Tag Archives: Hispanic

La Llorona in Venezuela

Nationality: Venezuelan
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: USA, New York
Performance Date: 04/20/2019
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Informant: Are you allowed to use ghost stories for your project?

 

Interviewer: Yeah actually, I thought more people would tell me ghost stories but it’s only been like one.

 

Informant: Because back in Venezuela a really well known one is the legend of La Llorona.

 

Interviewer: What? That’s a thing in Venezuela too? I thought it was a Mexican thing.

 

Informant: Well, everyone I knew there knew La Llorona, so I’m guessing it’s a South America thing.

 

Interviewer: Yeah yeah, that’s cool. I think it’ll be interesting to see how it differs to the legend I’ve heard back home. Can you tell me how you remember it?

 

Informant: Basically, La Llorona, she was this young woman that fell in love with a soldier, and they have a child. Then the dude leaves, to war or something, and never comes back. The woman has no idea of how to take care of a baby by herself, and she gets so frustrated from the baby crying that she eventually kills him with her own hands. She becomes insane, and even starts kidnapping other people’s kids to kill them as well.

 

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s kinda different from the version I know. I remember her having 3 kids, and them.. Getting lost or drowning in a river, I think? She kills herself out of sadness, but doesn’t really pass on because of the regret. And when her spirit shows up, she screams “Ay, mis hijos!” (lit. “Oh, my children!”), which is why the spirit was named “La Llorona” (lit. “The Crying Woman.”)

 

Informant: Ah yes she also cries for her children in the version I know, I guess thats why the name is the same everywhere. But I think to us it was mostly a way to scare kids into behaving. My mom always said that if I wasn’t good the Llorona would kidnap me.

 

Different Versions

Most notably, the legend of La Llorona is being adapted into a modern horror film The Curse of La Llorona (2019). The legend has been adapted into film several times before, though. This particular film seems to be loosely based on the Mexican version of the folktale, according to the synopsis.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4913966/


A written version of the legend of La Llorona is featured in José Alvares’s Leyendas Mexicanas (1998).

Hispanic Proverb-Game

Nationality: Spanish, U.S.
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Miami
Performance Date: 04/21/17
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Informant: Carlota Rodriguez-Benito. 20 years old. Spanish Heritage, born in Miami, lived in Mexico. USC student.

Informant:“El que se va de su villa pierde su silla”

Translation:“The one who leaves his or her villa looses his or her chair”

Informant: “If someone stood up from their seat, whether that be at school, at home, or anywhere, I would take that seat. When that person returned wanting that same seat, I would say the proverb to let them know that it’s their fault they left it and it’s mine now. I no longer use this proverb because I find it silly. When I was younger, however, I loved to say it because it was a funny game.

Thoughts: Carlota grew up in Miami but still used this proverb as a child. Miami has a very big Hispanic community so it makes sense that Carlota would say it. When I was younger,  just like Carlota, I would say this proverb. It is interesting that we both never say it anymore but still remember the experiences of it.

Our lady of Guadlupe

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: texas
Performance Date: april 22nd, 2016
Primary Language: English

8) Our lady of Guadalupe

Our lady of Guadalupe is the mexican reincarnation of Virgin Mary.

Long time ago in Mexico, the Spaniards/white mexicans were in charge of both property and the Catholic church while the Mestizos and the Native Americans and in general darker skinned mexicans were the peasants and doing all the hard work, and it was basically a feudalism situation.

There was one peasant named Juan Diego, and one day when he was just going about his daily routine, he heard a voice calling for him. Thus he followed the voice, and ended up on a hilltop where the Virgin Mary appeared to him; she was pregnant and and praying and she was standing up on a dragon. Virgin Mary told Juan Diego that she wants him to build a church on this hill.

However Juan Diego was full of doubts; he argued that since he is  peasant, he has no power and money, and that no one will listen to him, and thus he left. Since then, Virgin Mary appeared to him and requested this of him two more times, till Juan Diego finally decided to try to make it work.

Juan Diego went to the local priest that was in charge of the area, and told him that he has had a vision, but the priest laughed at Juan Diego and told him that Juan Diego doesn’t know what he is talking about; he is a peasant. Thus, when the Virgin Mary came to him one more time, he told her that he was sorry and that there is nothing he can do for her. The Virgin Mary then told Juan Diego that she’ll help him.

The Virgin Mary made a rose bush grow even though it was the middle of the winter; she told Juan Diego to pick these roses and carry them in his clothes (a serape) to go see the priest again. When Juan Diego reached the priest, he let the roses and the serape fall to the floor and somehow the image of the Guadalupana appeared. The priest then was shocked and hurried people to go build the church.  

Now Juan Diego is a saint, and the Guadalupana is really really important to the mexicans.

Miriam told me this story after I asked her to tell me some stories of her hispanic culture. Miriam is an artist, and she really likes the portraits of the Guadalupana and thus why she is all the more interested in the Guadalupana. She had always knew this story growing up because her family is religious, and out of the three stories that she told me, she performed this one with the greatest enthusiasm and the outmost details.

I had always known the symbol and the image of the Guadalupana but I never knew the story behind her before. This was pretty eye opening to me, but again it is very similar to many other religious stories that involves people who were sent visions.

 

La IIorona

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Texas
Performance Date: April 22nd, 2016
Primary Language: English

6) La IIorona

La IIorona is a mother that drowned her two children in a river, and she then committed suicide. Legend has it that she goes throughout Mexico looking and calling for her children; she always appears and wanders up and down the river.

Apparently “historically,” La Malinche gave birth to two sons by Cortes; The king and queen of Spain, fearing the Cortes is betraying them and building his own empire here in America, demanded for his return and used a beautiful Spanish lady to seduce him to come back. Cortes finally agreed and told  La Malinche that he is going to take their two sons, go back to Spain and leave her behind. La Malinche, realizing that she has helped the enemies destroy her people, she grew very desperate and prayed to her god to help her. The god told her that if she lets Cortes take her babies away, one of them will return and destroy her people.

Thus, the night before Cortes’ departure, La Malinche grabs her babies and escapes; however, Cortes soon discovers this and orders his soldiers to go hunt them down. They discovered them near a river. La Malinche stabs her babies in the heart and then the two falls into the river and dies. People later discovered La Malinche dead near/in the river.

Since then, rumor has it that she comes back as a woman in white dress, wailing all night long for her children.

(*For more information, see the film The Cry.)

My friend Miriam told me this story after I asked her to tell me some folklores of her culture. She is half hispanic so this is the story she told me. She could not remember a lot of the details really well, so I had to look up some of the informations myself. She knows this story just from growing up, her parents used to tell it to her, so that she’d be too afraid to go out at night alone.

I have heard of the story of La IIorona before and I have learnt about the history of Cortes and La Malinche but I never knew that there is a relationship in between the two, so honestly that was really interesting to learn.

 

Chupacabras

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Texas
Performance Date: April 19th,2016
Primary Language: English

2) Chupacabras

  • The chupacabra is a legendary creature that looks like a freaky mangy coyote thing with big eyes and huge fangs. Chupacabra means “goat sucker” in spanish, because when goats and chickens start turning up dead, completely drained of blood, it means there’s a chupacabra around. Parents/friends/teachers used to threaten that chupacabras would eat us if we went out by ourselves late at night. I remember seeing a tiny mangy chihuahua out on a walk at night and thinking it was a chupacabra and running the hell outta there.
  • Annalise told me of this story when I asked her of specific San Antonio related folklores and folk creatures. She heard of this story because her parents and texan family used to tell this to her as a kid so that she won’t go out late at night. She kind of said this as a joke, something along the lines of big foot.
  • I have never heard of Chupacabras before even though i’ve lived in San Antonio for 6 years. I do know about Big foot though. I wonder why Chupacabras are not as “famous” as Big foot; maybe it is because Big foot is present in more cultures.. but why??? Chupacabras kind of sound like a creature that people invented to justify wolfs and predators that killed their lifestock.