, where, playing off the above legend, visits can pay for night tours through the “haunted house”. The Winchester Mystery House remains open to the public. Tours can be scheduled at its official website: http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/

It is impossible to know if the folklore surrounding the property caused the site to become a tourist attraction–or if the folklore was fabricated in order to promote the tourist attraction.

 

The Legend of Mountain Charlie

Nationality: American/German
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Cruz, California
Performance Date: 4/14/16
Primary Language: English
Language: German

The informant tells of the legend of a man named, literally, Mountain Charlie, in the 1850s. The man, a hunter in Santa Cruz, California, suffered a near-fatal  bear mauling in 1854 that disfigured the man. According to the informant (although there are variations of the details), Mount Charlie temporarily repaired his wounds as he lay stranded on the mountain by applying to them pesos which he had melted with an impromptu campfire. The informant uses acute details, such as “he got a five-by-three inch chunk of his face ripped off”. Additionally, the informant says there are many stories online about Mount Charlie, and that Mount Charlie has since been used as an explosions-testing site in the United States during World War II, as there is a weapons and ammunition factory up in the mountain that the informant has seen firsthand.

Although the details of Mount Charlie’s claim to fame are disputed, he remains an urban legend of Santa Cruz. The mountain at which he was attacked has since been named “Mount Charlie”, and a nearby road “Mount Charlie Road”.

 

Storm Drain called “Hitler’s Tunnel” in Palos Verdes

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Palos Verdes, California
Performance Date: 4/5/16
Primary Language: English

The informant is from Palos Verdes, apeninsula area on the coast of Southern California.

The informant claims there is a large storm drain that leads into the ocean which has gained popularity among the youth of the area. The storm drain, nicknamed “Hitler’s Tunnel”, has been responsible for inspiring many myths in the area.

AB: A bunch of kids would go into–literally go into the tunnel, and… allegedly, there was a group of middle schoolers from Dana High–from Dana middle school, whatever– that went into the tunnel and was never seen again. It was a group of like three kids. There’s like a bunch of creepy graffiti outside of that tunnel because, like, everyone goes there to get scared…or whatever. 

Why is it called “Hitler’s Tunnel”?

AB: The Hitler part actually had no significance at all. I was wondering, like, “Is it a tunnel that was used during World War II or something like that?” and turns out there’s actually nothing with that tunnel that has to do with World War II or anything like that. Just has to do with three kids that disappeared there once.

Do people still go there?

AB: Yeah, people go there to tag it and write obscenities on it. And that’s pretty much what it’s known for.

 

A Google search of “Hitler’s Tunnel, Palos Verdes” yields thousands of results, including many videos taken by youths exploring the tunnel and maps indicating the locations of the tunnel.

 

The Rougaroo

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/20/16
Primary Language: English

According to the informant, the Rougaroo is a folkloric creature who wanders Louisiana looking to attack children who have not fulfilled their Catholic duties.

 

What’s the Rougaroo

BW: I will tell you what’s known in the deep bayous of Lousianna is the Rougaroo. The Rougaroo is a creole mythological creature based off a bunch of different characters. Characters from African folklore, catholic folklore and Native American follore. The Rougaroo is essentially a werewolf that wanders around the dark quiet swamps of Southern Louisiana.

How did you hear of the Rougaroo?

BW: My mother used to tell me this story–about how when she was a little kid, her grandmother would talk about the Rougaroo coming to the little kids that didn’t fulfill their Lenten promises… It’s an indescribably terrifying creature. It’s faceless, uncanny. A very dark way of making kids eat fish on Fridays and stuff.

Your mother is from Lousiana?

BW: Yes, she is from LaFourche, Lousiana. L-A-F-O-U-R-C-H-E.

Interestingly, the legend of the  Rougaroo is not native to Lousiana, but is a creature of European folklore. Specifically, French. However, it has traveled with high French population that lives in French Louisiana. Most likely a factor of historical colonization, what is now “French Lousiana” was originally colonized by France as “New France”. Since then, although the land is in the continental United States, there still exists some French demographics and culture. Therefore, the “Rougaroo” is a French invention (to scare the earlier generations into subscribing to Catholic practices) that spread to Louisiana through colonization of the 17th and 18th centuries.