Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Leyenda de la Mujer de Blanco en la Pérgola

Age: 21

Folk Narrative: Legend 

Text: Leyenda de la Mujer de Blanco en la Pérgola (Legend of the Woman in White at the Pergola)

“It all started in the early 1900s. The Johnson family came to Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and founded the city. It was just a few families and a very rural town. The Johnsons came in and built the city. In the city, there is a very famous hill, and at the bottom is a cemetery that the Johnsons founded. They call it Cerro de la Memoria, which comes from Memorial Hill. The story goes that at one of the parties they would throw at the park at the hill, a lady was dancing and a man was attracted to her. So he approaches her and politely asks to dance. She accepts, and they dance for a while. It gets late, so he takes her home, and it becomes very chilly at night, so he gives her his jacket. He drops her off at her house and leaves her his jacket with the excuse that he will come back for it. The next day, he goes to her house and knocks at the door, and an older woman answers. The gentleman asks if she has seen the young lady, and the older woman says, no but he should come in. They sit down, and she tells him that what he is saying can’t be real because that young woman was her daughter, who had passed away a couple of years ago. They proceed to go to the cemetery and see his jacket on the cross on top of the woman’s grave. Now, whenever a party is at the bottom of the hill, they say she might appear dancing or waiting for someone to ask her to dance”.

Context: When asked, my informant told me that he knows this legend by heart. It is a legend that all of his town knows and children learn at a young age. He said he doesn’t remember when he first heard it, but it was at his elementary school from the teachers or from one of his mom’s friends. He let me know that its setting is in the city’s first cemetery that still stands today, so it is a landmark legend for all the area’s inhabitants. He mentioned that everybody has been to that hill and knows to look out for the Woman in White may appear. My informant mentioned that when the narrative is told at a social gathering, everybody jumps in to correct the plot or to give their opinion on what happened, even coming up with their own names for the woman, and experiencing chills. When asked why people continue telling this story, he mentioned that it brings the community together. Los Mochis is a small town, so people rely on each other for entertainment, one of which is storytelling. When asked how he interprets this narrative, my informant mentioned that the community lives for the thrill of knowing that maybe one day they can see the Woman in White and experience a supernatural encounter. It also served as a way to warn people not to be out late at night because they may stumble into the undead. 

Analysis: Looking at this narrative, we can see that it fits the properties of a legend by taking place in the ‘real world’ in this case, Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and having a truth value dependent on whether someone believes in it or not. For the community of Los Mochis, there is a widespread understanding that this happened. However, until somebody is able to prove it, it remains a legend. Another legend that this narrative fits into is its overlap with history. My informant actually started the narrative by giving historical context to set the legend in our place and time. It makes it more believable and establishes what people believe. The community does not wonder if the legend is true because that is not what is essential. Instead, what matters is the relationship it builds by connecting the inhabitants of Los Mochis to a legend that overlaps with their daily lives. My informant’s experience also relates to the Friend of a Friend (FOAF) principle that we tend to believe things when they come from people in our inner circle. Because the legend of the Woman in White is so localized, those who tell it are all familiar with each other and most likely trust each other’s words for it. 

Story About a Priest at a Wedding Party

Nationality: Irish

Occupation: Horse Race Track Manager

Residence: Waterford, Ireland

Language: English

Text:

Back in the day Murphy got married, but he hardly remembers it because of how much he had to drink, oh far far too much. At one point during the ceremony the priest came over to him and said “Murphy you are drunk” and Murphy said “how do you know father?” and the priest said “Because you are lying on the floor”. Murphy looked up at the priest and said “that may be true, but the best man is drunker than me” and the priest says “don’t you mean ‘drunker than I’?” and Murphy says “no father, nobody is drunker than you”.

Context:

When my aunt told me this story, she acted like it happened at a wedding that she went to as a child growing up in Dublin; only when I pressed further did she admit it was a story she heard, not one she observed. It is unclear if there was a specific wedding that this actually happened at, but the story had been passed down from her mother, and her friends had heard similar stories elsewhere. When I pressed more, she said that one of her friends heard that story but said it happened in Kerry (in the West of Ireland), and if the story took place there that would feed into stereotypes Irish people have about Kerry.

Analysis:

The way that my aunt acted like this story had happened at a wedding she went to reveals a lot about Irish communities. The idea of a priest being drunk at a wedding is funny, but the story works as a joke because it isn’t completely unreasonable. In many parts of Ireland (less so in Dublin, which is how I knew the story wasn’t a true experience of hers), the priest is a major part of the town’s social network, where he would know everyone and be at any major event like a wedding. However, a priest would also be willing to join in the celebration, which opposes their day to day holy life. Many people in rural Ireland have experienced priests acting in a very normal way outside of their holy work, but this is generally not talked about; this joke is a way of bringing up how priests are human just like everyone else.

Rites of Passage and Community in Wargaming

The Informant

The informant AG has been playing wargaming for over five years, and he has not only painted his own miniature sets but also developed his own homebrew games. The informant mostly plays ‘miniature agnostic’ games with abstract rulesets that enable players to bring their own unique miniature sets.

The Text

A common experience in becoming a member in the wargaming community is painting your own miniature sets, and it tends to be very poorly painted. The informant reports wargamers as largely older demographics amongst historical wargames while younger demographics play sci-fi wargames. A rite of passage the informant notes is learning how to thin the paint, as amateurs can be identified by blotches of paint on their miniatures that blot out the miniature details. While any wargamer can be identified by having miniatures of units on display, a passionate wargamer and a “poser” can be differentiated by the types of miniatures they have on display in their house. Uncommon miniature sizes like 6mm, 3mm, 2mm, and scaled ships or uncommon historical eras such as Medieval or Ancient as these miniatures aren’t usually commercially mass produced, and the players must go out of their way to acquire them. The base for the miniatures are also a good indicator, as companies like Litko allow specified customizations on base sizes and even material, offering wood or metals instead of the mass produced plactic, which proves further investment in the hobby. The Miniatures Page and Tactical Command are forums where these hobbies gather online, but they are rather dated in terms of web design. Tournaments and expos are events where wargamers gather, and people bring their own miniature sets while miniature studios market their services. If someone disrespects another person’s miniature set by stepping on them, tossing them aside, etc, they will be disqualified from the tournament or asked to leave if at a home game, likely to never be invited back again. These players often have special cases for carrying miniatures.

Analysis

There are a few folk aspects to this interview, starting with membership identification with a folk community through the miniatures, which seem to be highly valued and personal within the community. The existence and even preference for “agnostic” wargame systems suggest importance placed on the personalization of miniatures, and the personal offense taken when one’s miniature set is disrespected suggests a Frazeristic contagiously magical connection to the miniature as an extension of the self given the time invested on customizing and painting them. As such, they have meaning to the players in the sense that players convert their own time and labor into these products. Similarly, painting one’s own first miniature set is considered a rite of passage for becoming a member of the wargaming community, beyond first setting foot into a game store with the interest of trying a game with someone else’s miniature set. The choice made in how one creates or even carry their miniatures reflects Stuart Hall’s reception theory of identity expression in consumerism, with specific studios offering customized miniatures. Furthermore, tournaments and conventions serve as a festival where players can gather to share this common love for a niche hobby which they do not have much opportunity to express their affiliation in public otherwise. In a sense, performing this identity is an inversal of the norm, which the spatially and temporally localized festival enables and encourages.

Haunted 4th Floor

Age: 21
Language: English

“I remember being told this story by my 9th-grade Spanish teacher. The story goes that sometime in the 80s or 90s there was a janitor who got super obsessed with one of the cheerleaders. He ended up stalking her and talking to her any time he saw her. After school one day, when she was alone, he asked her for help with something on the 4th floor. He ended up killing her, scalping her, then leaving her body on the 4th floor. Legend says that now it’s haunted because they left her body up there, which is why it was also boarded up and no one is allowed to go up there”. 

[Why would you hear this type of story from your Spanish teacher? Do you believe it?]

“It wasn’t just me she told it to, but the whole class during a kind of like Halloween storytime thing that she did every year. The scalping thing was something I heard from someone else. I’m not sure if it actually happened, but I could believe that someone could have died in our school at some point.” 

Analysis: 

Due to the inclusion of the years 80s/90s, we know that this particular story must have emerged from around that time or after (terminus ante quem), and that it could possibly have originated from this particular Spanish teacher. The legend is part of a larger, yearly ritual where she creates a more laid-back environment for her students during Halloween by telling stories. I think this story has succeeded in its purpose to have fun and bring students together due to the variation and addition of students creating their own theories and parts of the story (like the addition of the girl possibly being scalped). Besides this, in a more serious sense, it serves as a warning to incoming female students entering high school about the dangers that exist in the world.
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Nahuales/Nagual: “Shapeshifter”

Language: Spanish

“When I was younger, I remember hearing this story from older adults when I was an elementary student. Nahuales, who are people who have made a deal with the devil in order to become a shapeshifter. They shapeshift into animals or anything of their choosing in order to lure kids and cause harm. The first time I heard it was from a friend who said she heard of someone’s family who returned home to find a turkey standing in the middle of the room. The mother, sensing that something was off, smacked the turkey with a broom to try to get it out of the house, but to no avail, the turkey stayed. The daughter tried to pull the mom away from the turkey, and finally, when she did, the turkey left the house and shape-shifted back into its human form.”

Analysis:

Nauguals seem to serve 2 purposes: to warn children of dangers, and to warn them of the devil. This informant remarks that she heard this originally from older adults, but most commonly told stories between her friends. I think that this goes to show how folklore can range within a single community, dependent on your social groups: as a child, she was able to bond with her friends by telling these stories about this mutual creature they knew and feared, but the adults of her community more so used it as a way to try and keep their children safe.