Momotaro

AGE: 20   

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 04/07/2025

LANGUAGE: English 

NATIONALITY: American 

OCCUPATION: Student 

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: Cerritos, CA  

Interviewer: Are there any distinct folktales or myths that you grew up hearing about?

NB: “Tooth fairy…[continues to think]…Oh! Momotaro.”

Interviewer: Who is that? Could you tell me that story?

NB: “The little peach boy. I think it’s something like there were old grandparents who always wanted a kid but couldn’t have one. But one day they were blessed with a peach that came down the river stream who ended up being a baby boy so they ended up raising him.”

Interviewer: When did you hear this story?

NB: “I think when I was 6 or 7 years old.”

Interviewer: What do you think the tale is about? Any life lessons or moral stories you think it’s trying to accomplish?

NB: “Mmmm I’m not really sure. [thinks about it for a little] I think it’s about life blessings maybe?”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

Again, this was yet another tale that I had never heard of, so I went online to do some light digging. This tale is about a hero named (quite literally, this is the translation) Peach Boy. This hero can be found in many Japanese tales, movies, books, etc., you name it. According to my basic online sources, he was the local hero of the Okayama Prefecture. In the version of the tale I found online, he was born from a giant peach found floating down a river by an old, childless woman. As he grew older, he became significantly stronger and eventually left his parents behind to fight demons alongside his friends a talking dog, monkey, and pheasant. In the version of the tale NB told me, there was no mention of his fighting demons, simply just that he was a blessing from the gods in the form of a peach. This tale creates many questions for me, such as: why was he born from a peach? What is the significance of the peach? Why did he go off to fight demons? It also just reminds me of more Asian folktales I have heard of that have really interesting or weird characters (often involving fruit or talking animals of some kind, actually) and that the moral of the story isn’t really quite evident. Sometimes stories are just told for entertainment purposes. Does that still count as a part of folklore if it doesn’t have any deeper meaning behind it?

Mothman

Age: 19


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: English


Nationality: British American


Occupation: Full-Time Student


Primary Language: English


Residence: United States

Text:

The Mothman is a cryptid described to be dark and significantly big winged figure.

Context:

Located in West Virginia, there was a bridge built that the people adored, the Silver bridge in Mason County to be exact. So when the bridge collapsed into the river, theories begun to spur. Individuals, speculated that a cryptid known as the Mothman was to blame, claiming to have seen and heard the creature moments before the incident. Some even claimed to have been told by the Mothman himself that he was gonna take down the bridge.

Growing up, my informant heard a joke about Mothman, unaware of the cryptid until he asked his dad about the legend.

My informant doesn’t inherently believe the Mothman exists, but is intrigued about the amount of stories brought forth by the community that made it feel so real and almost believable.

Analysis:

I believe that the Mothman sightings are an interesting concept that can be perceived as real to those mislead by some of the stories spread around by it. The abundance of it all can be seen as overwhelming to those new to the cryptid, which I would be inevitable due to all of the person statements declaring his presence

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Ox

Age: 19


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: English


Nationality: British American


Occupation: Full-Time Student


Primary Language: English


Residence: United States

Text:

Paul Bunyan is a 40 foot tall man. He is known to have an exponential amount of strength and work alongside hid ox, babe the blue ox.

Context:

One of the stories my informant brought up was one where Paul Bunyan was asked to cut a bunch of trees down alongside Babe the blue ox. This took place in the Midwest which Paul Bunyan and Babe the ox is used to explain the amount of trees cut down in flat land.

Informant grew up in the Midwest to where he had a book about Paul Bunyan filled with stories about his involvement in the Midwest. Furthermore, they researched more about it after discovering some of the statues commemorated to the Folk Legend in Wisconsin.

They interpreted Paul Bunyan’s story to just be a story rung around by lumberjacks back in the day to pass the time and explain some of the oddities of the forests and landmarks.

Analysis:

Personally, I’d have to agree, much like some of the stories past down amongst workers during long periods of time, there stories were made out of pure entertainment. They really expressed this medium through the more fictional attributes added to Paul Bunyan, much like his height and exponential strength and sometimes magical abilities.

‘El Cadejo’

Age: 48


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: Spanish


Nationality: Latino/a


Occupation: Caregiver


Primary Language: Spanish


Residence: United States

Text:

‘El Cadejo’ are two huge dogs, one white, the other black, one representing good and the other evil.

Context:

My informant heard the story of ‘El Cadejo’ from their father who encountered one of the two dogs returning from work at night. According to their father, upon walking back home from a long day of work, he encountered the huge white Cadejo. Aware of the tales of the creature, he remained calm upon its presence, turning away from it and walking forth home as it guided him back through the night.

Deriving from their father’s story of ‘El Cadejo,’ my informant interprets the white Cadejo to reveal themselves to people in place of their spiritual animal companion, there to guide them through difficult times. On the other hand, they interpret the black Cadejo to reveal themselves to those who do wrong in the world, present to punish them for their actions.

Analysis:

I agree with my informants interpretation, as I’ve personally heard the Cadejo were sent down to manage and help balance the world from the malice accumulating from peoples actions. Nevertheless, I believe it is also another folktale about being careful at night and to avoid at all wandering at night from factors that can be unavoidable.

‘El Cipitio’

Age: 48


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: Spanish


Nationality: Latino/a


Occupation: Caregiver


Primary Language: Spanish


Residence: United States

Text:

  • El Cipitio is a legendary character from Salvadoran folklore portrayed as a 8-10 year old boy with a large conical hat and a pot-belly.

Context:

  • ‘El Cipitio’s’ name is derived from the Salvadoran word for child, “cipote” translating‘El Cipitio’ to ‘The boy’. Cursed by the god Teotl, Cipitio was condemned to live eternity as a small boy with backwards feet. He is known to be a trickster, wandering into farmers fields, throwing pebbles at beautiful ladies, hiding in bushes to scare people, and eating ashes leftover in rural kitchens.

Growing up in the rural parts of El Salvador, my informant has heard various stories about the Cipitio. Considering their family always cooked in lumber fueled stoves, when ashes laid scattered the day after cooking, the fault would always lay to ‘El Cipitio.’ Or whenever foot prints would lead to no suspecting figure, it would be perceived as a trick from ‘El Cipitio’ and his backwards feet.

My informant interpreted these stories from ‘El Cipitio’ to explain some of the oddities of life, or some of the things children would do but would never explicitly take fault for.

Analysis:

I interpret ‘El Cipitio’ as a legendary character who is just meant to be an entertaining factor in life. Made to make light of some oddities and serve as a easy cop out for things we just aren’t able to explain. I find that he is made to represent childish wonder and all that makes up being a kid growing up. In term, I believe that he is meant to represent the literal sense of a child, a boy to be exact as he is described to do some of the ‘stereotypical’ actions of a boy at his age.