Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Witch house, India

Nationality: Indian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 04/24/18
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English

This story was collected from a friend, who was born and raised in New Delhi, India and is 20 years old. She told me a rumor that was started when she was younger about a house in her neighborhood.

 

She told me that she had never the house’s owner up until a few years ago. She had only seen 30-40 cats that went in and out of the house. She is not sure about how it started, but all the kids in her locality were scared of looking at the house for more than a minute at a time because somebody started a rumor that the evil witch inside would throw kids into a well inside the house or eat them for dinner. She says it became a fun little test among her friends for seeing who was the bravest by making people stare at the house. Looking back at it now, she thinks it was probably a parent who started this rumor so that the kids would come home right after it got dark.

 

It looks like this is one of those stories parents use to scare children into behaving and not leaving their house at night, like Mexico’s La Llorona or Panama’s La Tulivieja. I like that children turned it into a fun game instead of being scared of it. All of the Indian people that I’ve met are very playful and not easily scared, so that reaction makes sense to me.

El Cadejo, El Salvador

Nationality: Salvadoran
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 04/24/18
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

This legend was collected from a friend, who was born and raised in San Salvador, El Salvador and is 21 years old. It is about el cadejo, a character of the folklore of Central America and some parts of Mexico.

 

She told me the story is about two dogs, one white and one black. Indigenous people believed that dogs help humans to get to heaven after they die. El cadejo is therefore actually a spirit that presents itself in the form of a dog. It is believed that God created a good spirit in order to protect humankind, the white dog, but the devil created a black one that would fight the white one and defeat God. It is said that the black one tends to be seen by people who wonder the streets at night, engage in immoral behaviors, or have an unclean conscience. It chases its victims to scare them and the hypnotizes them with its read eyes and steals their souls. The white one, in contrast, is believed to protect God’s “loyal believers.” She says that her grandfather told her that story, and that he actually believed it, but she never really believed in legends. She also told me that legends were a big part of Salvadoran culture and were taught in school, and on El Salvador’s independence day, there are nation-wide parades and people dress up as the dogs or other characters from legends to commemorate them.

 

I find it interesting that this legend has positive and negative aspects, in contrast to other Latin American legends that tend to be mostly negative. It also incorporates themes of religion and morality, symbolizing El Salvador’s strong religiosity.

Demon Dog

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: March 27, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

What is being performed?/Interview description
D: My grandma told me this story in Mexico. At a certain time she had to cross a river to get back before sunset. If you were to cross it before sunset you would see a demon dog. One time her and her sister were fighting over a banana but the sun hadn’t sat. She said that they saw the dog and the only way to outrun it was to cross the river and they all had to get under a table
AA: Have you ever seen the demon dog before?
D: No, but people talk about it, especially in my family.
AA: What does it look like?
D: It’s just a dog but it’s possessed and rabid.

Why do they know or like this piece? where/who did they learn it from? What does it mean to them?
AA: Why do you know this story?
D: My grandmother told me this story.
AA: What does it mean to you?
D: It’s just scary to me. I tell it when my friends tell ghost stories.

Context of the performance– where do you perform it? History?
This story is performed by Danielle around her friends but originates from her grandmother in Mexico. She performs it still in college and has performed it in high school.

Reflection
I think the concept of a demon dog is really interesting. I tend to think of dogs as pure or purer than humans so to have such an animal demonized is interesting. I can understand it though because of how scary rabid dogs can be or stray dogs. Getting bitten is a real fear and I can see how it gets manifested out through folklore.

The Ghost of Point Vicente

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: March 2, 2018
Primary Language: English

What is being performed?
BS: I’ll tell you something about PV
AA: What’s PV?
BS: Palos Verdes, my hometown. At point vicente there’s a story that goes that there’s a woman
who was the wife of a sailor and that she died super tragically so her ghost haunts the
lighthouse.
AA: Whose wife was she?
BS: She was the wife of the Vanderlipp, a famous sailer.
Why do they know or like this piece? where/who did they learn it from? What does it mean to
them?

AA: Why do you know this piece?
BS: I heard it at the point vicente cultural center. It’s told to kids.
AA: What does it mean to you?
BS: To me it’s super spooky. Ghosts are real, ya know?
Context of the performance- where do you perform it? History?
This story is told to people touring Point Vicente in Palos Verdes, California. It is also told
amongst the Palos Verdes community between school children and community members.

Annotation
Mallon, Elaine. “A PALOS VERDES GHOST TALE: THE LEGEND OF THE HISTORIC
LIGHTHOUSE’S ‘LADY IN WHITE’.” ActiveRain, 26 July 2011,
activerain.com/blogsview/952590/a-palos-verdes-ghost-tale- the-legend-of-the-historic-lighthou
se-s- lady-in-white-.
4
This citation is a published article in the Peninsula Palos Verdes News about the ghost at the
lighthouse. It explains that “In the darkness of night, this ‘woman’ forever haunts the historic
lighthouse. Time after time, the eerie ghost has been seen pensively pacing the upper tower
walkways in the dead of night. Walking… walking… waiting… waiting… pacing in private
vigilance until the rise of the sun. Then – like the moon gives way to the sunrise — she vanishes
with the fog until the dark of night returns again.”

Reflection
To me this is very interesting since I am from San Pedro, a neighboring town of Palos Verdes. I
have never heard of this or been to Point Vicente but think this is a cool part of the Palos Verdes
culture. There is not much of a distinction between Palos Verdes and San Pedro but this is
something I see as potentially defining of the two cities.

Watermelon Growing

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: usc
Performance Date: April 17, 2018
Primary Language: English

JJ: Do you know about the watermelon thing?
AA: What watermelon thing?
JJ: So, this is something I think is passed down from generation to generation
AA: Oh, really?
JJ: Oh, yes! So basically, it goes that if you eat a watermelon, or like, eat something with seeds
in it, that the seeds will sprout in your stomach, and you’ll grow a watermelon inside you
AA: Like a whole watermelon? If you swallow the seeds?
JJ: Yep, a whole watermelon
Why do they know or like this piece? where/who did they learn it from? What does it mean to
them?
AA: When was the first time you heard this?
JJ: Uh, from my brother and his friends.
AA: And where are you from?
JJ: Newburyport, Massachusetts.
AA: What did you think of it? How did it affect or play out in your life?
JJ: It scared me. I still to this day don’t eat watermelon.
AA: What?
JJ: Well, partly because I don’t like the taste, but also I don’t know, maybe I was affected
psychologically.

Context of the performance- where do you perform it? History?
Jonathan recalls this being performed in elementary school, specifically with older kids telling
this to younger kids to scare them. He doesn’t remember it being carried on into middle school
but it being very believable in elementary school.

Reflection
I have definitely heard this before but I think it’s weird more than it is anything else. I’m pretty
sure I heard it in elementary school and I remember being afraid to swallow seeds but I never
feared eating fruit in general. I see how this can spook children though.