Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Even Numbers

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 21
Occupation: production assistant
Residence: Sante Fe Springs, CA
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English

Umm.. I have a weird thing about even numbers because my birthday, my full birthday is completely odd numbers so I think… I think that’s why it has every single odd number possible and so I don’t like when the volume on my car is on an even number or I’ll add numbers if something’s like 34 I’ll add it to make it 7. I just can’t… I can’t… I don’t know…there’s something about even numbers that I’m not very comfortable with and also like both my parents’ birthdays are all odd numbers so it’s just not… I don’t do even numbers. They’re like too round, too even, too perfect, like I don’t like that you can divide them by 2. That’s weird.

I quite enjoyed this piece of folklore because I thought I was the only one that did this. This folklore connected us in that way. I too do not like even numbers because of my birthday (7/21). My informant practices this folk belief regularly and it  seemed to be quite important to her.

The Devil in the Wall

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 26
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English

Okay I was really upset about something maybe it was something that happened in school or dance, I don’t know but I was like crying in my room, it was when we had the bunk beds and I was on your bed crying, crying, crying umm… for like an hour or something and you know how we used to have that umm.. The wall used to have like some sort of texture to it. What is that called? Oh no that was the ceiling but it was the wall. The wall had a crack and I was crying, crying, crying and I looked to my right and I swear, it was the lighting and there was a crack in the wall and it looked like the devil’s face like for sure and I told dad and he, I mean you saw it too right? And it was creepy because I had never seen it before, I had never noticed it before until that moment and then uhh… so he ended up just knocking a hole in it and then like re-plastering it to get rid of the creepy devil face.

My informant experienced this piece of folklore and traumatized her to this day. She informed me about this story as everyone was talking about weird ghost stories or satanic stories over dinner. This piece of folklore scared me when I heard it because the informant was talking about the room I used to sleep in every night and I had no idea about the crack in the wall.

The Window

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 56
Performance Date: April
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

I just remember the window… and you know scared me the most was my grandmother… and she would yell at my mom, “He can get in that window!” and I just remember that window. “He’s little and he’s skinny and he can get in that window Becky, and the doggy door!” She would get on my mom, Grandma Muffin. “He could get through the doggy door Becky, you need to close that every night!” So it was hearing my grandmother say it. My parents were careful not to say it.Victor’s mom was super paranoid, she could not be alone in the house. Well and I remember Victor came to the house because you guys were dating at the time and he put like a lock on the window and I was like “Oh man this is serious, like he’s putting a lock on our window.” Yeah it was scary because he kinda went like to different locations and he would sneak into people’s houses and murder them umm… and they didn’t know I mean it took a while to catch him.

This particular piece of folklore was quite frightening because it referred to a murderer based in my hometown of Los Angeles. My informant discussed the importance of windows:closing them at night, installing locks, or placing bars on them. In her neighborhood where she grew up in Pico Rivera, California, the murderer Richard Ramirez, notoriously nicknamed “The Night Stalker,” would sneak into people’s houses then kidnap and murder them in the 1980’s. She told me while discussing murder stories and urban legends from her city. My informant actually lived through this and recalls the significance that windows had in her neighborhood as a source of protection.

Midget Town

Nationality: American
Age: late 30s
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English

Oh it was always like have you been to midget town? Because it’s like… Yes, it scared the bejeezus out of me. But it was just like this one way street by the river bed and that the houses are smaller so it’s midgets. But it’s a private… it says PRIVATE STREET:NO TRESSPASSING, that if you drive down the street, midgets will come and chase you with pitchforks.  

This Urban legend came to the attention of my informant through her high school friends and peers. She told me this story as a funny thing she and her friends used to do. This was an urban legend around where she grew up in Whittier, California. She was an active practitioner of this urban legend and found that the houses were indeed smaller for little people, but there were no pitchforks. This piece of folklore was interesting to me because this was a real place that was only nicknamed “Midget Town” a name stereotyped for little people.

St. Joseph

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/24/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant: My informant, M.A., is 18 and was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. M.A. parents both work as corporate lawyers and he hopes to pursue the same career. M.A. is also a practicing Catholic and is strongly connected to his religion. He has one brother and two sisters with the family being almost fully Americanized but still hold on to some of his Syrian heritage.

Folklore: “The patron saint of homes and real estate purchases is considered to be St. Joseph. The myth goes that if you are ever having a hard time trying to sell your house, you are supposed to bury a statue of St. Joseph head first in the backyard. If you complete this then the process of selling your house will be completed much quicker and smoothly.” M.A. heard this piece of folklore from an old neighbor in Connecticut who was having trouble selling his house. M.A. claimed that the neighbor did perform this task, but was not able to sell his house for another six months afterwards. M.A. is still strongly connected with his religion and does believe in these quirky traditions, but he also feels like people should not rely completely on these myths.

Analysis: I have never heard this myth before, but I did think it was peculiar as to why you would need to bury a statue of St. Joseph head first or even bury him at all in the backyard. These little stories might not actually provide any help like it did to Matt’s neighbor, but it is used mainly as a way to give people hope when they feel like they have done everything in their power to sell their house.