“La Muchacha desobediente” (“The Disobedient Young Woman”)- Mexican Legend

*Originally spoken in Spanish. The following is a rough translation. 

Description (From Transcript): “There was a young woman who’s mom wouldn’t let her go to a dance. There were dances and she went without permission. At the dance, there was a very elegant young man, very well dressed, tall, and a stranger. He wasn’t from that region. So he asked the young woman to dance with him and she was super happy, danced with him, and after a while he disappeared. She saw his legs and saw that one of them was a horse leg and the other was a rooster’s. When she saw this, she tried to run away, she wanted him to let go of her. She managed to get away and that’s when he disappeared. But she had his handprints printed on her back, like animal claws. Her back was burned where he touched her. I don’t know if the young woman died, if they found her dead, or something. But they found her with the handprints. Or maybe she lived to tell the story, herself. Other people saw that he disappeared. That’s how they know the story. This happened in some ranch probably close to where I’m from because they told this story as far back as my grandma’s time. This story also happened here (Denver) and it was on the news. There were rumors because they found this young woman dead, and they would say that something similar had happened to her because they found the handprints on her back”. 

Context: TR is a Mexican woman, born and raised in Zacatecas, Mexico. She immigrated to the United States in 1995. She explains how they would scare “one” with this story. When asked to clarify who she was referring to by “one”, she explained that she meant teenage girls. In an attempt to not let their daughters go to parties or dances, parents would tell them this story of the devil. Her mom would tell her this story since she was little and began wanting to go to dances because she was disobedient. 

She explains that parents would let them go to dances, but not all of them. But the young women wanted to go to all of the stories. She states that the story was told to young men and women but men were less scared by it. Parents wanted their daughters to be more careful. This was the belief, the lifestyle in small communities; that the man had to protect the woman. It was a stereotype from where we lived. Men were given more freedom. 

My Interpretation: Much like La Llorona, this legend is used as a warning to women in order to ensure that they wouldn’t go out too much. I found it surprising that this legend traversed to an American city considering that the informant originally learned in a very rural, small town context. It’s also indicative of different gender treatments of children and victim blaming culture because even though the woman in the story was harmed (and in some cases murdered) she is used as an example of how being a disobedient woman has consequences that can be avoided. 

Limpia- Mexican Cleansing Ritual 

Description (From Transcript): “The translation of it is a cleanse. This one is kind of hard to explain. Essentially what it is is thinking that you have this negative energy within or around you and they (the person doing the cleanse) basically do this cleanse on your body. It (the person doing the cleanse) can technically be anyone as long as they know the gist of what you’re doing but I think it tends to be older adults who have more experience with it. 

So essentially, you take an egg, a raw egg that’s not cracked and you cleanse that energy from the person’s body that you’re doing the limpia on. And the way that my grandparents and mom would do it, they would do it saying prayers like “Santa Maria” or “Dios te salve Maria”. They would basically run the egg making crosses down your body from your head to your toes and then back up. I don’t know the exact number of how many times you say the prayers but that’s how you do it. And once you’re done, you crack that egg into a glass of water and you put that egg under your bed while you sleep and it’s supposed to essentially take all that bad energy and soak it into that cup of water. It’s a pretty old ritual but I distanced myself from religion and became a little more spiritual. I still believe in bad energy, auras and stuff like that but when I do limpias I do them on myself and instead of saying prayers I do positive affirmations. It’s literally the same process but not the prayers. I also crack the egg into the water but I don’t sleep with it under my bed. I just let it sit there for a little. 

Context: The informant (LV) is a first generation Mexican American woman residing in Denver, Colorado. She states that this practice is interesting because she adapted it from her grandma and mom. She believes it’s from Aztec culture, but she’s not sure. It’s in the same “area” as other Mexican Indigenous beliefs and practices such as “mal de ojo” (evil eye). In her culture it was intertwined with religion and Catholicism. She likes this practice because, even though she feels disconnected from her family because of religion, it helps her stay connected. 

My interpretation: What’s particularly interesting about this informant’s version of this practice is that by removing Catholic aspects from it, she is most likely performing it more accurately to the way it was done in pre colonial Indigenous communities. Her explanation of her version, along with her comments about finding online versions that also remove the religious aspects, also point to a generational shift away from organized religion and towards spirituality instead. Such shifts reveal how young people from ethnic communities continue to use and preserve folk practices but have learned to modify them to better reflect their own belief systems and socio-political stances.

Denver International Airport Horse- Denver Legend

Description (From transcript): “There is a big statue of a blue horse. It’s really really tall; you can see it from far away and its eyes are red. It’s really bright and visible. It’s a huge thing that you notice right away on your way to the Denver International Airport. The name is Blucifer. That tells you a little bit about where this is kind of headed *laughs*. There’s a lot of legends at the airport, the history of where it was built, how it was built, what’s underneath it, all of that. But this horse is just kind of out there, it’s a bolder staple. I also recently learned that the guy who was building it, a piece of the horse fell on him and he died while building it. And his son finished the construction of it. I feel like that also adds a layer of spookiness. And the red eyes? Like for what? And the name? It’s really interesting and scary.”

Context: The informant (LV) is a first generation Mexican American woman residing in Denver, Colorado. Because she lives in Denver, she says that it feels its, literally, a little more close to home. She explains how there’s a lot of theories about DIA (the Denver International Airport) such as stuff being built underground. She says that there is so much information, such as illuminati related content and “who knows what’s true”. She says that this airport is one of the biggest in the US and Colorado is very historically important and rich, which plays a big role on why there are so many theories around this location. She says Blucifer is a unique aspect of Denver. 

She remembers hearing stories as she was growing up about the airport. She had an uncle who worked there. Because she likes to travel, she’s always taking Lyfts and Ubers to the airports. She learned new details of the story from an Uber driver who was taking her to the airport. She says that Uber drivers know a lot about the places where they live and part of their job has become telling people these stories.

My interpretation: This legend is intriguing to me because despite sounding heavily fictional for the sake of shock factor, parts of the story are true, making it one of very few legends that are heavily based in truth. However, because people continued to add their own interpretations of it, other aspects are not as clear on truth values. Despite resulting in tragedy, it also seems to have become an important part of Denver’s history, especially because it is one of the first things outsiders see in Colorado, emphasizing just how important the figure and the story have become. 

For further reading on this statue and legend, see: 

Wolf, Stephanie. “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Blucifer, the Demon Horse of Dia.” Colorado Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio, 11 Feb. 2021, www.cpr.org/2019/11/04/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-blucifer-the-demon-horse-of-dia/. 

“Zapatito Blanco, Zapatito Azul”- Mexican Children’s Game

Description (From transcript): “It’s like a game I guess “Zapatito Blanco, zapatito azul”. The literal translation is “White shoe, blue shoe” but it’s like the equivalent of “Bubblegum, bubblegum, in a dish” where you put in your feet and you count around the circle. We as kids would use it like before an actual game to see would start or who would be first or who would be ‘it’.  It’s like “Zapatito blanco, zapatito azul, dime cuántos años tienes tu” and whoever it would land on they would say how old they are and that number is how many times you would go around and tap each person’s shoe and whoever it would land on you would take out their foot… And you just kind of keep repeating that until you get to the last person and that’s who’s it. I remember playing it before playing tag and that’s who would be “it”. Or like hide and seek. And sometimes we would play it as a game itself just to play that. And “dime cuántos años tienes tú” is “tell me how old you are” and you would say how old you are but after a while if you’re playing with the same people, it gets repetitive to keep saying your age so you would just say a number like in “bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?”, you just pick a random number.”

Context: The informant (LV) is a first generation Mexican American woman residing in Denver, Colorado. Her mom taught her this game. She would play it with all the kids at parties so it was popular. She remembers playing this at school, as well. Mostly kids of any gender play this game. She does not see it as a gendered game. She thinks that children no longer play these types of games (hide and seek or tag). The game is in Spanish and belonged to Latin America. She would be interested in asking her friends from places other than Mexico in Latin America if they’ve ever heard of this. She said that as a kid you don’t really question the origin, but at parties, it is a part of Mexican culture. It takes her back to her childhood, which was very different than kids today. 

My Interpretation: Based on both the informant’s thoughts as well as the annotation listed below, I think that this game is very telling of generational and cultural change. It was originally a kinesthetic reliant form of play that required children to be physically in spatial proximity of each other, a characteristic that is no longer as popular with young children today, most likely because of internet culture and the social distancing that came with the pandemic. Furthermore, Mexican American children were also forced to use their native language each time they played this game, strengthening their connections to their ethnic heritage. Without games in Spanish such as these, Mexican American children are no longer maintaining linguistic and cultural practices that are crucial to their ethnic American identities and the politics that said identities entail. More can be said about the connection between these childhood games and socio-political implications in the further reading attached below. 

For further reading on this game, see: 

Anonymous. “Zapatito Blanco: Acknowledging Old Rules and Agreeing to New Ones.” Unbound, 18 Nov. 2019, justiceunbound.org/zapatito-blanco-acknowledging-old-rules-and-agreeing-to-new-ones/. 

“Mejor sola que mal acompañada”- Mexican Proverb

Description (From Transcript): “The literal translation in English is “Better alone than in bad company”. This is something that is commonly said in the Mexican culture but I don’t know if it’s said in other Latin American cultures as well. But essentially it’s talking about how it is better to be alone than in a toxic relationship. And I think most of the time, it’s referring to like- uh- a relationship with like a significant other, but also, I think it can be referring to a friendship or really just anyone’s company. It’s better to be by yourself than with that negative company. And I think when it’s most commonly used is when someone asks you about like your significant other or something. People kind of use it as a joke, honestly, but I think it has a deeper meaning…”

Context: The informant (LV) is a first generation Mexican American woman residing in Denver, Colorado. This proverb is something that she grew up hearing a lot in school with her friends. She spent a lot of time with other Mexican or Latina girls. She also heard it in media such as telenovelas (a genre of Spanish soap operas). She heard it from younger people mostly or single people. It was used as a way to defend yourself– you would rather be single than with someone not deserving of you. 

She also explains that there is a lot of toxic masculinity in this culture specifically, and it’s not something that’s talked about with older generations. But growing up in the US, it’s something her generation is a little more aware from. This little saying highlights that. She likes it because it uses the “a” at the end for women or people who identify as women but it could also be “Mejor solo que mal acompañado” but women are mostly the ones she hears saying this. She thinks it uplifts women to not settle, that it’s okay to be alone than be with someone who doesn’t deserve you. She says that in this culture, there is a lot of pressure to settle down and be with someone. This [saying] fights that idea.  

My Interpretation: I think the informant did a wonderful job of explaining this saying in detail as well as the cultural implications it carries. The emphasis of the subject being feminine is very telling of the rigid gender expectation for women to be in relationships, marry, have children, take care of their parents and elders, all while enduring toxic or, in some cases, abusive behavior from these relationships. Because the saying is particularly common among younger women, it leads me to believe that it is a fairly newer saying, adopted by younger people as a way to challenge generational patriarchal beliefs that worsen and endanger the lives of people, especially women, in this culture. Consequently, I would also expect for this saying to become ever more widely used as internet cultures begin to tackle injustices that parents and grandparents suffered but could not challenge due to a lack of tools and language to do so.