Tag Archives: memorate

Nicaraguan Duendes “Elves”

Age: 74

Text

Informant: “When me and my brother were younger, we sometimes went to a farm with our grandparents and dad. At night, we used to sit in the back of a pickup truck as adults drove, and when we were sitting there, we saw little kids following us. I told the adults that I saw little kids following us on the road, but they were running really fast. They were running at the speed of the truck. Only me and my brother saw them but none of the adults could see them. My grandparents and dad asked what the kids looked like so we described them as little kids with a red hat and backwards feet. The adults told me that they were elves. I tried reaching my hand out to grab the elves and the adults told me not to do that and I couldn’t reach my hand out to grab them because they were elves and they took children.”

Context:

The informant was born and raised in Nicaragua until they moved to the U.S. at 16 years old. When the informant was young, they rode on the bed of a pickup truck with their brother. One night, they saw elves following them and tried reaching out to grab them but failed. When they told their dad and grandpa, they were advised not to reach out for them because they could grab and steal them.

Analysis:

The story is unique in the sense that it’s not a common one told to children across an area. It is a personal experience, or a memorate. This reminds me of Lydia Hamessley’s “A Resisting Performance…” where she describes murder ballads being told in first-person perspective. I think folklore becomes more interesting when you’re hearing the stories directly from the source. It provides details that can get left out or aren’t shared when someone else is retelling the story.

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.

Bigfoot:

Text: 

Interviewer: Can I ask about Bigfoot? 

Dad: Oh, yeah. Big in our family. 

Interviewer: Yeah, can I ask you to explain a bit of why and what it is? 

Dad: It was just growing up in the Pacific Northwest, in the woods. I mean, you gotta figure where my parents’ house is. There was always, I remember, I thought I saw him in the creek… one night. I swear I saw something standing in the creek. And it was long enough that, like, 20-30 seconds of watching something, and then watching something like stand there, like frozen… in the moonlight and then move on. 

Interviewer: And how do you know it wasn’t a person? 

Dad: Because it was 3 o’clock in the freaking morning, and it was at my parents’ house. 

Interviewer: That’s fair. 

Later in the interview:

Interviewer: Can you describe Bigfoot to me?

Dad: Well, Bigfoot was supposed to be, like, a cross between a man, or, say, if, you know, a man and, uh, ape, or Nathander… Neanderthal. So it was like this hybrid creature. With huge feet. And they had all these casts of all the footprints that he’d made over the years, and they proved it, that it had to be, the footprint had to be real, um, because they did weight analysis.

Interviewer: In real life or in the movie?

Dad:  In real life, in like, documentaries. You know, “Searching for Bigfoot”, all sorts of things. 

Context: 

My Dad is white, 60, and has lived in Washington State his entire life. When he was growing up his parents house was fairly remote. It was in a small town, plus the actual house was a bit away from the road, in the forest, and nestled about twenty feet above a creek. He thinks he was 14-15 when this story takes place.

My dad remembers Bigfoot being a huge craze in the 80s and 90s. Everyone was looking for him. He recalls there even being a movie, called about Harry Harry and the Hendersons, about Hendersons running into Bigfoot and taking him home. My parents said that everyone really wanted it to live in their backyard, they were scared of it but also thought it wouldn’t be cool? It was the talk of the town, everyone who believed in big foot (probably half the population) believed they’d have a sighting of bigfoot.

Analysis: 

I think people believe in the Bigfoot legend because it’s fun and plausible. The pacific northwest is undeniably weird and mysterious, there is still forests and undeveloped land, especially back when my dad was growing up, parts that haven’t been really touched by humanity though now that is slowly disappearing. The legend of big foot is a primitive being, some sort of ancestor (either and ape or a neanderthal) who still inhabits the place we have moved away from, the wilderness. It’s something that is close enough to us that we can relate to it but far enough away that it’s novel. It’s close resemblance to humans also means that sightings can happen more commonly and there is room for a greater debate in belief. Did we see a human or big foot? Are those footsteps big enough? My dad’s memorate of this is a clear example, on the surface he just saw a man outside his window, but then you provide the context that it would be very unlikely for a man to be standing in the creak at my grandparents house at 3 AM. One might say probably not, but there is a kernel of mystery and ability to argue and thus the debate continues.

Family Death and Paranormal Activity

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Text: Interviewer – “What kind of ghost stories have heard of or experienced? Anything relating to your family?”

JL – “Woo boy, I could write a book! I’ve always believed in the supernatural. I have a lot in mind, but one sticks out the most. That brings me to when my mom died, on October 13, 2012. My mom and I were always close. My kids were very close to her as she was the only grandparent they had a relationship with, and she absolutely ADORED them (she loved them to pieces!, as she would say). She’d visit us half a dozen times a year, we spent summers at her house, she’d join us on vacations. We were CLOSE. My kids were young when she passed, in third and fifth grades. One morning shortly after she died I was getting the kids ready for school. They were sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast, I was at our kitchen island making lunches. We have a light fixture above the table with 5 bulbs in it. One of them had been burned out for months and I just hadn’t gotten around to changing it. Anyway, one of us mentioned that we were feeling sad that day because we missed Granny, and the burned out light bulb switched ON. The three of us looked at each other and thought, “Huh, that’s odd.” I said, “Mom, if that’s you, turn that light back off.” And the light went off. None of us were scared, we all thought it was kindof… cool? Comforting? We spent the next 20 minutes asking questions, and that light bulb kept responding. I finally said, “Mom, thanks for visiting and letting us know you’re ok, but I have to get the kids to school.” And the light bulb never responded again. But Mom hasn’t completely gone. We have a door that leads from our garage into our house that has a deadbolt lock on it. There are times when I will open the door from the house, walk through the doorway, immediately go to shut the door behind me only to have it bounce on the doorjamb because the deadbolt has been fully extended. We’ve tried shaking the door, jiggling it to see if we could replicate it, and nope, no movement from the deadbolt. There have been times when I’ll be carrying groceries in from the car, keeping that door to the house open for several trips, and then when I finally go to close it, the deadbolt is extended. And it’s not just a little bit sticking out, it is fully extended. Every single person in my family has had this same experience. There are two things that I love about this: 1 – Mom still comes around to say hi, and 2 – my family’s reaction isn’t fright, it’s a casual, “Hi Granny, thanks for visiting.” This has been occurring for 14 years. With my daughter’s graduation approaching, I’m sure I’ll see a lot of activity with the deadbolt!”

Interviewer – “Have these paranormal activities diminished in frequency or stayed the same?”

JL – “They’ve diminished in frequency. Mom still comes around and plays with the lock on the door, but now it seems to coincide with times of extreme emotion – when we’re celebrating something like a birthday or a big event with the kids, when I’ve been exceptionally worried or stressed.”

Context: This long story came up as I was asking JL about some of the paranormal experiences they’ve had or if they believed in ghosts in the first place as I have my fair share of history with the supernatural and ghost encounters myself. This specific story has been shared throughout the past many, many years, for as long as since it happened, and is not exclusive to the family, though it is a piece of lore special to the family due to the circumstances of the events.

Analysis: This account is in it of itself a familial piece of lore. Whether it’s a tale to some or simply something that happened, the story of it all has continued to thrive as have the perpetual encounters. Due to the nature of the story and how it doesn’t necessarily have an end, whether someone who experiences it first hand believes in ghosts or not, the event of the deadbolt on a door elongating can be either calming, reassuring, or frightening based on who you are. All individuals who listen or experience this tale are bearers of it, and since the events have continued to repeat, the amount of first-hand sources simply grows as time passes. The ghost story evolves constantly, and the lore that the JL and their family once just held for themselves has continued to be shared to their friends and community.

Cuban demon dog teaching moral lesson memorate

Age: 21

Text: 

“it was kind of, you know, he’s this military guy who thinks he’s all that, you know, he has a few mates and he’s, he’s got a nice house. And, and you have to go into town to get groceries and all that. And at some point, it was very dangerous. Like, they had a curfew in the town, because they were like, you know, nobody can be going out. Like it’s dangerous. So whatever. He was, like, Fuck the curfew. Like, I’m a big man, you know. So he goes into town at night. And he’s wandering around and he’s just being a rascal. I forgot, I feel like there’s like more of a story to this, but basically, so he goes into town, and then he sees this dog in the distance and it looks at him and it looks mean. It’s staring right at him,  his eyes are glinting like and there’s like no light around you know, there’s no there’s no streetlights in this time. There’s no anything, it’s pitch black, but he can see his eyes. And he starts charging after him. And so he’s running away, he’s like trying to get away and he thinks that he’s lost the dog and he’s like, “stupid dog” and he’s like, well, I’m going to keep going out at night. And then one day he sees the dog again, and it pounces on him. and its eyes are red and it’s like a burning fire. But then he got away and then he never went back out. That’s kind of it like he escaped, I don’t know I think it like maybe bit him or something and he like ran away and he got in his car and he took off, and he never he never went out after curfew again.”

Context:

This memorate was told to the informant by his Cuban grandmother, about her father.

Analysis:

In this familial legend a man who is proud, stubborn, and dismissive of authority encounters a possibly demonic dog that enforces a moral boundary. The curfew serves not just as a safety measure but as a symbol of order and discipline. By defying it, the great-grandfather positions himself as a reckless figure whose pride demands correction. The dog acts as an agent of consequence, frightening the man enough to change his behavior. Though the man “escapes,” he learns his lesson, never violating curfew again. The legend transforms a moment of social defiance into a story of cosmic or supernatural comeuppance