Tag Archives: legend

The Ghosts of the Congress Plaza Hotel

Nationality: Puerto Rican
Age: 46

Context

MO is my mother. She grew up in Chicago, Illinois in the 70s. She was born to two Puerto Rican parents who came to America in their teenage years. Her father is from San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, and her mother is from Moca, Puerto Rico. They go visit Puerto Rico every summer and have done so for decades. 

Text

DO: Chicago’s an old city, do you have any myths or legends that are specific to us?

MO: The old hotel over on Michigan Ave in downtown is apparently haunted. 

DO: The Congress?

MO: Yes. Apparently there’s a bunch of different ghost stories. The famous one is the story about the man with the peg leg. You know I love true crime so my favorite one is about the bellboy that’s a ghost. 

DO: Can you tell me about them?

MO: I think they called the famous ghost Peg Leg Johnny. He became an alcoholic after some accident where he lost his leg but then he did work at the hotel. Like maintenance stuff. People have said they’ve heard knocking on the door and then seen a man with a peg leg. The bellboy one is about a young kid who worked there and everyone loved him. Then one day he just went missing and nobody ever saw him again. Some people say they see him pushing the luggage carrier things and waving at people then he just disappears. Me and your dad actually have stayed in that hotel

DO: Really? What was your experience like? 

MO: Well we stayed there before we knew it was haunted. Your dad swears he did hear anything, but I heard people knocking on our door. I didn’t see anything thank God. After we stayed there we heard all the stories. 

Analysis:

All cities have folklore narratives that are unique to their major landmarks. The Congress Hotel in Chicago is no different. This massive hotel is hard to miss, seeing as it is on our most popular street downtown and is distinctive. The hotel has an old look to it which further encourages ghost stories to be told about it. After talking to more of my family each of them had their own ghost story that has been passed down by other Chicagoans. If you live in Chicago this hotel is pretty well known. These ghost stories bring Chicagoans together to talk about a landmark that they share as common knowledge.

Mula Sin Cabeza, Brazilian Headless Horse

Text:

M: umm , oh another one is the, ah, mula sin cabeza. This is actual like folklore that umm basically is the…  mula sin cabeza its a type of horse without their head, that’s the name

Me: ok

m :  umm

Me: is it mula sin cabeza?

M: yeah, aaand what happened is it’s a creature that is created or born or whatever, when a woman sleeps with a priest. Which your no supposed to cause like a priest is like 

 Cannot have sex and bla bla bla. But, if you do, the woman becomes that horse 

O: what!?

M: yes..

O: that is so anti-woman.

I laugh

M: well, whatever, it’s, it is what it is

Me: maybe society is anti-woman

M: yeah

O: oh m goodness society

M laughs

M: and then so she would 

[I laugh because o realizes that I’m recording and leaves]

M: she would like walk around at night, cause you know the mystic anything will transform at night

[O leaves closing door]

M: and so, and the way she is, imagine like a horse without a head, and on the place the head was supposed to be its just flames

Me: yo, thats metal

M: right, it’s literally that! It like a horse without its head and in its place fire. What else we have…

Me: wait wait, what does the horse do?

M: just haunt the city

Me: the whole city.

M: yeah cause, like it would like walk around us when it was.. And don’t have a head. And it was like a punishment for like sleeping with the priest. Cause you’re not supposed to sleep with the priest

Me: that’s your take on it? You’re not supposed to sleep with a priest

M: yeah basically. In conclusion, do not sleep with priests

I laugh

M: so fleabag would not have survived Brazilian culture

ME: you’re right

Context:

The informant, M, is a 19-year-old USC international student from Brazil. She delivered this piece in the workroom of a campus center before class alongside other pieces in order to share some personal and Brazilian folklore. She learned about this legend growing up in Brazil.

O is a mutual friend of the informant and me, they briefly walked into the workroom and commented on the legend, before realizing I was recording and leaving.

Analysis:

As M said “You’re not supposed to sleep with the priest.” this legend clearly indicates the cultural value of not sleeping with priests.

To me (as partially stated in the text) transforming the woman who slept with the priest rather than the priest indicates blame on women for the sex rather than priests/men. This would indicate a larger cultural understanding that having sex with a priest is wrong, not a priest having sex. This could relate to western christian notions of purity culture that blame women for the loss of virginity and other sexual acts.

The specifics of M’s speech also indicate that mystic transformations are thought to more commonly happen at night,

Saciperere, Brazilian Trickster

Text:

M: Oh we have the umm sasi, saciperere.

Me: sasipere?

M: yes, he’s a guy with only one leg

Me: okay

M: he has a a red cap. Well like kinda, kinda like a beanie, kinda like a cap. And he would like [coughs] sorry, umm, im kinda sick

M: don’t worry about it

M: he would like walk around, and he was more of a prankster. So he would like, if you were building stuff he would like– if you had like a plant, he would steal some of it, so he could eat. Like for him to eat, he would steal some of the crops. Anf he would like, I dunno, let’s say he would like tangle the horses like hair. He would like tangle it so you’d have to like brush it. He would like, if you left, let’s say you baked a cake and left it on the, he would steal the cake. Just liek stuff like that. He was more of a prankster. And then there was a thing that if you stole his cap he had to do whatever you make him do. And there was a whole thing that you could capture him. That if like you pick a bottle with a cork, and then you draw a cross on it, and then– uh I don’t remember the whole process– but I know you had to do that so could capture him, put him in the bottle. So if you want like him to go away.

Me: wait, whats his deal? Like, why is he like that?

M:its just a prankster

Me: just a prankster!

M: like you know harry potter, you know how there was like the poltergeist, that was just like pranking everyone in the hallways. 

Me: just like a mischievous spirit or somethin’

M: yeah, a mischievous spirit

Me: cool

M: yeah, and he was jumping on one leg so he.. And he, that’s the thing, he did, when he was walking around like long distances, he would create a small tornado thing. So I think that’s how people explained like those, those, sometimes we have those small vortexes. I think that’s how people explained it. It was him.

M: cool

Context:

The informant, M, is a 19-year-old USC international student from Brazil. She delivered this piece in the workroom of a campus center before class alongside other pieces in order to share some personal and Brazilian folklore. She learned about this legend growing up in Brazil.

Analysis:

Trickster figures are very common worldwide. Saiperere fits this trickster model quite well, being a bit odd and performing traditional trickster activities: stealing cakes, and tangling horses’ manes. A specific of his unusualness, his single leg, indicates to me that limb differences are seen as funny or associated with untrustworthiness and trickery.

the idea that you might be able to trap Saiperere with a bottle bearing a cross is also interesting. the cross being relevant demonstrates the relevance of Christianity in this culture. And also the belief that the Christian god can control and contain malevolent spirits. Because of the cross being able to control him, Saiperere might also be thought of as a demon or devil.

Curupira, Brazilian Protector of the Forest

Text:

M: we have a creature called Curupira. Which is a guy that his feet are on the opposite side. Like if you’re walking like this [forward walking] the feet are like this [facing backwards].

Me: oh, they’re like reversed? Like backwards?

M: yes, and he’ll walk like forward normally, but then his footprints would seem like he was walking the other way

Me: are his knees the right way?

M: umm I

Me: is that too niche of a question?

M: I think its the opposite like he would walk like, you know those birds that like flex the other way

Me: yeah

M: yes!

Me: Okay so he did have backwards knees

M: yes. And the whole thing is like he did that because he was the protector of the forest. So he would go after the people that were like cutting trees and stuff like that. He was the defender of the forest. And his feet were like that so when people would go after him, they would think he was going the opposite way.

Me: ahhhhh [realisation]

M: and that’s why his feet are like that

Me: and he was just like shaped like a guy?

M: shaped like a guy.

Me shaped like a guy

M: oh, did he have fire in his head? He might have fire as hair

Me: respectable

M: yeah, we like fire apparently

Me: what’s your take on that? whats your analysis? if you will

M: this is very much like indigenous folklore. So it’s very mu— probably like it, cause indigenous cultures were very like in touch with nature and like giving and receiving. And they had a big problem with like when Europeans came they were. The first thing that started to take in brazil was the trees. The tree that was called ‘Brazil stick’, that’s why they gave the name to the land for as Brazil. Cause of the tree they were taking.

Me: oh I had no idea

M: yeah, ’cause they used to make red ink from it. And so that was like the tale they used to tell, so like: do not mess with nature, it will mess back!

ME: and he would, and he would kill them?

M: yes

Me: he would kill the loggers, okay

M: yes, he will 

Context:

The informant, M, is a 19-year-old USC international student from Brazil. She delivered this piece in the workroom of a campus center before class alongside other pieces in order to share some personal and Brazilian folklore. She learned about this legend growing up in Brazil.

M says that this legend originates in indigenous Brazilian culture.

Analysis:

This figure and legend, Curupira, does feel very indigenous. As a “protector of the forest” figure who hunts and kills people destroying forests, Curupira’s values align well with the values of protecting nature and the forest (commonly held indigenous values). Curupira’s connection would also be an indicator of these pro-nature values in the people who share his story.

Legend – La Llorona

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student

Text: 

“This is the legend of La Llorona, who is a woman that roams the towns in Mexico searching for her dead children. This story [is set in] old-time Mexico. There lived a family: a husband, a wife, and their two children. The family was happy; the dad worked and the mom stayed home to watch over the children. Somewhere along the way though, there started to be financial difficulties, so when the husband encounters a young and beautiful woman from the next town over and he starts having an affair with her. Unbeknown to his surprise, the mother finds out and rage fills her and ends up clouding her mind. She wants a way to get back at him, but she can’t think of anything. She wants to kill him but she wants to hurt him deeply and that’s when she notices her children. She’s like my children, that’s the one way that will hurt him. She guides them to a river on the pretense that they’re going to go play by the river. While they’re playing in the river, the mother slowly goes into the river and starts telling her children to come with her. The children don’t know that it’s too deep for them and that the current of the river would end up taking the children and drowning them. The children follow their mom since they love her, and they start to realize that they can’t touch the floor. They’re screaming out for their mom like ‘Mom help me.’ She goes over and starts drowning them both. Now that she has drowned them, she starts to realize what she’s done. She realizes she ended up killing both her children and she went crazy, but she still seeks revenge. She goes over to her husband and ends up murdering him. From that moment on, the agony of losing her children has taken over her. It is said that near the rivers in Mexico, there will be a woman who you’ll hear screaming and crying for her children.” 

Context: 

This story was told by one of my roommates. She heard this story from multiple members of her family. She said that this story is passed down from generation to generation. It is a very well-known legend in Mexico, and she said that not a single Latino would not know who La Llorona is.

Analysis: 

This legend is similar to the concept of the boogie man. It’s kind of a way for parents to scare their children into doing something. In America, I think the boogie man is more well-known than La Llorona, but the idea behind the legend is the same. Parents will often say something along the lines of “go to sleep or the boogie man will get you.”  This is similar to La Llorona; parents in Mexico would use this legend as a way to make sure their children would come home before sundown. In a way, this was also a way for parents to keep their children safe from wandering the streets at night.