Category Archives: Narrative

The Legend of the Purple People

Location: Lafayette, CA

Context: The informant ( initials ET) and I talking about hometown legends and the concept of growing up in small, suburban towns. That’s when she brought up a well-known ‘cult’ or group called the Purple People in Lafayette.

Text:

ET: There’s a cult in my town. Well, I don’t know if their cult or if they’re still around, but they’re called the Purple People.

Me: How do you know about them

ET: Well, I think it’s mostly my parent’s generations that talk about them— my parents not as much because they’re not from Lafayette— but my friends parents definitely.

Me: Have people ever seen them or like what do you know about them?

ET: Well there’s supposed to be a purple house they live in but I’m not sure where it is or if it still exists, but I know there’s a specific field in town people go to try to see them.

Me: Okay so was this a dare type of thing or what?

ET: Yeah exactly, people would be dared to go run up to the ‘Purple People’ house and try to maybe interact with them.

Me: Why was running to see them a dare, or what made it kind of higher stakes?

ET: Ok so I think they were said to be sex cult and participated in group sex frequently, or at least that’s what my friends parents would say! But I’m not sure if that’s made up or not.

Me: Oh wow, so there was definitely a stigma then? Or what was the rhetoric around them?

ET: Yeah they kind of kept to themselves and people just thought they were weird I think. But like the other thing is that as a kid, I feel like half the people believed in them and the other half didn’t. It was like a big debate.

Analysis:

This narrative is a classic example of a suburban legend, where a small truth regarding a likely communal living group was transformed by local gossip into a neighborhood myth and word of mouth legend. The ‘taboo’ subject of sex and communal living likely fostered the spread of gossip and was ignited by anxieties of the people at the time. However, later on for the subject’s generation, the Purple People functioned as a rite of passage where kids could get dared to go ‘find the house’ or have an encounter with the Purple People.

Satanic group on Turnbull Canyon trail

Age: 20s Location: Whittier, CA

Context: This legend was shared during a classroom setting by a female participant (JG) who has lived in Whittier, CA her entire life. As a local, her knowledge of the area is rooted in community sharing and knowledge.

Text:

JG: I guess mainly from where I live there’s a trail called Turnbull canyon.

JG: Basically there’s legend going around that in between one of the trails there’s this satanic group that does animal sacrifices and other rituals.

Me: And where are you from?

JG: I live in Whittier, CA.

Me: So, have you ever gone to this specific trail or just heard about it?

JG: I just heard about it mainly. I’ve never been, at least I don’t think?

Me: Do you know where this spot is said to be located?

JG: It’s never really specified where it is on the trail. But I think it’s on the border between my town and the one over. Somewhere in between.

Me: Who told you about it?

JG: It’s a very popular story. I think I just heard about it in passing from friends and stuff.

JG: But I heard about in depth when I went to a track training camp near this trail and one of coaches had a lot to say. They even mentioned that the city has been trying to cover it up.

Analysis:

The legend of a satanic group Turnbull Canyon serves as a classic urban legend, placed on the border between towns, enhances its status as a dangerous, liminal, and mythical space. The classic satanic elements, such as animal sacrifice and occult rituals, are commonly rumored to exist in outlying areas between suburban towns. JG’s mention of a city cover-up adds a conspiratorial element that explains the lack of physical evidence while simultaneously increasing the story’s validity. Furthermore, the transmission of the lore through an authority figure like a coach validates the legend, elevating it from a story passed peer to peer to a cemented truth about the canyon.

Diaz de los Muertos and One’s Ancestral History

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Age: 28

Text: CB – “Known well as Diaz de los Muertos or day of the dead, its a very important holiday in the Hispanic calendar. It has a lot of crossover with the Americanized Halloween, but it’s distinctive differences go far beyond the costumes and candies. The point is to remember our dearly departed. During it, we bring out all the old photos from my grandmother’s family and my grandfather’s family, my mother side (Nana, and Tata respectfully). Specifically what we do is help my Nana and Tata arrange all their family photos on the banister and dining room table so that they may join us for one last meal. We offer our prayers to them and little candies of their favorite and light candles in their honor. As the photos come out, my grandparents and my aunts and uncles will begin telling stories about these people Somehow, we’ve heard 1000 times and never interrupt. Others are new to us and add another source of identity to where we came from.”

Interviewer – “What is the most memorable story you’ve heard about your ancestors?”

CB – “My big Nana (great-grandmother) was a loving, but firm woman. All her children learned to dodge at a very young age, for she was proficient with wooden chanclas. One time my mother snuck out at night to go see a movie when she got back they had closed and locked her window This wasn’t that unusual. Typically they would just spend the night on the roof at this time, however she went to big Nana‘s house, knocked on the door and gave her a sob story about my grandfather locking her out. This caused my great grandmother to storm over to their house (my Nana’s family lived very close to each other) and hammer on the door. When my mother’s father opened it, he was immediately hitting his head with a wooden chanclas. She chased him around the property for about an hour while my mom darted to her room and laughed from her window.”

Context: Diaz de los Muertos is an annual Hispanic holiday to celebrate the dead of one’s family. Typically it involves large gatherings, bringing together members of extended family to celebrate and share stories about those who have passed. In the case of CB and their family, some stories pop up and stay the same each year, and each year each family member listens on with respect and fondness. Besides, the candy, feasts, and decorations this holiday is additionally anointed with, at the heart of it rests the tales of those gone to show that they are and never will be forgotten. CB has been told this story about his mother sneaking out a number of times, year after year, and it never gets old.

Analysis: Being both an annually calendrical holiday, there is an air of spiritualism, belief, but also prolonged familial ritual for Diaz de los Muertos for CB and their family, as is with most families who celebrate it traditionally. The art and act of gathering around to tell stories about those who have passed to allow their spirits to not fade into obscurity is a prime example of continued tradition and using a holiday as the medium to come together to do the sharing. This family-based festival, where food is offered and made, candy is eaten, stories are exchanged, and to take pride on those who have passed is a wide mixture of many folk group mediums, from foodways, to folk belief, to folk speech and narratives, and finally this annual holiday which encompasses it all. Diaz de los Muertos is a rich example of folk culture for the Hispanic community, and continues to shine on for each family regardless of how they celebrate it.

Mystery Man on Tecate Ranch

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Age: 28

Text: Interviewer – “What kind of ghost stories have you been told, told yourself, or know? Where did you learn them?”

CB – “There is a one specific ghost story for my family. A long time ago they used to own a ranch in Tecate. Near the southern edge of property was an old graveyard. According to my mother local cartel would double stuff the graves there with people they are getting rid of and one of those victims stayed around. Sometimes late at night, you can see him standing out the side of the road like he was waiting for a ride, for the afterlife or to a job you’re supposed to go to nobody knows. My mother swears she saw him once when they were out hunting rabbits in the evening. Normally, they weren’t allowed in the area at night because of the cartel, but she could see the access road from the hilltop and swore there was a man there that her sister couldn’t see.”

Interviewer – “Have you shared this story with anyone else outside of your family?”

CB – “Nope. Not really.”

Interviewer – “Thank you for sharing it with me, then.”

Context: This ghost story was told to CB by their mother, detailing the events of their own upbringing and paranormal stories. This being one of the many stories that their mother shared, usually ending with multiple spines of cacti, though with this ending in a much more supernatural atmosphere, unsure of what she saw was actually there or not. The story itself, until me, was only circulated within the family’s own folk group of believers and nonbelievers, whether it be something spooky to be feared or silly to be laughed at.

Analysis: Stories of the paranormal run deep within areas of burial, death, or where spirits would be inclined to seek revenge. Given how the circumstances of the cartels pressence within CB’s mother’s story lines up, the tale aligns itself with others of its kind where the point of origin is a crossroad of death. Additionally, CB’s mother’s perspective aligns with an environment which would encourage one to become more naturally accepting of the paranormal, supernatural forces, or spirits/apparitions. Given the setting, an old graveyard with a trouble history of unrest at night all with only one other person, CB’s mother, regardless of whether she actually saw something, would be automatically more inclined to agree that she did due to the mood and environment. Furthermore, attaching stories to the deceased is a classic trope of ghost stories, imposing their own subtales onto the larger tale at large, whether it be a woman in white, lonely hitchhiker, or in the case of CB’s mother, a victim of the cartel waiting for a ride to work.

La Cegua

Age: 54

Text:

Informant: La Cegua would appear to drunk men or mujeriegos (womanizers). When these men would walk alone at night where no one else is around after heavy drinking and being with other women and were on their way home, La Cegua would appear to them in the form of a beautiful woman. It would get really close to them. When the men would go to kiss her, instead of being beautiful, it was like the skull of a horse and her face was rotting. Some men would go crazy out of fear and sometimes even die of the pure shock of how ugly it was.

Context:

The informant learned about the legend of La Cegua while living in Nicaragua. La Cegua is a very beautiful looking woman that can be found in the mountains or woods. Typically, womanizing men who are out late at night, drunk, and cheating on their wives find her. At first, she appears to be beautiful but once she turns around, she has the head of a horse, terrifying men.

Analysis:

This Nicaraguan legend was functional, as it was likely taught to kids and teens to scare them from getting drunk, going out alone at night in the woods and mountains, and cheating on their spouses. They wouldn’t want to come across this woman with a horse face.