Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Mayan Jin

Nationality: United States
Occupation: University Professor
Residence: Chicago, IL. Currently residing in Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/12/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

 

The following was recorded from the Participant. They are marked as TM. I am marked as DG.

 

TM: So there’s the, uh, the Mayan Jin-a little different from the ones we talked about in class-but they [the Belizeans] believe that when you’re walking in the jungle and you trip for, like, no reason, or you hear a weird noise, or something–a twig snaps or something, whatever happens, it’s actually these Jin–they’re not evil creatures, um, that get in your way or make you fall or make you lose your way… But they [the Belizeans] believe that the Jin are actually pieces of um…liver from people who died, so their livers become animated after they die. And so their livers become animated and go out in the jungle and…cause everybody a bunch of trouble, and so I, I, I’ve probably heard that from about three different people I’ve talked to in Belize… So I don’t know if it’s outside of Belize, if that’s the story. Um I’m pretty sure I just tripped because I’m clumsy but I like to blame it on the Jin (laughs).

 

DG: Where did you hear it from?

 

TM: Well a few [people]… I heard it from one person when I fell down–I tripped over something out in the jungle. Ah the guide I was with said “Oh it must be one of the Jin’s”, and I was like, “Is that someone’s last name?” So he told me the story, and I thought he was just trying to make me feel better about tripping, but then I asked a couple more people about it. Um, two of my friends– the first one that told me about it was male–and the other two–he was probably around 40 to 50– and the two women I asked about it too were the same age range and they both had heard of it too so…

 

 

Context:

 

The conversation was recorded while sitting in a hallway outside of a classroom on a university campus. The context of the original Jin story was told while the interviewee was hiking in Belize, and later confirmed by two others.

 

Background:

 

The interviewee is a professor at the University of Southern California. They are also a practicing archeologist. Originally from Chicago, IL, they now live in Los Angeles, CA, with their husband. The interviewee worked in Finance before pursuing a teaching degree.

 

Analysis:

 

I thought this folklore item was great. First, just the idea of the interviewee thinking the guide had told her about the Jin in order to make her feel better about tripping was amusing. But also, much of the folklore I’ve collected has been passed down through family, so to see a folklore that TM saw from three different people, of different genders (although around the same age) was interesting. Additionally, this was the furthest piece of folklore I’ve collected. The woods are always full of warning folklore stories, so this one allowed for cultural and religious beliefs of the area to create the folklore.

Pullman Hotel Tennis Ghost

Nationality: United States
Occupation: University Professor
Residence: Chicago, IL. Currently residing in Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/12/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

 

The following was recorded from the Participant. They are marked as TM. I am marked as DG.

 

TM: When I was working, um, at Pullman Hotel, and it’s in the uh Pullman neighborhood in Chicago, and it’s the hotel that housed people that used to visit the Pullman Palace Car Company and made railroad cars-really fancy ones. And so, uh, they had a factory in that neighborhood, and then they had a tower of houses…And so it was built in 1880, and it’s no longer used as a hotel, um, partly because there’s no way to get out if you’re on the top floor. Yeah, um, and I…was kind of manning the front desk for tourists to come in and walk around the old hotel and these three women walked in and one was kind of a little bit, you know, younger–not 20s but maybe 30s, and, um, then there were two women maybe a little bit older and they had like fanny packs on, you know, and kind of tourist looking… And, um, the younger one had on like a tennis skirt or something. It looked like she played tennis or something, um, it looked a little dated but not really so I talked to them…Um, it was mostly–it was the two older women who were talking to me, I guessed the other was their kid, and, um, it used to be a restaurant at the hotel-and it was fancy-which isn’t there anymore. Um, so they all kind of went off and the two of them went to do the tour where, um, you have your piece of paper and you walk around and take the tour on your own, and the other went off to the bathroom. And then the woman comes walking around the corner from the bathroom, kind of reaching into her pocket to, you know, maybe hand me a piece of paper, and then she just just disappeared. Just completely gone! She had a tennis skirt on, it was kind of 80s. It was kind of funny 80s, I thought it was kind of dated, but then I was like she’s kind of close to my age so like. I have no idea what that was about.

 

Apparently the hotel was supposed to be haunted and many people have had ghost experiences there.

 

 

Context:

 

The conversation was recorded while sitting in a hallway outside of a classroom on a university campus. The context of where the interviewee saw the ghost was in the front desk area of the old Pullman Hotel. Apparently, the hotel is a well-known haunted site, and most who have worked there have had sightings.

 

Background:

 

The interviewee is a professor at the University of Southern California. They are also a practicing archeologist. Originally from Chicago, IL, they now live in Los Angeles, CA, with their husband. The interviewee worked in Finance before pursuing a teaching degree.

 

Analysis:

 

I think this story held a lot of weight because I’ve had my fair share of ghost stories. I’ve also worked long hours in a retail setting, and know that feeling you get towards the end where you’re starting to imagine things. I think that made this story even better, because I could easily imagine the feeling of “Did I just see that??” Beyond that, many others have apparently seen ghosts at the Pullman Hotel, adding legitimacy to the legend. It also made me wonder what was on the paper–was it a message that the apparition was trying to tell TM, or was it just a recording ghost that does the same act in the same place forever?

La Llorona

Nationality: United States
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Huntsville, AL. Currently residing in Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/12/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

 

The following was recorded from the Participant. They are marked as AF. I am marked as DG.

 

AF: Um, well La Llorona is just this folktale, um, about this woman who…was jilted basically…uh and then, uh, well actually no she wasn’t jilted, her husband died… or something like that, uh, so she…hmm. Well ok, she was murdered. Ok, there are different versions of the story basically. So, um, in some of them she was jilted and killed herself and in some of them she was murdered and stuff like that, and basically she came back and was this, like, spirit who wandered amongst the streets at night… And if you’re, like, a lost kid at night, she’ll steal you away and maybe eat you…I don’t know…but definitely steal you away. Oh, and like an important thing is La Llorona cries, she’s this crying spirit, and you’ll hear her. Um, and yeah. I think maybe she, like, killed her kids.

 

DG: Who told you this?

 

AF: Oh, uh, my grandma actually, because I was asking her about folk stuff a couple years ago. She told me this story, um, yeah.

 

 

Context:

 

The conversation was recorded while sitting in the lobby of a dorm at the University of Southern California. The story itself was told to the interviewee by his grandmother, as they sat in their living room. He was asking her about folklore in order to feel more in touch with his roots.

 

Background:

 

The student is from Huntsville Alabama, but took a gap year in New York City, NY, before attending the University of Southern California as a School of Cinematic Arts major. They are a sophomore, and come from an Italian Hispanic background.

 

Analysis:

 

I had heard about this folklore story in one of my classes, so it was interesting to hear it from someone. This was true especially so since although I did learn one version, it was already easily jumbled up for me too, and I had learned it fairly recently. This shows how easy it can be for folklore to become changed, as the teller may forget, have pieces jumbled, or slightly change them. This also alludes to how the audience will keep the teller in check, if the teller goes too far from the version they know. This is what helps folklore remain folklore. In my case, I was a passive listener, so the folklore remained jumbled in the retelling for this archive post.

 

Ancestor Mirror Ghost

Nationality: United States
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Northern California. Currently residing in Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/13/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog, Spanish

Main Piece:

 

The following was recorded from the Participant. They are marked as BDV. I am marked as DG.

 

BDV: So my mom thinks that ghosts communicate to her, so after my dad’s mom passed away, and we…we were the ones to clean out her house and pack away her stuff and things like that. And my mom kept insisting that every time she passed this mirror, she would see something behind her, and she thought that it was my dad’s mom and we were like, “ok whatever.” And then coming back to our own house, the same thing would happen to the mirror in our living room, and she was like-it happened for a year for her until, like, the year anniversary of my grandma’s passing.

 

DG: And you heard that from your mom?

 

BDV: Yeah, from my mom. And she says that the same thing happens to other people in her family. Like, after her dad passed away, it happened to her eldest sister. And she thinks that since my grandma didn’t have any daughters-she only had my dad-that it, like, passed to her daughter-in-law, which is, like, my mom.”

 

 

Context:

 

The conversation was recorded while sitting outside of a coffee shop at the University of Southern California. The ghost sighting was seen at the house of the interviewee’s grandmother, as well as at the house of the interviewee.

 

Background:

 

The student was born and raised in Northern California. She is a sophomore at the University of Southern California. She is the fourth generation to grow up in America, but is Filipino. She speaks several languages, with English being her native language.

 

Analysis:

 

I’ve heard about stories like this. There seems to be a lot of folklore concerning mirrors and ghosts, leading me to believe that mirrors are a method of communication to the other side. For example, the Bloody Mary game is played in a mirror. I personally have heard folklore about not looking into a mirror in the dark or the spirits will replace your soul with theirs, leaving you trapped in the mirror. So to me, the idea of seeing the deceased behind you in the mirror seems entirely believable, and also incredibly terrifying.

I heard la Llorona

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Francisco
Performance Date: 04/20/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

THE STORY

Where my dad’s from, there is a river which is supposed to be the river of where la llorona lives.  I actually heard the wailing sound of her crying for her kids.  I was five when I heard her. I was with my mother. This river everyone know that she lives in it. My family is from Colima. my mom heard to. I was very afraid.

 

Background info:

La llorana is a Mexican legend about a woman who kills her kids by drowning them and drowns herself. she than dies and regrets killing them so she tries to find her kids. She is known to cry by the rivers of many places is Mexico. This story in particular took place in Colima, Mexico and the informant says this story is really meaningful because he experienced the crying of the llorana first hand with his mother. They like this piece because it was one of the few memories he had with his mother before she passed away

 

Context:

This legend is one of the most famous around Mexico and has actually travelled aroundt he world by immigrants who tell of the llorona. This story particularly focuses on Colima which is huge for where the Llorona is actually originated from. In Colima there is a beach called  “playa la llorona” it is very big their and many people believe they hear wailing near the rivers of Colima.

 

My thoughts

I have heard this story so many times since I am Mexican myself. I also have relatives form Colima tell me that they have either seen or heard la Llorona when they were by themselves or with another person. It is very unexplainable and scary but one of the oldest legends from Mexico