Text: The duende are small dwarf-like creatures that exist in Filipino folklore. Many older relatives that live in the Philippines have probably had an interaction of some kind with the duende when they were a child. My grandma and her sister had told me that their aunt in the Philippines used to be friends with the duende, but only the aunt could see them. When my grandma and her sister visited my aunt’s house, the aunt introduced the duende to them. She said, “These are my nieces so don’t hurt them,” but my grandma and aunt were confused because they couldn’t see them. However, they still believed that they existed because of other stories that their older relatives had told them about the duende. Upon asking, they don’t remember any of the stories specifically, but they did remember one story that their sister-in-law had told them a long time ago describing their appearance. She to described them with green clothes, pointy hats, and pointy shoes. Their sister-in-law told them that they were playing on her window sill when she woke up on the middle of the night. She just quietly watched them and they were playing hide and seek. 

Context: This story was jointly told by my grandma and her sister and they had constantly asked each other throughout the story for details. I had put an abridged version of the interview in the text, but if I were to ask questions about the duende’s appearance or mannerisms, they would tell half of a story about some relative that told them about personal interactions with the duende before they would just go onto another story when they started to forget the details. They actually told about 5 different stories, but I had included the main two in the text above.

Analysis: I had always heard stories about the duende from all of my older relatives while growing up. I think I have always categorized them as something that was fake in my head like fairies or elves. I think hearing these stories again and asking for more details made me realize the importance of the uniqueness in these specific memories and stories that they hold. The fluidity that oral storytelling has is something that can’t be looked up or even recorded through writing. It also makes me think about how these stories will live on in my generation. All of my grandmother’s children and grandchildren live in America. There are no new duende stories that can be added onto the family folklore. It makes me wonder about how these stories will further be told and interpreted in my generation and the next.