The Haunted Storage Space

The informant lived in a historical San Diego home, which had many stories about the prior owners. He told me this story verbally in person, and said that the owners reported strange activities in the downstairs closet of the home. There was a secret door inside the closet, which opens up to a small dark storage space. When the informant was a child, he and his siblings would light candles to see if anything happened. One day, the candle blew out by itself and he and his siblings ran away, and never went inside of the closet again. This story is now told in the family, and scary ghosts stories were passed down about what blew out the candle.

Age: 60

Date: February 24th 2025

Language: English

Nationality: White/Hispanic

Occupation: Lawyer, Father

Primary Language: English

Residence: California

Analysis: This story falls into the category of ghost-lore, and this story was shared within the informant’s family and among the siblings. It reinforces the belief of ghosts and has been used to scare different family members. This story has been passed down to younger generations, and the new owners of the house are also aware of strange occurrences.

The UCLA Fountain Legend

Students at UCLA have a tradition where they touch their hands into the inverted fountain on campus, which is twelve feet wide and five feet deep, during their freshman orientation. The informant told me about this tradition over a phone call, and it said that if you touch your hand into it again before you graduate, you will be cursed to spend another quarter at UCLA and graduate late. This story has been passed down from the older generations of grades to the current generation. The informant is a student at UCLA in his junior year, and he is apart of a fraternity. He heard this legend from an older student at his fraternity.

AGE: 21

DATE: February 18th

Language: English

Nationality: White

Occupation: Student

Residence: UCLA

ANALYSIS: I believe that this story was made to both bond students together during orientation to participate in a tradition that is specific to the campus and UCLA, and to also act as a superstition that can scare the freshman into not touching the fountain. It is apart of the culture at UCLA, and the story is also a way for the students to make a memory during orientation when it is their turn to touch the fountain, as well as when they graduate and get to partake in the tradition again before they leave.

The Tiger Tale

The informant’s family has a story that was passed down from his grandfather in Bangladesh, who was attacked by a tiger while being driven in a carriage. The carriage had knocked over as the tiger pounced, and the driver ran away. His grandfather and father then had to walk ten miles in the dark of the night, while being stalked by the tiger that tipped over the carriage. This story has been passed down among the family.

Analysis: This story is family lore and a legend, and the informant expressed that this story has been shared many times among the family, and is believed to be true.

Date: February 20th, 2025

Age: 21

Language: English

Nationality: Bangladeshi

Occupation: Student

Residence: Los Angeles

Las Lechuzas

Age: 20

Folk Narrative: Legend

Text: Las Lechuzas (The White Owls)

“In my grandma’s pueblito in Guerrero, she was told that the lechuzas, or the white owls, would swoop up disobedient or unbaptized children who were out at night. The lechuzas would appear with the face of an old woman and were believed to be a witch who sold her soul to the Devil. They always appear outside the home looking in, on the rooftop, or in a tree. It is believed that if you harm or kill a lechuza, it can transform her back into a woman. It is also believed that if you pray for her, she will return to her human form. It is also believed that if it lands on your roof, it means somebody in your family will die”. 

Context: When asked, my informant told me she first heard this narrative from her grandmother, who grew up in a small town in Guerrero, Mexico. She told me this is a prevalent narrative in her grandmother’s village, and all the community knows how to look out for the white owls. My informant’s grandmother still believes in this legend and gets visibly scared when she sees a lechuza outside at night or close to landing on her roof. She believes that there is a rule of three where if the lechuza lands on her roof, three of her family members will die. Because of this belief, she does whatever she can to stop them from landing. My informant mentioned that when she visited her grandmother, she was not allowed outside at night, just as her grandmother had not been allowed outside when she was younger. It is something that the whole town is aware of, and there have been stories of rebellious children who went out at night and never came back. The entire community is superstitious, and because it’s what they’re used to and weren’t told otherwise, they keep believing it. When asked how she interprets this, my informant mentioned that it is a way to keep children inside during nighttime so they stay out of trouble. The place that she grew up in was known for gang violence, kidnapping, and organ harvesting, so if they scare children into staying inside, they protect them from the potential dangers outside. 

Analysis: Looking at this narrative, we can see a typical legend structure. It is set in the real world (Mexico), and its truth value depends on those telling the story and those who choose to be wary or stay inside when they see a white owl. Additionally, legends tend to reflect the concerns of the people, which in this case was the criminality that the town was facing at that time. To protect their children’s health and innocence, they rely on these legends to keep them inside the house. This legend also ties into religious beliefs in the Devil, and it gets translated into a supernatural being– an introduction to Catholic cosmology with ideas of good versus evil, punishment, and redemption by being able to turn humans again. The story’s strength lies in its collective belief and behavioral impact: the grandmother, the informant, and the wider community recognize the lechuza as a dangerous entity. This community-wide buy-in transforms the tale into a functioning legend—it is not merely a scary story. Still, one that guides behavior, reinforces norms, and protects the vulnerable. Here, the supernatural story masks very real and present dangers: gang violence, kidnapping, and organ trafficking. By embedding these concerns within a mystical framework, the legend transforms fear into a tangible creature—something children can understand and avoid. In this way, the legend functions as a form of social control and protection, allowing older generations to encode safety messages into the oral tradition. Also, the multiple interpretations of the legend, such as the rule of three or praying to turn her human, make it continuously evolving and adapting to the person telling it. 

Moisesito

Age: 20

Folk Narrative: Memorate 

Text: Moisesito 

“Growing up, I would visit my grandma’s friend’s house. One day, she handed me a toy teaset, and when I was trying to grab it (she had already let go of it), I felt a force pulling the teaset away from me. I specifically remember pulling it; something invisible was pulling it on the other side. I couldn’t pull it toward me until my grandmother’s friend yelled “aplácate ya” or “calm down now,” I could finally pull it. Then, the lights started flashing, and she again asked it to stop. I looked at her, confused, and she told me not to worry because that was Moisesito. Apparently, when he was two or three years old, he died in a car crash, and now he just stays at her house because she was his caregiver. He doesn’t harm anybody but does like playing tricks”. 

Context: My informant had this experience when she was in elementary school, visiting her grandmother’s friend’s house. She mentioned that the woman had asked her if she remembered Moisesito (implying that she had met him before), but she did not. When I asked her if she knew it was him, she said she had no idea and thought she wasn’t strong enough to pull it. She didn’t realize it was Moisesito until her grandmother’s friend told her not to be scared because it was just him playing tricks. She also mentioned that after this happened, her grandmother told her not to fear if she hears noises or other strange things happening because it’s just him. When asked if the existence of Moisesito was born from the grief of his loss, she told me she wasn’t sure but that her grandmother’s friend dreams of him often and sees him walking around. She believes that people who died in a tragic accident stay here until somebody helps them complete their pending last wishes. Because of this, they believe Moisesito is still active in this world. 

Analysis: Looking at this memorate, we can see how what may have been a simple matter of lack of strength was quickly addressed and named Moisesito. In this case, the story of Moisesito—a ghost child who died tragically and now resides in a caregiver’s home—emerges not from a community-wide legend, but from a deeply personal and intimate encounter that was later explained through familial belief. At the heart of this memorate is a moment of confusion and physical resistance: the informant attempts to take a toy tea set, only to feel an invisible force pulling it away. She initially interprets the situation as a mundane struggle—perhaps a lack of strength or clumsiness—but the caregiver immediately intervenes with a supernatural explanation, identifying the force as Moisesito. This recontextualization of the event is critical to understanding the memorate as a genre: an ordinary experience is interpreted through supernatural terms based on existing belief systems. The story is tied to a specific house, the caregiver, and a specific spiritual entity—Moisesito. The informant does not initially ascribe any supernatural quality to her experience; the narrative only takes on a spiritual dimension after being filtered through the caregiver’s worldview. This moment illustrates how memorates are shaped: the individual experiences something unusual, and cultural or familial frameworks help interpret it. The explanation that Moisesito died tragically and lingers in the house until his final wishes are fulfilled aligns with common folk beliefs across cultures that spirits of the dead, particularly those who died young or suddenly, remain in the liminal space between worlds. The familial responses further reinforce this framework. After the event, the informant’s grandmother validates the experience by telling her not to fear future encounters, solidifying Moisesito’s presence as a known and accepted figure within the household.