Tag Archives: legend

Leyenda de la Mujer de Blanco en la Pérgola

Age: 21

Folk Narrative: Legend 

Text: Leyenda de la Mujer de Blanco en la Pérgola (Legend of the Woman in White at the Pergola)

“It all started in the early 1900s. The Johnson family came to Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and founded the city. It was just a few families and a very rural town. The Johnsons came in and built the city. In the city, there is a very famous hill, and at the bottom is a cemetery that the Johnsons founded. They call it Cerro de la Memoria, which comes from Memorial Hill. The story goes that at one of the parties they would throw at the park at the hill, a lady was dancing and a man was attracted to her. So he approaches her and politely asks to dance. She accepts, and they dance for a while. It gets late, so he takes her home, and it becomes very chilly at night, so he gives her his jacket. He drops her off at her house and leaves her his jacket with the excuse that he will come back for it. The next day, he goes to her house and knocks at the door, and an older woman answers. The gentleman asks if she has seen the young lady, and the older woman says, no but he should come in. They sit down, and she tells him that what he is saying can’t be real because that young woman was her daughter, who had passed away a couple of years ago. They proceed to go to the cemetery and see his jacket on the cross on top of the woman’s grave. Now, whenever a party is at the bottom of the hill, they say she might appear dancing or waiting for someone to ask her to dance”.

Context: When asked, my informant told me that he knows this legend by heart. It is a legend that all of his town knows and children learn at a young age. He said he doesn’t remember when he first heard it, but it was at his elementary school from the teachers or from one of his mom’s friends. He let me know that its setting is in the city’s first cemetery that still stands today, so it is a landmark legend for all the area’s inhabitants. He mentioned that everybody has been to that hill and knows to look out for the Woman in White may appear. My informant mentioned that when the narrative is told at a social gathering, everybody jumps in to correct the plot or to give their opinion on what happened, even coming up with their own names for the woman, and experiencing chills. When asked why people continue telling this story, he mentioned that it brings the community together. Los Mochis is a small town, so people rely on each other for entertainment, one of which is storytelling. When asked how he interprets this narrative, my informant mentioned that the community lives for the thrill of knowing that maybe one day they can see the Woman in White and experience a supernatural encounter. It also served as a way to warn people not to be out late at night because they may stumble into the undead. 

Analysis: Looking at this narrative, we can see that it fits the properties of a legend by taking place in the ‘real world’ in this case, Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and having a truth value dependent on whether someone believes in it or not. For the community of Los Mochis, there is a widespread understanding that this happened. However, until somebody is able to prove it, it remains a legend. Another legend that this narrative fits into is its overlap with history. My informant actually started the narrative by giving historical context to set the legend in our place and time. It makes it more believable and establishes what people believe. The community does not wonder if the legend is true because that is not what is essential. Instead, what matters is the relationship it builds by connecting the inhabitants of Los Mochis to a legend that overlaps with their daily lives. My informant’s experience also relates to the Friend of a Friend (FOAF) principle that we tend to believe things when they come from people in our inner circle. Because the legend of the Woman in White is so localized, those who tell it are all familiar with each other and most likely trust each other’s words for it. 

Worker Chosen by Babe Ruth

Nationality: American

Occupation: Corporate Event Planner

Residence: New York, NY

Language: English

Text:

When Babe Ruth showed up for work, he didn’t look or act like a professional athlete. He ate way too much, drank way too much, and would often wake up with a different woman in his bed. When he was playing he was often hung over, which made it harder for him to deal with all of the attention he was getting as a superstar baseball player. Back in that day in the late 1920s, a bunch of kids would line up outside the stadium in hopes of being the bat boy, and the players would pick one and they’d get paid a nickel for the game. [My aunt’s] great-uncle lived in the Bronx, and after a few weeks of showing up at the stadium he finally got chosen to be the bat boy. He was always very quiet, which Babe Ruth loved; all the other bat boys would constantly try to talk to him which he found annoying. With him as bat boy, the Yankees went on a winning streak and went on to win the World Series. Because of his quiet nature, Babe Ruth gave [my aunt’s] grand-uncle the nickname “Silent Pete”, which stuck for the rest of his life. Eventually Pete became the full time equipment manager for the Yankees, and was with the team for 20 World Series titles.

Context:

The truth of this story is very difficult to measure. The nickname of Pete was given to him by the Yankees (although it is unclear if it was Babe Ruth himself), and he went by Pete his entire life instead of his real name of Michael. There is some proof that he was paid five cents per game to be the bat boy, and the reports of Babe Ruth showing up hungover were likely true. However, the part of the story where kids lined up outside the ballpark and the players personally would pick a bat boy is probably false; he held the bat boy job for almost a decade, which would not make sense if they were picked fresh each day, and it is unlikely that the incredibly famous players would choose the bat boy themselves. My aunt claims to have told me this story exactly as she heard it from her father, who claims he tells it exactly as he heard it from Pete Sheehy, but it is likely that they both enhanced elements of the story.

Analysis:

There are two main elements to this story in my opinion. The first is a simple, classic American rags-to-riches story, where Pete Sheehy was a poor young boy living in the Bronx during the great depression, and through hard work and a positive spirit he worked his way up the ranks of the Yankees organization and ended up as their equipment manager. This is very similar to the common stories of someone starting in the mailroom and working their way up to being the CEO of the company. The other main element to this story relates directly to my family. My family were at the time recent immigrants to America, and faced many of the hardships that recent immigrants face. This story was used to tie my family to Babe Ruth, an American legend, which was a way within my family of solidifying status as being “real Americans” when many other people would have discriminated against them as recent immigrants.

Haunted 4th Floor

Age: 21
Language: English

“I remember being told this story by my 9th-grade Spanish teacher. The story goes that sometime in the 80s or 90s there was a janitor who got super obsessed with one of the cheerleaders. He ended up stalking her and talking to her any time he saw her. After school one day, when she was alone, he asked her for help with something on the 4th floor. He ended up killing her, scalping her, then leaving her body on the 4th floor. Legend says that now it’s haunted because they left her body up there, which is why it was also boarded up and no one is allowed to go up there”. 

[Why would you hear this type of story from your Spanish teacher? Do you believe it?]

“It wasn’t just me she told it to, but the whole class during a kind of like Halloween storytime thing that she did every year. The scalping thing was something I heard from someone else. I’m not sure if it actually happened, but I could believe that someone could have died in our school at some point.” 

Analysis: 

Due to the inclusion of the years 80s/90s, we know that this particular story must have emerged from around that time or after (terminus ante quem), and that it could possibly have originated from this particular Spanish teacher. The legend is part of a larger, yearly ritual where she creates a more laid-back environment for her students during Halloween by telling stories. I think this story has succeeded in its purpose to have fun and bring students together due to the variation and addition of students creating their own theories and parts of the story (like the addition of the girl possibly being scalped). Besides this, in a more serious sense, it serves as a warning to incoming female students entering high school about the dangers that exist in the world.
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Duendes

[Do you have any myths or legends you would like to share?]

“I remember hearing a mythical story saying that when you see a small twister [whirlwind?], it’s invisible duendes (dwarfs), playing, holding hands, and running in circles. Every now and then you would see them in abandoned houses, but as soon as you would see them they would run and hide somewhere inside the walls. I heard it when I was 5 or 6 years old, told by my older brothers, and it was to stop me from running inside the twister. 

[Would they do anything besides playing? What would happen if you actually saw one?]

“Some would say that they would give you cookies or money, but only if they liked you or not. If not, they could take you with them and you will never see your parents again! So no one wanted to mess with them.”

[And what would cause them to dislike you? Like if you were a good or bad kid?]

“Mostly if you were disobedient to your parents!” 

Analysis: 

Duendes appear in many different cultures, and vary regionally. In this case, as my informant said, their purpose is to prevent children from going inside small whirlwinds. I think what makes this story different from other children’s legends is that these dudenes can be good (like giving cookies or money) depending on whether or not you were a “good child” or not. This makes me think that it would cause children to go looking for them. However, with the fear that they could take you from your parents, it probably scared off many children from seriously looking for them. I think this is really interesting, because it gives children the opportunity to weigh risk and reward at such a young age.

La Lechuza

Language: Spanish

“La Lechuza is an old woman who people seek out to make deals with. The tale is, if you want to cause harm to someone, you can send the witch to carry out the action. You bring a photograph of your target and a personal item, like a piece of hair or a toothbrush, and the witch will transform into an owl and spy on your target. The owl will then follow the person and curse them. If anyone has unexpected illness or misfortune like losing all their money or job, that is said to be her work as well. If someone dies with no apparent cause or unexplainable illness, that is her work as well. I remember hearing it from some older kids in my neighborhood when I was younger.”

Analysis:

While I was listening to my informant, I got the idea that this type of legend would be used to explain a train of misfortune that someone could face, but when I asked my informant how they viewed this legend, they responded that they recalled that it was mostly used as a cautionary tale for when dispersing property among families or not to cross others. I thought that this was really interesting, as La Lechuza represents both misfortune that’s unexplainable and misfortune that you could receive as “karma”. Unlike other childhood legends I’ve heard, this one seems to follow you into adulthood, rather than just being a children’s warning.