Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

PE Possession

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/21/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Informant Information:

Jaden Davis is a student at the University of Southern California. He is originally from Smyma, GA, before moving to Los Angeles, CA for college.

Urban Legend:

“Have you been to the physical education building? Legend has it that if you go into the physical education building and you go all the way down to the bottom floor. There are lights in the hallway but they won’t turn on no matter what. Apparently one time there was an earthquake and 2 kids who happened to be down in the basement. Well the basement kind of caved in and the kids were buried in the rubble. They were presumed dead. But when they were repairing the damages people go down there and clean up the rubble but when the halls finally clear the bodies weren’t there. If you go down in that hallway, you can sometimes hear the sound of them screaming before the rubble fell on them. There’s also a door at the end of that hallway. The door has no handles but it can be opened from the inside. Now, if you go in that hallway on the night that they died which was March 8th, the door might be open and in that door is a bill collector to collect all your tuition. Just kidding there’s no bill collector, but if you walk into the door legend says one of the kids will take over your body and the kid possesses you till midnight. This is why kids wake up and don’t know where they are.”

Q: Where did you hear about this legend?

“One morning me, Eva, and Jack were in the physical education building. Some guy comes up to me and starts telling me this story.”

Q: Had you heard of this legend prior to your visit?

“Well Jack told me the physical education building was creepy, so I assumed there was stuff going on.”

Analysis:

Though I am also a student at the university, I have never heard of the urban legend that the informant mentioned. After doing more research,  I couldn’t find any information on the event that inspired the urban legend.

“Zongzi,” a Traditional Chinese food

Nationality: USA
Age: 50
Occupation: Business
Residence: China
Performance Date: April 14th, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

“During the “Duanwu” Festival, most families get together and eat “zongzi” which is basically sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. Sometimes it’s stuffed with meat or red bean.”

The informant was born and raised in Taipei.

After thoughts: “Zongzi” is a traditional Chinese food eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. A popular belief of eating “zongzi” involved Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese poet from the kingdom of Chu. He was known for his patriotism, and unsuccessfully tried to warn the king against the expansionism of the Qin. In the end, the Qin general took the king and the Chu Capital. Qu Yuan was so upset that he drowned himself in the river. According to the legend, packets of rice were thrown into the river to prevent the fish from eating the poet’s body.

The Straw People

Nationality: Singapore
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: USA
Performance Date: April 17th, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Singaporean, Chinese

Interviewee: So this story is about a group of good guys fighting these bad guys but they didn’t have enough resources, so one guy was smart and so he sent out these ships…it was misty that day…he put straw people on it, and it looked like real people. The other group shot the straw people because they thought they were real and used up all their arrows. The good guys then took the arrows.

Interviewer: What does this story mean to you?

Interviewee: This is what I think of because my dad always tells it to us. At times you want to give up but you gotta keep trying and it’ll turn out fine.

The informant likes this piece because it was something her dad repeated over and over again throughout her childhood. The informant is Singaporean but grew up in Shanghai, China.

 

La Siguanaba

Nationality: Salvadoran
Age: 50
Occupation: Service Coordinator
Residence: North Hills, California
Performance Date: 04/20/17
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

She was a woman that went out every night to wash by the river. Everyone would hear her washing. But no one would go outside. They would see a woman that had long hair that would drag on the floor. She seduced the men. The story is often told to children to scare them into not misbehaving.

My tia Estella did not listen to my grandmother and went out at night. She was using the bathroom outside and she saw a tall women standing there. The woman had long black hair. And she was washing. My tia thought it was one of the neighbors washing. She approached the lady and when the lady turned to her she was a skeleton. My tia became mute and ran away from the women.

My informant is a service coordinator. She likes to help people. She also migrated from El Salvador to the United States. Most of her stories are from her mother or personal experiences.

I talked to my informant over coffee in our house.

The interesting part of this piece is the similarities between this and the Llorona of Mexico. It is also interesting because my own aunt experienced it. This story is a classic tale Salvadoran parents use to keep them from misbehaving.

 

El Cipitillo

Nationality: Salvadoran
Age: 50
Occupation: Service Coordinator
Residence: North Hills, California
Performance Date: 04/20/17
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

My informant is a service coordinator. She likes to help people. She also migrated from El Salvador to the United States. Most of her stories are from her mother or personal experiences.

I talked to my informant over coffee in our house.

El Cipitillo is a boy that wears a large charra or sombrero. He has a little belly. He eats the ashes from leftover fires. The people that make tortilla over the fire would find footprints all over the ashes. He also likes children. If he touched you then you are left retarded.

The story of el cipitillo is often told to scare children from misbehaving. He is said to visit misbehaving children.

It is interesting to see at what lengths Salvadoran moms would go to keep their children safe. I grew up with these stories believing the to be true