Tag Archives: legend

La Llorona

Age: 22

Text:

Informant: “I don’t remember how long ago it was, but it was in Guatemala. In the capital of Guatemala. That’s where my uncle and my aunt live. It was like around 8 p.m and they just came back from church. They were just like settling, putting away their stuff. I think my uncle heads to the kitchen and all of a sudden he just sees La Llorona standing there. I actually don’t know what they did. If you hear her and she sounds very far away, that means she’s close to you. But apparently, La Llorona was in the kitchen and I can’t remember if either they left the house or they started praying. That’s usually what they do when they sense a spirit.”

Context:

When the informant was younger, their uncle told them a story about the time he and his wife saw La Llorona in their kitchen. The informant believes their uncle either tried to pray that La Llorona be sent away or they exited the house.

Analysis:

La Llorona is a popular Latin American legend about a woman dressed in white who drowned her children. She is typically said to be seen crying near rivers and bodies of water, because she drowned her children after finding out her husband was unfaithful.

In this story, the informant’s uncle has told them a memorate, his personal interaction with La Llorona. There are a myriad of reasons why people may see La Llorona, according to the legend. The story can be a warning to not be out late at night near bodies of water. It forewarns men to not cheat on their wives, or they may see La Llorona. Others say that she appears when children are disobedient. All of these reasons can be a lesson for children and adults to scare them into following the rules and being faithful to their wives.

Scary Camp Story

Age: 22

Text:
“There once was an old man who lived in an old house, and he lived around no one else except for one other old neighbor. It was just an old man who lived there by himself, and this man became infatuated with the life of this old man who lived next to him. Infatuated. He was so intrigued by his life as a single old man that he couldn’t resist. So every night for a week, he went into the old man’s bedroom, snuck into his house, broke in. The old man had no idea, he couldn’t see, he couldn’t hear. He had bad senses, he’s an old man. He broke into his house and would just watch him sleep and try and figure out what he was thinking about. On the 8th night, he goes back to the old man’s house like usual, but he swears he sees the old man’s eyes open. So, instinctually, he grabs the pocket knife out of his pocket and stabs the old man in the heart. He’s panicking. He just killed a man and doesn’t know what he did. He was scared. So, he buries the old man under the floorboards in the old house. Eventually, the police came and asked him to go to the crime scene, as he’s the only one that lives around this old man. He works through the investigation, and nothing happens. He goes to sleep that night, but he’s awoken by a slow thumping. Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom. The sound of the old man’s heart beating from under the floorboards. Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom. Finally, he goes back. He looks under the floorboards. The old man’s still dead, but he can hear the boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom of his heart. This sound follows him for the rest of his life, and eventually, he tells the police that he killed the old man, and the police said, ‘We don’t know anything about this old man.’ He dreamed it all.”

Context:
A boy who grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and learned this ghost story when he was camping as an Eagle Scout.

Analysis:
This ghost story is interesting for a few reasons. I have often found that ghost stories that end with “It was a dream all along” are ones that are made up completely and didn’t know how to end it or, similarly, someone forgot the ending and changed it. I would be interested to see other versions of this tale and if they have a different ending or not. It’s also interesting that he learned it as a Boy Scout, potentially serving as a cautionary tale for invading privacy and lying.

Santa Claus

Age: 22

Text:
“I started to really believe in Santa Claus, and I was very adamant about finding him when he came down my chimney. So I brought out my sleeping bag and put it under the tree and tried sleeping the night under my Christmas tree. My parents got really mad at me and told me that he wouldn’t come if I did that. So I reluctantly went back into my room, and just before I fell asleep, I heard a clomping on the shingles of my roof. To this day, I will never forget the sound of the hoofs, and knowing that Santa was about to come down my chimney. I had so many butterflies.”

Context:
A girl from Phoenix discussing a core childhood Christmas memory that she knows is fake but swears is real.

Analysis:
This is a demonstration of myths serving to keep children well behaved. She believed in Santa and wanted to see him so badly in real life, so she brought her sleeping bag under the tree. Since this is a naughty act, what Santa Claus monitors, her parents were able to use that as a ploy to get her to sleep in her bedroom, saying that he would not come at all if she did not sleep in her room. This served to keep the Christmas magic alive and also to maintain good behavior. I wonder what caused the “hooves on the roof” noise.

Haunted Film Camera

Interviewer: “Tell me more about this haunted film camera”

TN: “Ok so basically I heard this story of this girls creepy experience with a film camera. She allegedly bought the camera from an estate sale for like 20 bucks because it was a dead guys camera. When she was on vacation she took pictures on it. It was a really old like vintage film camera where you have to get it developed.”

TN: “When she got it developed they shipped the photos to her house and in the package with her pictures was like old photos from the guy who died. Photos of him with family and like his kids, and some really blurry pictures it was really weird cause she didn’t know the camera was used.”

TN: “But the thing that was scary is that his face showed up in pictures she took of her and her parents. Like a shadow behind her in the pictures, and you could see his teeth and his eyes on a lot of the photos, like he was haunting her.”

Interviewer: “Wow thats really creepy, thank you for sharing!”

Context: The informant learned this story on a trip with friends. They all told ghost stories and tales at the fire at night, and this is one of the stories that was performed. The informant is aware that there is no verifiable truth to this story as it came from a friend of a friend of a friend, as is the nature of folklore. However, it has become a ritualistic practice for him where he tells the story whenever prompted, essentially acting as a mechanism for entertainment for audiences.

Analysis: This story is a classic example of contemporary legends or “urban legends” because it blends supernatural horror with relatability and modern technological mediums. This makes the story feel more modern and accessible because cameras are engrained in every aspect of daily life, making it feel visceral and contagious. The story also has “friend of a friend credibility” which isn’t completely valid, but the storytelling nature and the transmission of the story makes it folklore, regardless of its truth. The story essentially is a warning tale, cautioning listeners to not take from the dead, and to leave the past in the past.

Weaving Air – Muslin

Age: 25

Date Collected: 04/30/2026

Context:

My informant is a good friend of mine who immigrated from Bangladesh for his college education. He was telling me about the story of a legendary fabric from his hometown, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He told me when we were hanging out outside of the USC Fisher Museum of Art.

Text:

Me: Okay. So you were telling me a little bit about back home in Dhaka, that’s where the muslin fabric comes from. Right?

EJ: Yeah, thats where its from. There used to be like this whole area kind of like the Arts District in LA like a municipality where they would make this cotton fabric. It’s unique because it was so thin, they called the skill “weaving air” because it was so light and thin, and that’s like one of the things that we’re very proud of culturally. They used to be able to weave it so tight the thread counts were really high. You could fold it up into a matchbox.

Me: You told me earlier that they don’t make it the same anymore right? Can you talk a little more about that.

EJ: Yeah for sure.. I don’t know the whole story, but I just know that it originates from Bangladesh. Dhaka is exactly where it comes from. Dhaka used to be like a hub of culture and and money and then in about sometime in like whenever, the the English colonized it. They took the fabric for their royalty. The royalty and wealthy used to wear this in Bangladesh. The English took it and brought it back home and they cut off the hands of the weavers who would make this fabric.

Me: Jesus. Why do you think they’d do that?

EJ: I think they just didn’t want people who were wearing the same things as their royalty.

Me: Yeah, that sounds like the English hahaha. So there’s no more muslin makers in Dhaka.

EJ: No, not like that. The old ways were lost. After loosing their hands, they couldn’t make any anymore, so they retired and the art was lost.

Me: But, is it extinct?

EJ: No, there’s new places that make them still by hand. But it can’t fit into a matchbox and isn’t the same. They can’t do the same techniques.

Me: Do you have any in your family, or have you seen it before?

EJ: No, I don’t think we have any. But, I’ve been to weddings and they have it there.

Me: That sounds like a terrible thing to accidentally misplace. Oh also earlier you were also showing me that Instagram reel that was kind of showing appreciation for Bangladeshi culture, right? Like how it’s reflected in modern life and also in the future.

EJ: Yeah, yeah, that reel was kind of just talking about how the muslin was used on the first airplane that the Wright brothers flew, and also on the Artemis II, which is really cool.

Me: How do you feel about seeing part of your culture being used by other people? Is it like something that makes you happy or a little upset?

EJ: You know, it’s really cool to see Bangladeshi culture being represented, especially on huge moments in like this.

Me: Yeah, I can imagine there’s a lot of pride in that, cause I mean, this is essentially the future of humanity, and your culture is playing a huge role in that. Man might not have been able to fly or land on the moon if it weren’t for those weavers and your culture’s history.

EJ: Exactly.

Analysis:

I did a quick search to see what is true, and what might be more folklore from the story. From what I could tell, Dhaka is genuinely one of the most impressive textiles ever made. The Wright brothers did not use any Dhaka Muslin; they used an “Americanized” version that was derived from the impressive tradition. The muslin used on the Wright brothers’ plane was taken to the Moon by Neil Armstrong and later to Mars by the Ingenuity rover.

What might be more folkish is that the Wright brothers did not actually use Dhaka’s muslin. Also, the hand-cutting story is not historically verified, but that doesn’t mean it never happened. What is true is the major damage done to the Bangladeshi people as a result of the English colonists.

The history of muslin reflects the beauty and majesty of old Bangladesh. As my friend mentioned, it thrived culturally and economically. Then the English East India Company came and colonized the country. In the process, many fine folk arts were lost. The story of the cutting of hands might be true, but whether it is literal or not, the imagery is symbolic for what the English colonization of Bangladesh did to the Bengali people. The cutting of their hands represents the stripping of culture, practices, and traditions. The legend of cutting hands doesn’t have to be historically accurate to be insightful and meaningful. It is a way to deal with the loss of identity as well. Hands are essential for making a living; they hold our fingerprints and identity. When the English “cut off” their hands, they were cutting off the ability to live and continue as they had before.

My friend had pride in saying that you could fold a full muslin outfit into a matchbox size. The image is impressive and impossible, showing the value of the golden pre- colonial era. The pride in calling it “woven air” seems to stand in for the old ways as a whole. Traditions were lost; they weren’t all perfect, but they were irreplaceable and, most importantly, they were Bangladesh’s. The fact that no one has ever been able to accurately replicate the hand-woven artistry of Dhaka’s weavers once again communicates that something irreplaceable was lost when Bangladesh was colonized.

It’s an interesting choice in story to tell me. I had been asking him for examples of Bangladeshi culture, foods, festivals, stories, jokes, sayings, and more. From all of them, he told me this one, which is quite interesting. When he first told me, he made sure to mention the impact he learned from the Instagram reel. That THIS is his culture and it had an undeniable impact on human history. He didn’t have to explain what the muslin meant culturally, and I didn’t necessarily even need to understand. The story communicates Bangladeshi pride in a way that anyone can understand and appreciate.

Looking at the full arc is quite interesting too. We saw a folk art that was a people’s pride that got stolen by outsiders and used to dress their royalty. The creators were no longer able to make it, and the tradition seemed lost. But centuries later, it was brought into the limelight as part of humanity’s journey into space. The story reframes the tragedy and pain into a story of how Bangladesh made something that monumentally changed human history forever.