Author Archives: Jan Bross

The Dybbuk of Boiarka

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 78
Occupation: Psychologist
Residence: Mexico City
Performance Date: 03/16/2017
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: Hebrew

Main Piece: A dybbuk is not exactly a ghost. It is the evil spirit of a sinner who takes the form of a deceased loved one to play tricks on the innocent. Shlomo was a poor tailor who lived in the small shetl of Boiarka with his wife Miriam. In one of the stormiest Sabbaths that Boiarka had ever seen, Shlomo came home with Rabbi Gorkshev. He told his wife that he had invited the Rabbi for soup for the Sabbath, as he had helped the Rabbi to get out of the temple on that stormy night. Miriam was overjoyed. It was very uncommon for these low standing people to be honored with the visit of a Rabbi. When their eldest daughter Teibel entered the room and saw the Rabbi she turned as pale as ghost. Miriam and Shlomo asked her what the matter was, and she told them that there was a dybbuk in their house. They asked her where, and she pointed directly to the Rabbi. Everyone started laughing at her remarks; how could the beloved Rabbi be a dybbuk. Yet, Teibel claimed that the Rabbi had been dead for months. See, Teibel was set to be married to one of the Rabbi’s pupils, and though him she found out about his death. The Rabbi explained that the girl must have been confused, as he did in fact fall severely ill, but he got better in time. Teibel was not convinced of this, so he asked the Rabbi for his pupil and her soon-to-be fiancée’s name. The rabbi could not remember, because he said he was very old and he had been very ill, so his memory was not what it used to be. This was enough for Teible. She picked up a a kitchen knife and stabbed Rabbi Gorkshev in the chest. The Rabbi ran out of the house and wandered through the streets in the storm. His parents told her “You have cursed us”, to which she answered, “He was a dybbuk. God had already cursed us”. And so the family was cursed for eternity. If it was because the daughter killed a Rabbi or because a dybbuk entered their home, no one knows. Even so, the villagers of Boiarka say that in stormy nights, they can still hear the screams of Rabbi Gorkshev wandering through the streets.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Ethel Soriano was born to Jewish parents from the Ukraine, where the town of Boiarka still stands. She says her dad used to tell the story to her at nights to scare her, but only made her interested in Jewish folk stories. She visited Boiarka herself because of her fascination with the legend.

Context on the piece: According to Ethel, the villagers of Boiarka tell the story to their children to scare them so that they will stay out of the streets, as the dybbuk still roams them according to legend.

Thoughts on the piece: I think the story lends itself more to simply being a tale for kids to stay out of the streets. The fact that the family never knew if he was actually a dybbuk is fascinating, as their curse could have been a self fulfilled prophecy by the daughter. With her believing that God had cursed them, she stabbed the Rabbi, which could have been the cause of their curse. This could send the message of not jumping into conclusions, but if the Rabbi was actually a dybbuk, the message could tell us not to be so trusting of good faces like Shlomo was. It’s a story where the meaning is dual and even ambiguous, which is unusual for legends in other culture. It follows the Jewish tradition of the public taking out their own meaning form it.

The Coeb Borthers reference a version of this legend in the opening scene of their film ‘A Serious Man’ (2009).

The Island of Dolls

Nationality: Mexcian
Age: Unknown
Occupation: Tourist Guide in Xochimilco
Residence: Xochimilco, Mexico City
Performance Date: 03/17/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main piece: A very old man from back then owned the island, and he had a niece. She must have been around 15 years old and he loved her. More than any of his own children, and she had a lot, a lot of dolls that she collected. One day the girl was looking down at the canals while playing with her dolls and she fell and she drowned. Some people say that it was the old man who threw her to the water because he went insane or was possessed, but I don’t think so. It was an accident and a tragedy that happens. The old man was heart broken by this and that is when he started to loose his mind. He saw the doll that she was playing with when she fell floating in the water and he hung it up in a tree because he thought that would bring back her spirit because she loved the dolls so much. After that, the guy hung the rest of the dolls up in his trees and whenever he sees a doll floating by he hangs it up. That’s how the island got its name, and after the old man died people say that it’s haunted by the ghost of the drowned girl. Some say that the dolls move and sometimes they even lure visitors to the island where the ghost of the dead girl gets them. I don’t believe the sorties, but I don’t want to risk it either.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Eloy is a tourist guide and a local of Xochimilco, the water canals of Mexico City. One of the min touristic attractions is that of an island that is characterised by the old, decrepit dolls that hang from its trees. It creates an unsettling atmosphere and it is said that the island is haunted.

Context to the performance: The informant told the story of the haunted island to me and a group of tourists while we were passing by it on a boat.

Thoughts on the piece: The only facts that are known of the legend is that the island was originally owned by Julian Santa Barrera, the alleged old man from the story. He started the tradition of hanging dolls up in the trees of the island, but there is no way of knowing if she had a niece or if she drowned in the canals. The idea of the island being haunted by an original owner could be due to the guilt of commercializing the Xochimilco zone and making it tourist-friendly. The fact that it was a small girl who was specifically said to be around 15 (a transitioning age in Mexico to adulthood) and the use of dolls of terrifying supernatural purposes can also be a commentary on the loss of innocence that is trying be be re-obtained.

For another version of the legend see: http://www.isladelasmunecas.com/

The Biltmore Hotel

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 04/16/2017
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: It’s the most haunted building in all of L.A. There have been so many deaths, serial killers, and plain weird stuff in there. Where do I begin? Well, first of all, that place was the last sighting of Elizabeth Short, better known as Black Dahlia. The next day, she was found cut in half in a neighborhood lawn with a smile carved into her face by cutting her cheeks open. It remains one of the biggest unsolved murder cases in L.A. The hotel was later used as the residence of serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacey, and they killed lots of people while they were staying there. The freakiest one is from last year, where a student named Elisa Lam was found drowned naked inside of one of the hotel’s water tanks. They found out of this because the residents complained that the water was black and had a funny smell. There was no way she could have crawled in there by herself. Those lids are heavy as hell. Someone had to put her in there, but no one knows how. There even a video of her on Youtube in the elevator where it looks like she’s talking to someone, but no one’s there, and then she starts convulsing. Some say that she was being possessed by one of the hotel ghosts. This could be Black Dahlia or one of the serial killers, which would explain why these spirits murdered her. Some even say that they have seen a woman with a wound on her stomach walking around the halls and disappearing into the walls, which we could assume to be black dahlia. I would never stay in that hotel. Bad stuff just seems to happen there.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Melissa is an enthusiast for local ghost stories, serial killers and unsolved mysteries. She knows about all of this because she is n avid reader and investigator on the subject. She claims that the Biltmore in Downtown L.A. is like the Mecca of people fascinated with these subjects. It still operates today and people still claim it to be haunted.

Context on the piece: Melissa brought this up in a group dinner conversation where we were all telling ghosts anecdotes to scare each other. According to her, that was the perfect setting to tell these kinds of urban legends. They are classically told around a campfire in the dark to enhance the performance atmosphere.

Thoughts o the piece: In American tradition, ghosts seem to always inhabit really old hotels or houses. The setting of a ghost story is rarely set in a high tech modernist building. This could be due to the fact that America is a future-centric society, and it might be manifesting guilt of letting go of the past through these legends. Perhaps that is why there is a prevailing theme of unsolved mysteries that haunt the hotel, as the truth behind the cases has been let go of to look to the future which brings guilt and fascination to the problem. It’s also interesting that the de-facto explanation to the odd occurrences in these mysteries is an intervention from the other world. It goes to show that it is a society with great interest on life after death.

Irish Protest Folk Song

Nationality: Irish
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Dublin, Ireland
Performance Date: 03/12/2017
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

When I was young I used to be as fine a man as ever you’d see;
The Prince of Wales, he said to me, “Come and join the British army.”

When I was young I had a twist of punching babies with me fist
And I thought I would enlist and join the British army.

Too ra loo ra loo ra loo, they’re looking for monkeys up in the zoo
If I had a face like you, I would join the British army.

Sarah Camdon baked a cake; it was all for poor old Slattery’s sake.
I threw me-self into the lake, pretending I was balmy.

Corporal Duff’s got such a drought, just give him a couple of jars of stout;
He’ll kill the enemy with his mouth and save the British Army.
Too ra loo ra loo ra loo, Me curse is on the Labour crew;
They took your darling boy from you to join the British army.

Captain Heeley went away and his wife got in the family way,
And all the words that she would say was “Blame the British Army.”
Too ra loo ra loo ra loo, I’ve made me mind up what to do
I’ll work my ticket home to you and leave the British army

Sarah Comden baked a cake, it was all for poor ‘oul Slattery’s sake
I threw herself into the lake, pretending I was barmy
toora loora loora loo, it was the only thing I could do
to work my ticket home to you and fuck the British army”
Background information about the piece by the informant: Carolina was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland to a strongly anti-British family. They see the British forces as an oppressor for the Irish people, and they have taught Carolina anti-British army protest folk songs since she was a child. She doesn’t necessarily share the sentiment of hating every single British person, but she does think that the country has not treated Ireland well, for which she enjoys singing these songs.

Context of the piece: The song is supposed to be sang in a community whenever there is a manifested anti-British feeling. This could be in more organized events like a street march, to more casual occurrences like an entire pub collectively singing the song while drunk. This is due to the British establishing colonies in the Irish island and still keeping the North as part of the UK. The people who sing these kinds of songs see this as an invasion from an oppressive empire, and their songs serve to represent them as the underdogs against the big authority.

Thoughts on the piece: Singing these kinds of songs with other people creates a strong sense of community, and it this case, it would be of nationalism. They are singing specifically about the British army rather than the British as a people, which already paints the nation in a military dictatorial fashion. Although there is anger shown in the song, it is mostly a ridicule of the idea of joining the British army, which further places the British outside of the trust circle of the Irish.

Folk Speech/Curse from Central Italy

Nationality: Italian
Age: 26
Occupation: Student
Residence: Cecina, Italy
Performance Date: 04/17/2017
Primary Language: Italian

Main piece:

  1. Porco Dio!
  2. Pork God!
  3. God is a pig!

Background information about the piece by the informant: Lorenzo is from the Tuscan region of Italy and claims this is very commonly included in folk speech from the central region of Italy. It comes from the idea of offending religious Catholics by calling God a pig, but it has expanded to a point where it can be an offense for everyone.

Context of the piece: The phrase is said in reference to something bad happening or as a curse, as it refers to God as a pig. If someone is talking about something bad that happened to them, they will follow it with “porco Dio”. It is also used as a curse insult against people that one wants to offend.

Thoughts on the piece: I never expected for one of the most Christian countries in the world and the seat of Catholicism to have this phrase as part of their folk speech. It’s a reminder that the folk people always have an antidote for the institution, which in this case would be the Church and religion. It also shows how much of folk speech spreads and is applied to other situations, as the phrase has now become a general insult without necessarily having to offend only religious people. Now, people say it even to refer to something mildly upsetting, which may also have taken the impact out of the phrase to some extent.