Category Archives: general

The Legend of the Sex Couch

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Morris Plains, NJ, USA

The interviewee was a member of the local high school’s theater program and valued the legend as something to pass on, joke about, and even create a taboo of not touching the couch. 

“Ok so when I first joined theater there was like a faint mention of something called the sex couch. But there was like multiple couches so I didn’t really know which one it was. We used a green couch for [her 2nd show] and someone made a comment that was like “that’s the sex couch” but I knew we had just gotten that one from dumpster diving but later someone told me that it was the pink couch that was kept above the lighting aisle which was also used in [the same show] so I definitely just misunderstood whoever told me which one was which. It seemed like most people in the grades above me knew what the sex couch was and it was just like my first introduction to it was [this show]. People would talk about the couch in like passing and we had basically made jokes about it. [J], the head of lighting, even said that he himself had had sex on the couch, although I never knew if that was actually true or just him adding to the lore. One time during I think [her 5th show] [R] brought in a black light and we had like a big crowd gather to see if there was actually anything on the couch, and oh boy yeah there was on both sides of the cushions too. I think the sex couch is something that most people know about in the program and I definitely talked about it to new people and like told them what it was”

Though it may seem childish and silly, the idea of people having sex is a very grown-up idea for a freshman in high school. This legend was used to embarrass kids but also make them feel like a member of the club. An inside joke to share and whisper behind the director’s back. Upon further fieldwork, I discovered that many high school theaters have such couches. Besides passing it down as a story it is also considered an item of taboo or bad luck if you were the person in charge of retrieving or moving the sex couch. Nothing would happen from touching it but the humour and picking fun is relentless anyway. I believe it is important to have these jokes and these histories because it creates a glue that connects past and present as well as all the members to each other no matter where they are in their lives.

Dangun Myth

AGE: 45

Date of performance: 04/01/2025

Language: English

Nationality: South Korean 

Occupation: Teacher 

Primary Language: Korean/English 

Title- Dangun Myth 

Context- J shares with me the “Dangun Myth”, a Korean myth that explains the origin of the founder of the first Korean kingdom, Dangun. J says that it is believed Dangun’s father descended from heaven while his mother was a bear that succeeded in a challenge to stay in a cave for 100 days to become human. 

Analysis- Within folklore, there are 3 narrative genres that share similar characteristics with one another. One of which are myths—sacred truths that are miracles if they touch reality. Myths typically describe life before or after the real world, just as the Dangun Myth does. The Dangun Myth describes the origin of Korea’s ‘official’ leader while having fantastical elements such as a bear-woman and god of heaven. The Dangun Myth exhibits characteristics of a typical folk myth.

The Legend of Popocatepetl & Iztaccíhuatl

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 75
Occupation: Unemployed
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: Spanish

Text: 

“My grandmother told me this legend about the two highest volcanoes in the hemisphere in Mexico City: Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. When the Aztec Empire dominated the valley of Mexico, it was common knowledge that neighboring towns had to be subject to a mandatory tax. The chief of the Tlaxacaltecas, who were the enemies of the Aztecs, decided to fight for his people’s freedom. The chief’s daughter, named Izataccihuatl, fell in love with Popocaetepetl, who was a warrior. Right before the war, Popocatepetl asked the chief for the hand of the princess. The father agreed and told him once he got back from war, they would have a wonderful wedding. But a woman who was in love with Popocatepetl told the princess that he had died in combat. The princess then died of sadness. Popocatepetl came back and found out that she died. Devastated, he ordered a tomb to be built under the sun, creating a huge mountain. He took the princess and laid her on the mountain. He kissed her lips and died with her. From then on, they remained together, facing each other. Over time, snow covered their bodies, creating two volcanoes.”

Context: 

My informant is from Mexico City, and her grandmother used to tell her this love story about the two volcanoes that they could see from their home.

Analysis: 

The story is a legend that explains the origin of two of Mexico’s most famous natural landmarks: the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. It’s a legend that explains how something of the natural world came to be. It is also a tragic love story that shows how miscommunication and longing lead to death. The mountains facing each other are a symbol of the symbolic permanence of love and grief. 

Tale of El Silbón

My subject shared with me a Venezuelan tale of El Silbón. This tale is about a young bratty boy who always want to get things his way. He lives in the shack in the woods with his parents and and a grandfather. One day the boy doesn’t get his way and in a fit of rage and craziness, he kills his parents. When his grandfather finds out, he curses the boy to forever be carrying the bones of his parents with him for what he did. After that. the grandfather whips the boy and puts raw garlic in his wounds and then sends the pack of wild dogs after him. The boy dies and in the afterlife still has to carry the bag of his parents’ bones. This is a tale often used as a cautionary story for the bratty kids to scare them into a good behavior. If they misbehave, the Silbón – the dead bratty boy will come and get you. El Silbón translates to a “whistler” and a legend developed from it. It is said that if you are in a dark and scary place and you hear the whistling, it means that the El Silbón is nearby. However, if a person hears the whistling super close to them, it actually means that El Silbón is far away. And if the whistling sounds distant, it means that El Silbón is nearby and that he will steal and kill you. There are preventative measures however against El Silbón. If you have a dog with you or if you have garlic with you, Silbón will not harm you.

My subject heard this story in their Spanish class in high school in Florida. Being of Latino descent, but not Venezuelan, the subject commented that Latino countries tend to have folklore that is “violent, involves murder and death and people getting ripped apart”.

The Venezuelan tale of El Silbón can be seen as primarily a tale of generations and respect for them. When the boy kills his parents out of rage that they were not able to provide him with what he wanted, he is punished with a worse death and curse from his grandfather – an ancestral figure. This is the explanation of a family dynamic and a warning that committing crimes against the family will not go unpunished. This story further encapsulates the Venezuelan values of family and respect for older generations. The boy being forever burdened to carry the bones of his parents even in the afterlife, enforcing a narrative that a child cannot escape the “sin” of disobeying and murdering his parents, and that it will burden his for the rest of eternity.

However, the cruel violence and punishment that my subject mentioned is present often in the South American folklore points to another interpretation of the tale. El Silbón is about intergenerational trauma and violence that might have been brought on by colonialism. If one is thinking through this prism,the way the boy is cursed to carry the bones of his parents forever can be seen as a metaphor for how people in colonized countries are still carrying the weight of a violent past. It’s not just about personal guilt—it’s about generational trauma and the pain that gets passed down through families and culture, even if the original events happened long ago.The brutal punishments the boy faces reflect the real violence used by colonizers to control and terrorize people. These details feel symbolic of the cruelty that Indigenous and enslaved people endured, and how that trauma became part of the cultural memory.

Even the idea that El Silbón‘s whistle is misleading—sounding far when he’s close and close when he’s far—can reflect how colonial histories mess with our sense of reality. The past can feel distant, but its effects are still very present. And the fact that things like garlic or dogs can protect you ties into how people have held onto traditional knowledge, blending Indigenous, African, and European beliefs to survive and make sense of their world. So while El Silbón works on the surface as a scary story to scare misbehaving kids, it also reflects the lingering pain and complexity of life after colonization. It’s a haunting reminder that the past is never really gone.

Tale of Crab Maga

My informant told me a tale of Crab Maga also known as “Why Mosquitoes Buzz In Our Ears,”. It is a Filipino children’s tale and was read to her my her Filipino grandmother when she was about six years old. The tale goes as follows: The story of “Crab Maga,” evolves around a king crab named Maga who struggles with insomnia. To help him sleep, he calls upon the frogs from the village to sing him a lullaby. However, his loud snoring causes rain, which amuses the frogs. When Maga wakes up and learns that the frogs were laughing at a snail carrying its house, he orders his sheriff, another crab, to arrest the snail.

The snail explains that it was laughing at a firefly, which leads Maga to send the sheriff after the firefly. The firefly, in turn, claims it was trying to find a mosquito that was bothering it. When the mosquito arrives, it is unafraid of Maga and mocks him, leading to a confrontation where Maga kills the mosquito. However, this action provokes a swarm of mosquitoes that attack Maga, targeting his weak spots. In fear, Maga and his sheriff dig a hole to hide and are never seen again. The story concludes with the explanation that the buzzing of mosquitoes in our ears is a reminder of this tale, as they are attracted to holes, similar to the one where Maga and his sheriff took refuge.

This particular children’s tale has a huge colonial undertone as it talks about a ruler in a position of power whose whims and ego dictate what happens to the creatures that do not have in a sense a freedom to express how they feel. The creatures have to lie and blame others for laughing and pointing out the flaws of Maga. Like many folk tales, it uses animals with human characteristics—crabs, frogs, snails, fireflies, and mosquitoes—to create a world where complex social dynamics and consequences play out in a playful yet instructive way.

The story also reinforce the power of people and what resistance to the injustice and standing for one’s truth can lead to. Mosquito is the lesser of all creatures yet it stands in its truth and even sacrifices its life for it. A group of mosquitos however are able to overturn the king to avenge the mosquito, thus teaching the lesson of the power of the group.

The ending of the story is very interesting, offering the tale as an explanation of why mosquitos get close to humans and why we can hear them. Mosquitos in this context are already established as heroes thus offering a different outlook on insects that are usually perceived as as pests and annoyance. This reinforced the idea of preserving nature and treating things humans annoying with respect, as they might not know the full story of why things happen.