Tag Archives: scary

El Cadejos

–Informant Info–

Nationality: Costa Rican

Age: 47

Occupation: Unemployed

Residence: Los Angeles

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): Spanish  

(*Notes: The informant will be referred to as GC and the interviewer as K. Many parts of this story were told in Spanish and appears here in its translated form, translated by her son)

Background info: GC is a mother of 2 who grew up in a small town in Costa Rica. She recalls a story she was told by her mother as a child to scare her away from sins such as drinking and partying late. She recalls this story was always told when an uncle or a brother came home drunk.

Context: GC told this story to me over drinks, laughing at the scary parts and occasionally pausing for humorous, dramatic effects. She also elaborated that she never told this story to her children, but her siblings would tell it to theirs. She says her own experiences were scary enough. 

K: Ok so, whats the name of this folklore and how do you know it? Like who told you?

GC: It’s called “El cadejos” and I was always told it growing up by my grandma when my uncles or brother would come home drunk *Laughter*; I think it was more to shame them than it was to scare me!

K: *Laughter* Ok ok, so the context of the performance is like a scary story meant to teach you a lesson, that was told when an event, like someone coming home drunk, occurred?

GC: Yes yes *Pause, pours herself a drink* I suppose it didn’t teach me much, I never encountered it

K: So you want to get into the folklore now?

GC: So, the story goes that El Cadejos is a large, terrifying dog that stalks the streets of uh my hometown-

K: What’s the name of the town?

GC: Santa Domingo

K: Ok sorry uh…you can continue

GC: Already scaring you huh? *laughter*. As I was saying, he would prowl the streets of Santa Domingo, especially the bars, and pray on young drunk teenagers, killing them. His origin story goes that he was once a young teenager himself, and to punish his abusive father for coming home drunk, he planned to uh…scare him by dressing up in like…uh…furs and such to look like a dog

K: Wow, I mean I get it

GC: Exactly! *laughter*, no one uh blamed him for trying to scare his dad. They blame the dad for how he reacted! Most people actually uh…felt bad for el Cadejos at first. But then he started to uh…*pause, drink* kill their kids so that feeling went away.

K: Yeah I think that would turn most people away from your side ya know? *laughter from both parties*. You can continue, please

GC: So he tried, and actually uh succeeded in scaring his dad. His dad, super drunk and angry, said to him “if you want to be a dog so badly, you can be one forever!” Which is kinda extreme if you ask me *laughter*. So, el Cadejos was cursed to live as a terrifying, ugly immortal dog. No one really knows why he started killing younger teens.

K: Do you have any like… hypothesis?

GC: Yes, everyone does. I think it started as killing drunk adults as revenge and anger towards his…his father but then it devolved into like inward anger? Like…he was so mad he couldn’t go out and have fun as a teenager he started killing other teens.

Interpretation:
This folklore is meant to scare children and younger teens away from “undesirable paths” like the obvious drinking and less obvious thinks like wandering the streets at night and teen pregnancy. As the informant says, it didn’t really work on her or anyone she knew, people grew out of being scared and wanted to go have fun. taking the informants Costa Rican background into consideration, we can gather a few key themes. First, Costa Rica, like many south American countries, is heavily catholic. The idea od a terrifying creature killing those who sin (drinking in this case) reflects those deep set values of staying pure. The nonchalance with how the informant told the story is also interesting to note. The feelings toward drinking had obviously changed since the story’s origin. This story, meant to be scary and teaching a lesson, had turned humorous when telling it to me. The information also said that she didn’t tell it to her children, but some of her siblings did. The transformation of El Cadejos from a boy to a dog for disrespecting his father also speaks to the culture. Although it made a point that the father was not a good man (drinking, abuse), it still thought an appropriate enough story to tell to children, as a lesson for respecting your parents, which also runs deep in Costa Rican culture.

Ghost of highway 1

–Informant Info–

Nationality: American

Age: 56

Occupation: Housewife

Residence: Pheonix, Ariozna

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as HW and the interviewer as K)

Background info: MW is a mother of 2 who grew up in Pacific Grove, northern California, and now resides in Pheonix, Arizona.

K: Ok so what’s the title and where did you hear it? And what’s the uh…context for the performance? Like what circumstances was it told

HW: It doesn’t really have a title, just the ghost of highway 1 because uh…whenever you drive past highway 1 someone would tell the story, mainly on the school bus. That’s where I always heard it from, like kids telling other kids to scare them.

K: Ok, go ahead! It’s fine if its only like 2 sentences

HW: Yeah, I mean, it goes that uh a woman got hit by a car and died on this little outstretch of Highway 1 that’s not even really used anymore cuz a new uh…exit was built that had better access to Monterey (a major town in this area). So the only people that used it were locals, but sometimes a non-local would get lost and see her standing on the edge of the road and uh pick her up. There were 2 major uh…versions I guess to what she would do after. She would either like take control of the car and crash it or if you were a woman driving alone she would uh like…bless you in a sense? Like your car would drive better and you wouldn’t hit traffic and narrowly avoid getting hit kind of a thing.

K: Wow, that’s really interesting, so she was kind to women?

HW: In one version yea, but only if you were alone or with another woman. If it was a straight uh couple the car would crash. Her hatred for men was stronger than her love for women *laughter*

Interpretation:
This is actually really interesting because of how traditional this story is. I know I’ve heard the same type of story, about a woman dying by getting hit by a car and becoming a ghost hitchhiker. It’s a very popular story in common lore around the world I think. This just reinforces my belief that every kid seems to have their own version of the story. It is interesting how the informant noted that this part of the road isn’t a major part anymore, and is only really used by locals and that non-locals were really the only ones to stop and pick her up. Its as if this is a very well-known, and believed story rather than a story told on the bus to scare other kids.

Marie Laveau

–Informant Info–

Nationality: American

Age: 87

Occupation: Unemployed

Residence: Los Angeles, California

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): French

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as JW and the interviewer as K)

Background info: JW is a father and grandfather who was born and raised in New Orleans, moving to Los Angeles to follow his son, whom he now resides with. I was told this story in the evening in a room that JM made “purposefully spooky”

K: So whats the name of the folklore, where did you hear it, and when is it like told?

JW: *laughter* Well miss, it’s a true story about a voodoo queen named Marie Laveau. Everyone just knows it, some say that’s part of her magic still at work, that no one can forget her. *laughter*

K: *laughter* Ok so, whenever you’re ready! Go into as much or as little detail as you want

JW: You sure miss? It gets gruesome

K: Part of the charm of folklore

JW: *laughter* you right you right. Miss Marie Laveau was a voodoo queen *stretches out the word queen for emphasis*. She could do anythin under our God-given sun, even make herself live twice as long *smiles*. She was-she was said to curse those who had wronged her in the most brutal ways. I remember when I was a boy an uh…one of my friends told me that his great somethin grandma was cursed by Miss Laveau. She had stolen something from her shop, so Miss Laveau stole somethin from her…*long pause* her right hand! The one that did the snatchin! *laughter*. That’s the kinda stuff she did, so everyone with half a mind was smart enough not to cross her. It’s said that to this day if you visit her grave, you can get a wish granted if you leave her somethin nice.

Interpretation:
It was really interesting to hear a more well-known bit of folklore be told from an original point of view. What I mean by that is JM is from New Orleans, and although Marie Laveau is known from more popular culture like American Horror Story, this telling was drastically different than the one in the aforementioned television show. I also thought it was important to note the joy in which this story was told to me. JM was laughing regularly as he told me the story, even the more grisly parts of it. He set up the room I was speaking to him in a traditionally scary way, but when it came to the story it was as if he couldn’t contain his joy. The story obviously had lost its scare factor as people get older. He notes being scared by the version his friend told him when he was younger but laughed telling me it.

Lilith

Background: Informant is a 19 year old, Jewish American college student from New Hampshire. They shared this story about their family and how it relates to their Jewish tradition and culture. The informant has been through Jewish education and experiences the holidays every year.

Informant: So, one really bizarre story is the story of Lillith. So, Lilith is rumored to be the first wife of Adam, and so it’s very controversial in Judiasm because Orthodox Jews follow what I’m about to share. So, Lillith escaped the Garden of Eden to gain independence so in some ways it’s been adopted by feminist Jews who see Lillith as regaining her independence. But, largely she’s seen as a sort of she-demon. So basically Lillith left the Garden of Eden and was not allowed back in because she was replaced with Eve. So we commonly know Adam’s partner to be Eve. So, she returns and is furious with men. So for this reason Orthodox Jews do not cut boys’ hair for an extended period of time because the idea is that in the night, if Lillith passes over and sees a child with short hair they see it as a man, so then Lillith will kill the baby boy. So, it’s this really intresting thing where she steals the children of Adam and Eve because she’s jealous and also a feminist twist. 

Reflection: This story was so intresting to me. As the informant told it and inserted some of their own opinions on it using a modern lens, I saw how folklore changes over time. This piece of folklore reflects people’s changing opinions on women, as Lillith is a woman who was demonized. Today, however, Jewish feminists have adopted the story as a story of a woman who they can look up to. It’s really compelling to see how folklore can change over time in it’s meaning while the content of the story is actually very much the same. 

Bloody Mary, but make it Jewish?

Nationality: United States of America
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/26/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

Main Piece:

How did you learn about Bloody Mary?

“When I was in Hebrew school, a teacher told me that Mary was related to Jewish history. She was a Jewish figure that would haunt you, and the teacher was trying to connect it to Jewish curriculum. I was like ‘why are you trying to ruin this story’, like yes, I was genuinely afraid but that was so stupid (laughs).” 

How do you play Bloody Mary?

“You get into a bathroom, close the door, turn off the lights, look into a mirror, say bloody Mary 3 times, she’s supposed to appear and do something bad.”

Context/Background: 

My informant is my roommate. She was raised in Conservative Judaism and attended Hebrew School from elementary school through high school. This story was collected when we were talking about Judaism during dinner. 

Analysis: 

Many young children are taught a version of Bloody Mary. Various accounts can be seen in Alan Dundes’ article “Bloody Mary in the Mirror: A Ritual Reflection of Pre-Pubescent Anxiety.” In my own experiences, I’ve been told that Bloody Mary is a wife who got killed before her wedding or a woman who died in a bloody car crash. However, in the case of this specific account, the person teaching this game to my informant tried to alter the backstory so it would fit into her religious education. My informant’s Hebrew school teacher saw the value in this myth and its impact on children, so the teacher tried morph it to fit her agenda. My informant saw straight through this attempt, but still ended up fearing the figure, Bloody Mary.

Dundes, Alan. “Bloody Mary in the Mirror: A Ritual Reflection of Pre-Pubescent Anxiety.” Western Folklore, vol. 57, no. 2/3, 1998, pp. 119–135. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1500216.