Category Archives: Narrative

La Carreta Nagua (The Witch Wagon)

Age: 54

Text:

Informant: “My grandma would tell the story of ‘La Carreta Nagua.’ It was a wagon that was pulled by bulls and they were so skinny that they were skeletons, practically dead. The conductor was also a skeleton and they called her “La Muerte.” This wagon supposedly passed by in the middle of the night/early morning. If you were on the street, you were told to go somewhere where you could hear her coming. It made a lot of noise. You could hear the wagon’s wheels and chains. The old ladies would always tell you to not go outside in the middle of the night, especially when you’re alone and there’s no one else on the road because sometimes, the skeleton would give you a bone. That bone meant that someone in your house would get really sick and die. They told you not to go outside so you wouldn’t see them. My grandma says that when she lived in her parent’s house, everyone in her family slept in a room near the living room. The windows were doors but instead of being double doors, they were divided into four. In the middle of the doors, there was a gap. Because of that gap, her and her sisters saw the wagon pass by once in the middle of the night and it was really loud. Everyone outside ran to hide. The wagons would disappear at every corner because corners are in the shape of a cross. Since the skeletons are demonic and Catholics think crosses are holy, the story goes that the wagon can’t go on corners, they’ll disappear and reappear on a different street.”

Context:

The informant’s grandma lived in Nicaragua and told the story about La Carreta Nagua, which is a wagon pulled by bulls and controlled by a skeleton. Children and teens are warned not to go out and night because if they hear the wagon and receive a bone from this skeleton, it means someone in their family will die. The informant revealed that their grandma has told them that she saw the wagon one night when she was an adult.

Analysis:

This Nicaraguan legend seems to take a functionalist approach by scaring teens and children from going out alone at night. Adults didn’t want their kids to be out in the middle of the night unsupervised and likely created this story to make sure they followed their curfew. The setting is a real place – it includes streets that the children and teens live near, which makes it feel more real. While it is a Nicaraguan legend, the informant says that their grandma always told it as a true story and even once they became an adult, their grandma never said that the story was false.

La Llorona

Age: 22

Text:

Informant: “I don’t remember how long ago it was, but it was in Guatemala. In the capital of Guatemala. That’s where my uncle and my aunt live. It was like around 8 p.m and they just came back from church. They were just like settling, putting away their stuff. I think my uncle heads to the kitchen and all of a sudden he just sees La Llorona standing there. I actually don’t know what they did. If you hear her and she sounds very far away, that means she’s close to you. But apparently, La Llorona was in the kitchen and I can’t remember if either they left the house or they started praying. That’s usually what they do when they sense a spirit.”

Context:

When the informant was younger, their uncle told them a story about the time he and his wife saw La Llorona in their kitchen. The informant believes their uncle either tried to pray that La Llorona be sent away or they exited the house.

Analysis:

La Llorona is a popular Latin American legend about a woman dressed in white who drowned her children. She is typically said to be seen crying near rivers and bodies of water, because she drowned her children after finding out her husband was unfaithful.

In this story, the informant’s uncle has told them a memorate, his personal interaction with La Llorona. There are a myriad of reasons why people may see La Llorona, according to the legend. The story can be a warning to not be out late at night near bodies of water. It forewarns men to not cheat on their wives, or they may see La Llorona. Others say that she appears when children are disobedient. All of these reasons can be a lesson for children and adults to scare them into following the rules and being faithful to their wives.

Upstate New York Ghost Story

Age: 19

Text:
“Back in like 2010 I’d say, because I just turned four and moved into a new house. So my house is around 200 years old. It’s an old farmhouse. It was built in 1820, so however old it was at that point. I just moved into this house, and I was four, so I was asleep. My mom, apparently the first few nights we moved there, she smelled smoke. It’s important to know my parents are very anti-smokers. They’re very against smoking, so it clearly wasn’t them, but my mom would hear smoking and she’d smell cigarette smoke every night around the same hour. She would see a haze too in the kitchen, and the smell was cigarette smoke. It happened for three nights straight, and it was all at the same hour, same time. My dad would be at work and then it was just me and my brother, and we’d be asleep. She’d smell it every time at the same hour, so she thinks it’s a ghost that’s living in our house, which you know, could make sense based on how old it is. She went up to talk to the ghost one night around that hour, and she was just like, ‘Hey, listen, you’re free to stay here and welcome of course, but my husband and son have asthma and they can’t deal with the cigarette smoke. Can you just smoke outside on the porch?’ After that, she’s never smelt it again.”

Context:
A girl from upstate New York who heard a ghost story from her mom about when she moved into her house when she was around four years old. She has not experienced other paranormal activity since this experience.

Analysis:
While it is a ghost story, this story serves as excellent framework for efficient communication. Her mom could have called a priest or exorcist, like others do, and forced the spirit away from her home, but instead, she took a friendlier approach and simply communicated with the ghost. By asking nicely and explaining the reasoning behind her request, she got her wishes and was never bothered by the indoor-smoking ghost again. I think we can all take a page out of her mom’s book and apply her extraordinary communication and confrontation skills to our own lives. As for whether the story is true or not, only her mom knows. It’s possible it could have been fabricated to warn her kids against smoking.

Scary Camp Story

Age: 22

Text:
“There once was an old man who lived in an old house, and he lived around no one else except for one other old neighbor. It was just an old man who lived there by himself, and this man became infatuated with the life of this old man who lived next to him. Infatuated. He was so intrigued by his life as a single old man that he couldn’t resist. So every night for a week, he went into the old man’s bedroom, snuck into his house, broke in. The old man had no idea, he couldn’t see, he couldn’t hear. He had bad senses, he’s an old man. He broke into his house and would just watch him sleep and try and figure out what he was thinking about. On the 8th night, he goes back to the old man’s house like usual, but he swears he sees the old man’s eyes open. So, instinctually, he grabs the pocket knife out of his pocket and stabs the old man in the heart. He’s panicking. He just killed a man and doesn’t know what he did. He was scared. So, he buries the old man under the floorboards in the old house. Eventually, the police came and asked him to go to the crime scene, as he’s the only one that lives around this old man. He works through the investigation, and nothing happens. He goes to sleep that night, but he’s awoken by a slow thumping. Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom. The sound of the old man’s heart beating from under the floorboards. Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom. Finally, he goes back. He looks under the floorboards. The old man’s still dead, but he can hear the boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom of his heart. This sound follows him for the rest of his life, and eventually, he tells the police that he killed the old man, and the police said, ‘We don’t know anything about this old man.’ He dreamed it all.”

Context:
A boy who grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and learned this ghost story when he was camping as an Eagle Scout.

Analysis:
This ghost story is interesting for a few reasons. I have often found that ghost stories that end with “It was a dream all along” are ones that are made up completely and didn’t know how to end it or, similarly, someone forgot the ending and changed it. I would be interested to see other versions of this tale and if they have a different ending or not. It’s also interesting that he learned it as a Boy Scout, potentially serving as a cautionary tale for invading privacy and lying.

Bloody Mary

Age: 22

Text:
As a younger sibling, my sister would always do things to try and scare me. But the one thing that I knew that she didn’t, as a mere four-year-old, was Bloody Mary. What you do is you go into one bathroom, and you spin someone around in the dark eight times, saying, “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.” Then you turn the lights on for a quick second so you can see the reflection of Bloody Mary in the mirror. I did it to my sister, and she screamed. She ran out of the bathroom while the lights were flickering on and off, and then you keep flicking them on and off. Then they believe that the Bloody Mary is actually trying to scare them.”

Context:
A boy from Kansas City, Missouri discussing how to scare people with the Bloody Mary legend that he learned at school.

Analysis:
He used a folkloric myth/legend/ghost story that he learned through his classmates to scare and prank his sister into thinking there was a demon ghost woman with a bloody face in their bathroom. You start by doing a ritual (turning the lights off, closing eyes, and spinning three times), making the person disoriented and confused when the light starts flickering. Children often see a woman because they are so scared and imagine it even though she’s not actually there.