Tag Archives: scary

La Siguanaba

Nationality: American/Salvadoran
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, CA
Language: English/Spanish

TEXT: “I have cousins in Sonsonate, El Salvador, and last summer, we stayed at my aunt’s place on the edge of town. One night, our power went out, and we sat outside to cool off, since the fans and air conditioning needed power to function. My cousin pointed toward this dark trail in the backyard, and he said, “That’s where La Siguanaba lives.” I asked him what a “Siguanaba” was, and he explained that it was a woman who looks majestic from behind, but has a horse’s face when you see her up close. He said she tricks men who are out late, especially if they’re drunk or cheating. I looked at him and laughed, but when I woke up the next morning, I looked over at the path and saw footsteps on the same trail, but everyone was still in the house. I told my cousin about it later in the day, and he said, “She only shows herself when she wants to.”

CONTEXT: This story refers to the Salvadoran legend of La Siguanaba, a folkloric myth of Central America, particularly in rural spaces such as Sonsonate. In the classic readings of the tale, La Siguanaba is a beautiful woman from behind, who seduces unfaithful or reckless men, then turning to show a terrible face, and is often described as having a horse’s head. The legend is most frequently used as a moral cautionary tale, with the intent of being shared between generations as a lesson in morals or tradition. In this adaptation, the narrator shares an experience from when he was visiting family in El Salvador. E explained how the myth was told to him in a casual conversation during a blackout, an event where myths, especially scary stories, can leave a longer lasting impact.

ANALYSIS: This memorate is an example of how folklore is kept alive through personal stories and family conversations. E mentions that the legend was shared during a power outage, which makes the legend feel more natural and believable. The cousin doesn’t try to prove that the legend is real, but instead just explains the story the way it was told to him. The footprints add a mystery element to the legend, making the listener wonder if the legend could be true. Even though no one saw her, the cousin’s final comment talking about how she only shows herself when she wants to, helps keep the story going, providing a continuation of the tale.

El Padre Sin Cabeza

Nationality: American/Salvadoran
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, CA
Language: English/Spanish

TEXT: “My mom was raised in Suchitoto, a municipality in El Salvador, and when we visited her side of the family, she pointed out a church, Iglesia Santa Lucia, and said, ‘That’s where they say El Padre Sin Cabeza walks at night.’ She told me the story of a priest who was punished for a sin long ago, and now he roams the town at night, headless, searching for peace. She said people hear church bells ring late at night, even when no one is making them ring. My cousins and I were always too scared to go near the church, even my older cousins didn’t want to explore the streets at night, since we were all scared of the legend. It seems like in our religious family, it wasn’t about seeing him but about what happens when you break your word or lose your way.”

CONTEXT: This memorate was shared by the informant, E, during a conversation about legends from his home country. E shared this story that his mother told him, rooted in the Salvadoran legend of El Padre Sin Cabeza, which is a very well-known legend that is passed down across generations, especially in smaller towns. Though the story did not involve a direct encounter with the legend, the legend shows how oral traditions and folklore are preserved and shared in different ways within families, especially in religious or culturally prevalent settings.

ANALYSIS: This is an example of how legends are passed down through family and tied to real places. While the intention of the story is kept the same, the interpretation changes as new people hear it and as it gets passed down through generations. In El Salvador, the tale of El Padre Sin Cabeza is well known, especially in smaller towns, but instead of telling it as a scary story, E’s mom shared it as part of their visits to her hometown, which gave the story a more meaningful interpretation. Even without seeing anything strange, the story shaped how E and his cousins behaved, avoiding the church and the streets and night, showing how legends can influence, not just through belief, but through family and memory.

The Queen Mary’s Haunted Pool – Ghost Story

Nationality: American
Age: 28
Occupation: Author
Residence: Long Beach
Language: English

Text/Context: “When I was in elementary school, probably about 10, I went on a family trip to the Queen Mary with my mother, her best friend, and her daughter, who was my best friend. We were taking a guided tour, not even the ghost specific tour, just the regular one. We go through the hallways, all over the deck, and then we eventually made it down to the pool room. The guide tells us the pool room is the most haunted room in the whole ship, with a lot of alleged deaths happening in there, specifically a little girl drowned in the pool. We enter the room, and it’s very large. There are no windows, which is weird for a pool, because you’d think it would be in a nice bright area, but it’s not. It’s two stories, and at the bottom is the pool. It’s not filled of course, they don’t use it anymore, they just keep it there for posterity. We walk around the bottom, and then we go up to the top floor so we can look out over the pool, and it’s beautiful. There’s gorgeous tilework, stonework on the walls, it’s very 1920s art deco, very Queen Mary. Everyone’s excited looking around, and then the tour starts to move on. But me, being a freak, decide that I want to spook myself by waiting behind a bit to, I don’t know, feel the spooky energy. And so by the time everyone has trickled out, I start to make my way back to the exit, when I look out over the pool one last time. I see this very vivid flare of light coming from the corner of the pool, and it was green. Again, there were no windows, no light sources other than small lamps on the walls, but the lamps weren’t green. There was nothing I could see that could possibly be causing such a strange light. After seeing the light, I got an overwhelming feeling of dread and for a moment, thought I could hear the sound of someone splashing around and drowning, and booked it out the door. To this day I am completely convinced it was supernatural activity.”

Analysis: While this story isn’t necessarily from a folk group, I think it illustrates the importance of memorates within the broader scope of folklore and more specifically, folk narrative. This is the type of experience that through telling and retelling, eventually becomes something that can be considered authentic folklore. My informant spoke with a certainty in her voice that led me to understand how important this experience was for her, and how she fully believes it to be of supernatural origin. I myself have witnessed things I could only describe as supernatural so I understand the belief, especially after re-reading her story several times. While she may have been a kid when it happened, I don’t think it discredits how real the experience was to her, nor does it make it any less spooky to hear now.

La Llorona

AGE: 21

Date_of_performance: April 10, 2025

Language: English

Nationality: Colombian

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: New York

Context: The story of La Llorona is one of a woman who drowned her children out of anger because of her husband’s infidelity, and took her own life after realizing what happened. Now her soul wanders forever, searching for her kids. L heard this story from his father who is an immigrant from Colombia, and in Colombia it is told she comes out around the Magdalena River. He interprets it as a cautionary tale for kids to not stay out too late at night.

Text: 

Interviewer is I. Subject is L.

I: Do you have any legends from your culture?

L: Yeah I know a lot of other cultures have this one but La Llorona is pretty well known

I: I’ve heard of that. What’s it about again?

L: It’s about this woman who lost her children and now wanders around looking for them. It’s a way to tell kids to stay away from water and to not stay out late

I: Did you believe it growing up and did your dad scare you with it?

L: Not really to be honest. But he definitely told me about it, he just didn’t bring it up after that like other Colombian parents may.

Analysis:

I think the story of La Llorona is tragic and very sad. I feel like it almost invokes a sense of empathy, for a mom who misses her children and continues to search for them. But yet I think it is very effective to keep children home and out of trouble. Although I was never told of the La Llorona growing up, I feel like if I was in a Colombian household I would believe it and obey curfews out of fear.

“The Water Fountain Ghost”

Genre: Folk Narrative – Ghost Story

Text:

“At the summer camp I went to as a child, we were told a ghost story about a woman who roamed the grounds at night. The director of the camp sat down all the campers on the evening of the first day and told us that long ago, back in the earliest days of the camp, there was a camper who decided to leave their cabin in the middle of the night to explore. They decided to go to the water fountain by the pool, but because it was so dark outside, the camper couldn’t see where they were going and they tripped and fell into the water and drowned. The ghost of this camper, now a grown woman, is seen haunting the camp grounds at night, particularly in the area near the old water fountain. If she sees any campers wandering around outside where they are not allowed after dark, she will drag them into the pool so they can join her as a ghost.”

Context:

“I first heard this story when I was six or seven years old, and I was terrified! I totally believed it, and every night, I would look out my cabin window and look for the ghost lady. It took a few years for me to stop believing it, and it was really only when I had to go to the nurse’s office during the night and I was too scared to go because of the ghost, and the counselor told me that it wasn’t a true story and just something they told to scare the campers into staying inside the cabins. Later on, when the directors of the camp changed, they stopped telling the story which made me kind of sad, because I felt like it was part of the camp lore and kind of another rite of passage in growing up there as a camper.”

Analysis:

I agree with the informant’s realization that the story was something made up in order to scare the campers into staying inside their cabins during the night. In such a rural location, it would be likely that campers leaving their cabins during the night would get them hurt, either by their own actions or by a wild animal. It also discourages campers from engaging in misbehavior that wouldn’t be appropriate in a children’s camp setting, like meeting up with other campers during the night. I think, as the informant experienced, that this is probably a fairly successful method for the younger campers who believe the story, as scaring them into obedience probably has a higher success rate than telling them a seemingly arbitrary rule.

This ghost story reminded me of the story of La Llorona, who is a character from Mexican folklore who also takes the form of a wandering woman. La Llorona is found near bodies of water (just as this ghost is found near the water fountain/pool area) and is said to drown unfaithful men (while this ghost drowns disobedient children).