Lauren Graves

Assignment 2

Intro to Folklore

Ghosts, Witches and La LLorona

Lindee has been my best friend since sixth grade. She is hispanic and grew up on bogie

tales warning about potential dangers that a child must avoid. Fantastical ghosts and creatures

rooted deeply into mexican culture and lore were the pinnacle of her bedtime stories. The first

tale Lindee had told me was about La llorona (the weeping woman). I had asked her over dinner

one night if she would tell me a story. With an amused voice she began speaking about her

experience with La LLorona.

“Okay so I’m gonna tell you a story that haunted my childhood dreams… and, y’know

my reality” -She grins and looks at me with excitement- “ So, when I was little, let’s say about

three or four years old I once asked my mom to tell me a bedtime story. She was like “what kind

of story do you want?” and I was like “I.. want a scary story” because I thought I was a big boy

and could handle them. She told me the legend of La Llorona or the weeping woman. So in the

story... there’s this woman who… gets married and has two children. A boy and a girl. In my

aunts version (there are many versions) The woman... gets jealous because her husband leaves

her. And so, as an act of revenge she takes her children and she murders them by drowning them

in a nearby creek. And so at that time, we used to live near a creek. And I remember she was, she

told me “it’s like exactly like the one outside!” but she kept going on. She was like “now every

time little children wander around at night... they get taken no matter where they are, as long as

they’re near a creek.” So I used to be deathly afraid to walk around outside at night even though I
couldn’t! And I still... can't Like I guess walk around outside at night like near rivers cuz I’m like

“well someone might snatch me up and then drown me!” because I can’t swim and that’s been

one of my biggest fears since I was a child. The end!”

I re-transcribed some the text to include the more comical and friendly tonesthat Lindee

conveyed in her telling of the story. The texture is still spooky but obviously not meant to be

taken seriously and much more light hearted. Before I re-transcribed it a lot of her humor was

lost. As stated in the beginning, Lindee and I have been friends for years. Earlier this quarter, we

would go out to eat at Center Table and talk about random topics. Lindee is Hispanic and her

parents were raised in small villages within mexico. Lindee heard this story from her mom and

aunt, who speak very little english and together have three kids who they often tell fantastical

stories to. This recording took place at Center Table during a dinner meeting that we were

having. Many people were around us and she knew I was looking for stories. This wasn't a

natural context because she knew she was being recorded but I tried to make it as natural as

possible by recording in a place we often go and being the one to ask her questions. After the

story we continued telling stories and she began to reminisce on how she would always frighten

Alex and David who are her brothers. Lindee is an active bearer of the oral tradition and often

tells stories such as La Llorona to me or her little brothers while we're hanging out together or

shes babysitting them. As of now, she tells the most stories to her youngest brother Alex, who is

still very impressionable and easily scared. Lindee has many more stories besides La Llorona,

one of which will be discussing a bit later on.

The story of La Llorona for Lindee right now is that of a fabulate legend. She doesn’t

necessarily believe in it and doesn’t take the story in itself seriously. This wasn’t always the case
though. Just like her brother now, La Llorona used to be much more of a believable legend for

Lindee. Also It made her afraid of water in general and she didn't even learn to swim until I

taught her early highschool.

La LLorona is a well known story with many variants and each of those variants have

different sets of motifs. Ones included in Lindees telling are Q450 Cruel Punishments ​Q252,

Punishment for breaking betrothal, Q402. Punishment of children for parents' offenses, Q411.

Death as punishment, Q428. Punishment: drowning, Q553.4. Death of children as

punishment,S302. Children murdered​, E279.1. The ghost haunts outside at night in human

shape,​S12.2.​ Cruel mother kills child.​ ​F402.​ Evil spirits. Demons ​P242. Children punished for

fathers' sins,G261. Witch steals children. All in all the main focuses on these motifs are

punishments and theft and death of children.

There are many variants of the story of La Llorona itself. Many versions depict the

woman as a ghost named Maria that comes back to drown kids. Searching through creepypasta

websites I found a collection of variants of this tale. One website in particular had numerous

stories all different from one another.(​https://www.thescarechamber.com/la-llorona/​) Focusing

on the first story listed, it depicts a tale about a young woman named maria. She was very jealous

of her two sons because her husband focused more on them than her. One day she ends up

drowning the boys and after being filled with grief she dies. According to the preface of the

story, she can't get into heaven without her boys so she is left to roam the earth. Then people in

the town began saying that her ghost haunted the streams and would snatch any child who came

into contact with her. This variant shares many of the motifs relating to punishment and child

death such as Q428. Punishment: drowning, Q553.4. Death of children as punishment,S302.

Children murdered.​,E279.1. The ghost haunts outside at night in human shape,​S12.2.​ Cruel

mother kills child.​Most of the differences are things that this story included that Lindee did not.

A few examples include the fathers struggle with alcoholism and the death of the mother due to

grief as well as the appearance of Heaven. Motifs that differ include ​A661. Heaven and Q565.

Man admitted to neither heaven nor hell. The meanings slightly changed within this variant

compared to Lindees because this one is more deeply rooted in religion. One meaning of this one

is “you can't get into heaven if you're a bad person or murder”. Lindee didn't have that meaning

and instead had meanings like “if you're a kid, don't go out late at night near water”. This could

very well be due to her worldview because she is not religious.

Of course, there are a lot of other stories that Lindee knows that slightly differ from the

world of La Llorona. Over the weekend, during a video chat over Skype that was focused on

memories from our past and our wacky families, Lindee remembered a story about her

grandfather that she thought I'd enjoy. I quickly pulled out my phone to record it to transcribe

later.

“Okay this is my grandfathers um… origin story” -she giggles quietly-“Or something i

don't know, it was used to explain why he was such a mean old bastard!” -I laugh and say “that's

valid” and she laughs back- “Okay so.. The story goes so he was a baby like a few months old.

His mom was like rocking him to sleep and she fell asleep with him him in her arms And.. she

woke up a few hours later , like this red like light kind of like fire coming from the window. and

she got all panicked. and then she realized she woke up without the baby in her arms!” -we

snicker- “and then she freaked out and called her sister like “OH MY GOSH WHERE THE

FUCK IS MY BABY?? Where is my baby” -I say “Uh Oh!”- “And they would all say “oh were
looking for him!” and they finally found him under the bed cuz she was like on a rocking chair

and he was under the bed and they got him out from under the bed and he was just sleeping

there… peacefully. But then they were looking to check him over to see like what happened

what happened and they found like red like marks behind his ear and everyone was like “Oh my

gosh this is a witch.. She *unintelligible* his blood into the window, put you under a sleeping

spell and flew away!” And yknow you have to like all the witches in the story are like evil

people and like the magic they do is kinda disgusting because in order to fly apparently you have

to cut off their legs or something..” - I laugh awkwardly and say “Oh no!”- “YEAH like cuz you

can't walk anymore so you have to sacrifice walking in order to fly” -curious I say “So basically

Ariel but a lot more fucked up?”- “...Yeah and then they also transform into animals and stuff but

that's another story and they have to do more fucked up shit than that and yeah so they find him

and he has like the witches mark on his ear and um.. He's like cursed now or something because

she did that and she targeted him and he didn't die but he did get the mark. He would always like

show the mark to like my aunt and my mom and like when he was not drunk or maybe when he

was drunk, I don't know. And he died when he was in his.. Late forties or early fifties of like

alcoholism and like a bunch of other stuff but yeah..”

This story was told by Lindee to me over a skype call and we were completely alone. I

had provided stories about my uncle who was in a terrible house fire when he was a child and it

sparked this story in Lindees mind. I had never head Lindee tell this before and upon asking she

said that her family talks about it amongst themselves from time to time (usually the women in

the family).
 This story shares the motifs of G261. Witch steals children and ​Q450 Cruel

Punishments. It both centers around children and female adult figures punishing/ hurting them in

some way yet it isn't a direct variant. Some differences are that the grandfather story shares a

more stereotypical witch character and does not result in immediate death. It also deals with

markings which La LLorona does not. Also, this is a memorate story instead of a fabulate story

like the weeping woman.

The stories that Lindee told me are deeply rooted in her heritage and world views. These

are all stories that her parents told her and that their parents told them and so on and so forth.

While she may not necessarily believe in the supernatural part of the story rationally it still

affects her and she cautions herself on things such as being near bodies of water. The second

story is much more close to Lindee herself as it is a memorate story. Both La Llorona and

Grandfathers Origins would be considered legends due to these reasons.

Lindee Rodriguez on Wed, March 20th 2019 At Lions Park, Everett.