A TERRIFYING COLLABORATION

ANNA ALEXANDER, CSU EAST BAY HISTORY

JOSH FUNK, CSU CHICO ART & ART HISTORY

We always have, and we always will live in a time of task. They come to life in folklore and oral
monsters. While monsters have taken different traditions, rather than official documents preserved
shapes and served different purposes depending on by librarians, thus presenting the history students
the time and culture, their existence helps us more with the added challenge of finding reliable sources.
clearly understand humanity. To be human is to When the history students finished their research,
fear. And the presence of monsters tells us about a they gave their essays to the CSU Chico art students
society’s greatest anxieties at any given time. Today, to illustrate.
we may not fear sea monsters or trolls under
bridges, but for many, our newsfeeds and Editorial illustration, or the art that accompanies the
nightmares are beginning to blend. written text found in magazines and newspapers,
heightens the ideas in the text and entices viewers to
When, in the early stages of collaboration, we tried learn more. Since the monsters in this exhibition
to find a topic that would resonate with our students have historically been described in multiple and
—history majors at CSU East Bay and art majors at sometimes contradictory ways, the artists had the
CSU Chico—monsters immediately came to mind. difficult task of interpreting the text and creating a
We had to find a topic that would be challenging to coherent image. Students in the digital illustration
research but would pique the interests of students course first highlighted visually descriptive words
in different disciplines. What we did not realize was from the text and then researched how their
that for our CSU students, many of whom identify as assigned monster had previously been depicted
Latinx, they grew up with the monsters in this through illustration and media. For some monsters,
exhibit haunting their dreams. These urban legends such as El Chupacabra, the contradictory descriptions
had been passed down from generation to and adaptable appearance posed challenges.
generation. Our students told us stories of their Students gave thoughtful consideration to the
parents warning them to go to bed or else El Cucuy research and the geographic origins of the legends,
(the Boogeyman) would eat them, or other accounts and were tasked with finding the most compelling
of being afraid to go near the water because La narrative and composition to entice viewers to read
Llorona (the Weeping Woman) would drown them. about these monsters.
Even though these monsters are imagined creations,
they provoke real actions, in this case, going to bed Over all, this collaboration was eye-opening for
on time or not swimming alone. everyone involved and helped us and the students
understand and appreciate the other’s craft on a
For the CSU East Bay history students, the process of deeper level. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the
intellectualizing fables helped them better CSU Chico Department of Art & Art History, and the
understand the unique historical contexts in Latin CSU East Bay Department of History for generously
America. These monsters were not created in supporting this creative collaboration. A special
vacuums. Instead, they reflected social dynamics thanks goes to David B. Hoppe, Professor Emeritus at
and moral codes. The legend of El Sombrerón, for CSU Chico, for conducting a mid-progress critique of
example, outlines expected gender roles and the student artwork. We also want to thank CSU East
helps us better understand colonial Guatemala. Bay history major Karla Vega for translating the
But locating monsters in the archive is a difficult museum labels from English to Spanish.

[1]
 Olivia Yee, El Chupacabra, 2020. Aaron Fisher, El Chupacabra, 2020.
CSU Chico Art CSU Chico Art

EL CHUPACABRA
EMBODIMENT OF FEARS FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER

DAVE HARRIS AND JESSICA SPENCER Scholarly accounts of El Chupacabra are challenging
CSU EAST BAY HISTORY to find, and the lack of sources can easily lead
researchers into the murky world of urban legends.
In 1995, Madelyn Tolentino of Puerto Rico first For example, author Benjamin Radford is the
reported to authorities a sighting of what she leading cryptozoologist and pseudo-historian on the
deemed to be El Chupacabra. It was not exactly a subject of Chupacabras. Cryptozoologists seek to
reliable account, as it seems her description prove the existence of monsters like Big Foot and
matched exactly a creature from the movie Species, Sasquatch. Radford has given life to the urban
which she saw only weeks before. Most of the early legend through his articles and books on the
reports of the Chupacabra come in the form of the subject. Radford documents his five-year
discovery of dead farm animals whose bodies had investigation in his book, Tracking the Chupacabra:
allegedly been drained of blood. Although the tale The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction and Folklore. His
of El Chupacabra is a relatively new one, its cryptid reports of the creature are detailed and include
ancestry goes farther back in history. In the 1970s, everything from mutant, rabid, mangy dogs to
there was a legend in the small town of Mocha, bipedal gray-skinned aliens with large black or red
Puerto Rico, where a large number of sheep and eyes.[2]
goats had been killed and bled from a single
puncture wound on the neck. The name given to the While the description of the creature has evolved,
culprit was El Vampiro de Mocha. Another similar the same way ghosts and other monsters have
monster tale from South America describes the changed in popular movies and television, the
mosquito man who used his long nose to suck the Chupacabra seems to accommodate a transcultural
blood of animals. Tolentino’s alien-style Chupacabra meaning on both sides of the Mexican-U.S. border.
remained popular until about 2001 when a In his research, historian Robert Jordan attributes El
Nicaraguan farmer found a hairless canine carcass Chupacabra’s Puerto Rican origins to the island’s
and called it a Chupacabra.Since then, most anxious ties to the United States, which translated
sightings have included some quadrupedal dog- well to other countries in Latin America. Puerto Rico
like qualities in the description.[1]
[2]
experiences a tenuous relationship with the United on the Chupacabra's meaning. In his paintings, he
States federal government. In the 1990s, U.S. inserts the Chupacabra into various aspects of
military bases and U.S.-based industries were both Mexican daily life. In an interview for the Brownsville
rapidly expanding, causing environmental concerns Herald, Gómez states that the Chupacabra
over their expansion into rural areas and their represents Chicanos. Gómez depicts El Chupacabra
production of various pollutants.[3] The U.S. in the vein of Rodin’s The Thinker along with various
government was monopolizing the island’s limited other famous poses and styles. Gómez also uses the
acreage, and in effect, the islanders had no political creature to represent Mexico by draping it in the
representation to stop it. In addition, the U.S. colors of the Mexican flag: green, white and red. El
military was exploiting the island’s resources to Chupacabra is a lonely creature with human
create industrial pollutants, like Agent Orange, characteristics. Gómez explains, Mexican
bombs, and radiation. One resident reported that immigrants are also feared and misunderstood and
she was “nauseated by the odor,” of the river behind it was his intention to familiarize Americans with
her house because of industrial chemical dumping. Mexican culture through a mutually mysterious
[4] To some Puerto Ricans, the U.S. symbolized a creature, El Chupacabra.[8]
creature that sucked resources and left the
population in turmoil. Does the Chupacabra exist, or is it something that
has culminated only from the unexplained killing of
Important international economic agreements also livestock? The Chupacabra does exist! It exists the
coincided with surges in El Chupacabra activity. The same way that any other creature of folklore fills an
first sightings happened less than a year after the explanatory void. Indeed, after Mrs. Tolentino’s
signing of the North American Free-Trade report in 1995, the Puerto Rican news media leapt to
Agreement (NAFTA), and about ten years later, conclusions that drove further sightings of the
sightings surged more broadly through Central creature, and perhaps this helps explain the rise in
America around the signing of the Central American cryptozoological folklore. In reality, puncture
Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA). These treaties wounds on the necks of livestock are most likely
boosted trade among the countries that signed those from sick or weakened canines that cannot
them, but it was the large, U.S.-based companies chase a rabbit or deer, or hunt in the open, and
that gained the most at the expense of small farms instead prey on more dormant animals. And, short
and businesses in Spanish-speaking countries and of DNA evidence to prove the contrary, El
Puerto Rico.[5] There was also some cultural Chupacabra will most likely go down in history as
predisposition causing such a creature to emerge. the first internet-age cryptid.[9]
The U.S. military's plan in the 1960s, known as “Plan
Dracula” has possibly contributed to the rise of El
Chupacabra.[6] In this case, the U.S. inadvertently
gave itself a vampiric image in the eyes of Puerto NOTES
Ricans.[7] Plan Dracula, as it was called by Puerto [1] Benjamin Radford, “Slaying the Vampire: Solving the
Rican author, Evelyn Velez-Rodriguez, occurred Chupacabra Mystery,” Skeptical Inquirer 35, no. 3 (May 2011):
during the Kennedy Administration. The plan 45-6.
[2] Radford, “Slaying the Vampire,” 46-7.
authorized the military to take over a Puerto Rican
[3] Robert Jordan, “El Chupacabra: Icon of Resistance to U.S.
island called Vieques by removing all of its Imperialism” (PhD diss., University of Texas at Dallas, 2008),
inhabitants, not only living, but dead as well. Plan 8-9, 20.
Dracula forced residents, and all of their cemeteries [4] Jordan, “El Chupacabra,” 17-18, 22.
to leave the tiny island of Vieques to make way for [5] Jordan, 19-20, 74.
military occupation, hence the macabre name. For [6] Jordan, 13-15.
some, the mythic Chupacabra may represent the [7] Deborah Berman Santana, “Resisting Toxic Militarism:
United States and its overbearing U.S. dominance in Vieques Versus the U.S. Navy,” Social Justice 29, no. 1 (Spring-
Summer 2002): 37-47.
the Americas.
[8] Emma Perez-Trevino, "Local artist sees Chupacabra as a
metaphor for Mexican-Americans," Brownsville Herald,
Others want to reimagine the Chupacabra as a February. 19, 2006.
symbol of Chicano identity. Carlos G. Gómez, an [9] Benjamin Radford, Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire
artist of Brownsville, Texas, puts an alternative spin Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore (Albuquerque: University of
New Mexico Press, 2011).
[3]
 LA SIGUANABA
THE RIVER TEMPTRESS, A MISUNDERSTOOD WOMAN

JEWEL CARISSA LOPEZ, JASMYN MURRELL, AND deformed features like backwards facing feet that he
PAMELA S. ROUSE, CSU EAST BAY HISTORY uses to commit harmless trickery and get travelers
lost.[11] The myth of Siguana appears to have been
La Siguanaba is a mythical Central American figure, used by Spanish colonists to control the local
derived from Mayan mythology,[1] who appears in population by saying that she lures unfaithful men
Salvadorian, Guatemalan, Honduran, and Costa and steals their souls.[12] Throughout the Spanish
Rican folklore.[2] Prior to the Spanish conquest of colonization of the Americas, indigenous people
Central America,[3] she was known as Sihuehet, were subjugated under European rule and the strict
which means beautiful woman in the Nahuatl moralization of the Catholic Church, which pressured
language.[4] According to legend, Sihuethet was a women to keep chaste.[13]
peasant who used a witch’s brew to captivate the
Mayan Prince Yeisun, son of the supreme god Tlaloc, While La Siguanaba could be an ominous tale
into marriage and thus became a queen.[5] While warning men and women to remain faithful and
married, she had many affairs, one of which led her pure, for women, it created a narrative of a two-faced
to conceive a son named Cipitio.[6] The legend says enchantress who teased men and then drove them to
that Siheuhet was an distraction or death.
inattentive mother La Siguanaba’s
because she was empowerment took a
consumed with her different form in the
lovers and her need for 1980s and 90s when
power. In order to Latinx feminists,
claim the throne for critical of American
herself, and possibly interventionism in
one of her lovers, she Central America,
tried to poison her engaged in solidarity
husband with a potion movements and found
during a feast. Instead strength within their
of dying, her husband communities.
was transformed into a According to Ana
monster that killed Patricia Rodríguez,
many people but “during those decades,
was eventually killed the United States
by one of the guards. provided military
The god Tlaloc was and economic aid to
furious and cursed Maritza Barragan, La Siguanaba, 2020. Elizabeth Kirby, La Siguanaba, 2020. Central American
CSU Chico Art CSU Chico Art regimes, particularly
Siheuhet for his son’s
death.[7] From then in El Salvador,
on, Siheuhet (most beautiful woman) became Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, to fund wars
Siguana (a horrible woman). of genocide and general destruction.[14] Throughout
the war between the Salvadoran government and
Attractive at first glance, La Siguanaba transforms left-wing guerillas, the civilian communities were
into a monster with the face of a horse or skull.[8] targeted and forced to flee for their lives. Women
She is condemned to roam near rivers at night,[9] were essential to this trans-migratory period.
luring men in with her beauty and frightening them, Anthropologist Mirna Carillo talks about the binary
causing some to go crazy and others to die.[10] of Salvadoran women, who live between two worlds
Additionally, her son Cipitio was cursed because of and two cultures, not unlike La Siguanaba:. “As an
his mother’s affairs and betrayal. His curse is that interstice, La Siguanaba’s body contains and
he remains eternally a child, with continually manifests and redefines the conflict
[4]
between indigeneity and colonialism.”[15] Carillo 2,https://milagro.org/wp-
further explains that La Siguanaba is both content/uploads/2018/09/S35_02_JudgeTorres_StudyGuide_E
frightening and powerful, and “she is an undeniably NG_FINAL.pdf
[2] Maria Herrera-Sobek, “La Siguanaba” in Celebrating Latino
Salvadoran icon bound to live in between the worlds
Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Cultural Traditions (Santa Barbara,
of the Pipiles and the colonizer.”[16] In their new CA: ABC-CLIO, 2012), 669.
worlds in the United States, Salvadoran women did [3] Ana Patricia Rodriguez, "The Fiction of Solidarity:
not completely leave behind these political Transfronteriza Feminisms and Anti-Imperialist Struggle in
struggles. Multiple waves of Salvadoran migrants Central American Transnational Narratives," Feminist Studies
have settled in the U.S. over the years, influencing 34, no. 1-2 (2008): 199-226.
the West (and Southern California, in particular) [4] Mirna Carrillo, “La Siguanaba Haunts with Bravery and
creating concentrated regions of Salvadoran-specific Doubts: Second-Generation Salvadoran Women” (MS thesis.,
UC San Diego, 2011), 2.
vernacular and culture.[17]
[5] Malán-González, "The Judge Torres," 2.
[6] Malán-González, 2.
La Siguanaba is terrifying and empowering.[18] For [7] Malán-González, 2.
men and the unfaithful, La Siguanaba is used as a [8] Mauricio Interiano, “Central Americano Legends and
warning or message: keep thoughts clean and pure of Folklore,” Arthur Newspaper, November 1, 2016,
infidelity and curiosities, or else you might fall http://www.trentarthur.ca/centro-americano-legends-and-
victim to La Siguanaba’s curse. This concept of La folklore/
[9] Carillo, “La Siguanaba Haunts with Bravery and Doubts,” 1.
Siguanaba is enacted culturally to keep men from
[10] Carillo, 1.
having affairs or staying out late and getting into [11] Interiano, “Central Americano Legends and Folklore.”
mischief.[19] Her folklore lives as a moral warning [12] Interiano.
about how one should behave, and how one lives in [13] Herrera-Sobek, “La Siguanaba,” 670-71.
society. [14] Rodriguez, 199.
[15] Carillo, 2.
NOTES [16] Carrillo, 2.
[1] Sylvia Malán-González,“The Judge Torres Study Guide,” [17] Carrillo, 40.
Teatro Milagro National Touring Production, Season 35 (2019), [18] Carrillo, 3.
[19] Interiano.

LA LLORONA
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN LATIN AMERICAN FOLKLORE
AND NINETEENTH CENTURY WATERBORNE ILLNESS

BODHI BAWER DEAN YOUNG AND been washed away by the river. Now, she resides at
SRISHTI SUMBLY, CSU EAST BAY HISTORY waterfronts, lakes, rivers, and streams, luring
children into the water and drowning them in hopes
“Condemned to wander the earth in search of the that they might make a suitable replacement for her
children she sacrificed,”[1] La Llorona, or the own lost progeny.[2]
Weeping Woman, is a traditional folktale told
throughout Mexico and the Southern United States, The true origins of the weeping woman, La Llorona,
with variations found throughout Latin America. are still unknown, but the first murmurings of her
Folkloric traditions describe the origin of La Llorona appeared in a sonnet from the late 1800s where she
as starting with a young woman named María, After was described as a young woman who had been killed
finding out her husband, the father of her children, by her husband.[3] Through generations of oral
had run off with another woman, she drowned her tradition, this legend would eventually evolve into
two children in a river as an act of grief stricken the contemporary ghost story told to scare children
revenge. Immediately overcome with remorse and into good behavior and impart caution while playing
regret, she drowned herself as well. Instead of easily near waterfronts. This Latin American folktale
passing over into the afterlife, her eternal soul was developed during a time of great fear, when the
punished. The only way for her spirit to rest in peace waterborne disease cholera was ravaging
is for her to find the bodies of her children who had communities in Mexico and the United States.

[5]
Medical historian, Charles Rosenberg, explains, “there is no human crisis
more compelling than an epidemic of plague, yellow fever, or cholera. These
phenomenon are, indeed, so dramatic and so terrifying that most physicians
and historians have tended to view them as something alien, something
outside society and contending with it.”[4] According to the Center for
Disease Control, Vibrio Cholerae Infection, more commonly known simply as
Cholera, is “found and spread in places with inadequate water treatment,
poor sanitation, and inadequate hygiene,”[5] and if left untreated, can cause
death mere hours after the disease’s incubation period. Cholera killed
hundreds of thousands of people in Mexico, and children were the most
vulnerable to the pathogen.[6] Cholera epidemics coincided with the housing
and city development boom of the mid-to-late 1800s, and the infection
ravaged cities like New York City and Los Angeles. The first cholera epidemic
of Mexico would soon follow the arrival of the disease in the port city of
Veracruz.[7] The city was susceptible to the disease due to its immediate
proximity to water and because of the city’s poor water treatment and lack of
understanding of germ theory. Shortly after its arrival in Veracruz, cholera
would contribute to, “six deaths a day,” but this figure soon jumped, “to three
hundred a day" and "eighteen hundred people out of an estimated population
of six thousand had died.”[8] These types of citywide epidemics would hit
almost every major city in Mexico and the southern United States that had
direct proximity to a water source.

After the Mexican cholera epidemics of 1833 and 1850, the population was
forced to cope with the loss of so many lives. Forefront in their mind was Jackson Keen, La Llorona, 2020.
figuring out a way to reduce the number of lives lost in future epidemics. This CSU Chico Art
normalization and fear of death can be seen across cultures and epochs, and
serves to push society past such tragedies. The cholera outbreak in Mexico
and the surrounding region would lead to the advancements of water
filtration, management, and cleaning as well as creating a new cultural
significance to water and the effect it had on the most vulnerable members
of society. Despite the advancements made to combat infections and deaths
from cholera, the fear of the loss of children still permeated in households
throughout Mexico and the southern United States. This led parents to
restrict children’s interaction with those water sources, which could possibly
contain deadly pathogens.

The consumption of infected water was easily controlled within the home
but, the consumption of water outside of the home was nearly impossible to
control due to the lack of understanding of germ theory and how the
pathogen spread. To protect children from interacting with potentially
infected water, something had to be developed to caution children away from
rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and other sources of external water. Parents would
caution children that played too close to water with the threat of drowning in
those same rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. The fear and
normalization of death that came with the cholera epidemics of the mid-
1800s coincided with the transformation of the La Llorona legend to include
infanticide.
Alex Crago, La Llorona, 2020.
The idea of death by dehydration and the loss of fluids caused by severe CSU Chico Art
diarrhea may not have resonated with children during the nineteenth
century, but the story of La Llorona’s affinity for drowning children and her
proximity to water may have had an effect. Mortality rates in children

[6]
drastically decreased after the epidemic with [2] Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, “The Hunt for La Llorona -
individual cases only popping up sporadically and in The Weeping Woman,” YouTube video, 23:47, “Buzzfeed
isolation.[9] Though this connection is tenuous, it Unsolved Network,” April 4, 2019, 2:23.
[3] Michael S. Werner, Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society &
may shed some light on the origins of this
Culture - Vol. 1 (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997).
mysterious monster of Mexican folklore. The [4] Charles E. Rosenberg, Explaining Epidemics: And Other
evolution and development in the mid-to-late Studies in the History of Medicine (Cambridge: Cambridge
nineteenth century of the mythical La Llorona may University Press, 1992), 110.
have protected children from the real-life horrors of [5] “General Information: Cholera: vibrio cholerae infection,"
cholera. Center for Disease Control, last reviewed: May 11, 2018.
[6] “General Information: Cholera: vibrio cholerae infection,"
NOTES Center for Disease Control.
[1] Domino Renee Perez, There Was a Woman: La Llorona [7] C.A. Hutchinson, “The Asiatic Cholera Epidemic of 1833 in
from Folklore to Popular Culture (Austin: University of Texas Mexico.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 32, no. 1 (1958): 23.
Press, 2008), x. [8] Hutchinson, “The Asiatic Cholera Epidemic,” 23.
[9] Hutchinson, 23.

LOOGAROO
THE WOMAN IN CAHOOTS WITH THE DEVIL

PEDRO GUZMAN AND ASHLEY SAYAT

CSU EAST BAY HISTORY

In the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the word “Loogaroo” has two meanings. On the one hand, it describes a
demonic vampire witch who made a pact with the Devil and sucks people’s blood to remain powerful. On the other,
the term “loogaroo” is a derogatory term used to describe women, especially powerful women. According to oral
tradition, Loogaroo first got her power by making a pact with a Devil. In return, she was obligated to suck the
blood of people every night before sunrise and give it to the Devil as an offering. The urban legend of the ghastly
vampire Loogaroo is intended to keep women bound to male expectations of the status quo. By labeling powerful,
wealthy, and successful women monsters who feed off of innocent victims, this limits women’s abilities to rise in
Caribbean society.

Sadiq Desai, Loogaroo, 2020. Ericka Berry, Loogaroo, 2020.

CSU Chico Art CSU Chico Art
[7]
The story of the Loogaroo, also known as slavery that occurred in Haiti and the Dominican
Soucouyant, varies throughout the Caribbean. The Republic that spurred a complex relationship with
most common description of the Loogaroo tells of a race and identity in the region. One way she can be
woman by day, who at night, transforms into a defeated is through the destruction of her skin by
demonic, blue fiery vampire. At night, the Loogaroo applying salt or lemon on it, thus preventing her
sheds her skin and hides it underneath a tree, so from putting it back on. This is very similar to when
that no one can find it. Much like a vampire, she Haiti was still under French colonial rule and during
flies off into the night sky searching for victims and slavery, the Black Codes (Code Noir) stated that
feasting on their blood. Despite some inconsistent after whipping an enslaved person, salt, pepper, and
details from story to story, a couple factors always lemon were to be added to the wounds.[4] Another
remain the same: Loogaroo is a woman, and she historical connection to Loogaroo’s myth comes
selfishly kills people and drinks their blood to from the Haitian Revolution from 1791-1804, which
maintain her power. In Jeffrey Cohen’s book Monster today remains the only successful uprising of
Theory, he explains that society’s create monsters to enslaved people in world history. In the Haitian
help explain what is out of the ordinary in society, Revolution, the enslaved populations rose up
and that they are an “embodiment of difference.”[1] against the white plantation owners, giving
For Loogaroo, both the monster and the successful whiteness a negative connotation. Furthermore, in
Caribbean woman, her power is seen an unnatural Haitian Vodou beliefs, “to be without skin is to be
thing made only possible with the help of evil white and to be white is to be a devil.”[5]
forces.
Loogaroo is a term associated with women who have
In an article written by Anita Baksh, she describes obtained roles in society that defy the status quo,
that maintaining the status quo is part of male and puts down women who have achieved and
society in the Caribbean. She explains that with surpassed the limits placed on them by cultural
colonization and the mixing of African, European, standards.
and native cultures, masculinity changed and
“creolization offered access to certain signifiers of
masculine power such as status and privilege but
threatened to disrupt their relations with women
and other men, specifically their ability to establish
Indian domestic patriarchal power.”[2] In a study NOTES
about masculinity and femininity in the Caribbean, [1] Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, “Preface: In a Time of Monsters,” in
gender expert Rhoda Reddeck explains how men Monster Theory: Reading Culture (Minneapolis: University of
perform masculinity, and that this "includes the Minnesota Press, 1996), x.
everyday-as in hegemony over their women as well [2] Anita Baksh, "Indo-Caribbean Working-Class
as in the publicly accepted values of success, e.g. Masculinities at Home and Abroad: David Chariandy's
Soucouyant and Ian Harnarine's Doubles with Slight Pepper,"
wealth, politics, sport, and sexual performance (not
Journal of West Indian Literature 25, no. 1 (2017): 94-111,125.
necessarily in that order)."[3] Some may argue that [3] Rhoda Reddock, "Indo-Caribbean Masculinities and Indo-
in order for men to maintain dominant roles in Caribbean Feminisms: Where are We Now?" in Indo-Caribbean
society, they must discredit women’s Feminist Thought: Genealogies, Theories, Enactments, ed.
accomplishments and call them names such as Gabrielle Hosein and Lisa Outar (London: Palgrave
loogaroo. Macmillan, 2016), 272.
[4] Joan Dayan, Haiti: History, and the Gods (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1998), 265.
In the story, in order for Loogaroo to go out into the
[5] Dayan, Haiti: History, and the Gods, 266; Bertin M. Louis Jr.,
night and eat her prey, she must shed her skin so she "Haiti’s Pact with the Devil?: Bwa Kayiman, Haitian
is free to do her evil deeds. This could be a metaphor Protestant Views of Vodou, and the Future of Haiti," Religions
or symbol for a few different things when we take 10, no. 464 (2019): 1-15.
into consideration the history of colonialism and

[8]
 PISHTACO
PERU’S AGELESS KILLER

BRANDON GUTIERREZ, HIROTAKA TAMAE AND TRAVIS VAN OOSBREE

CSU EAST BAY HISTORY

In the highlands of the Andes Mountains, a sinister predator

haunts the night. He is Pishtaco and his quarry are the indigenous
inhabitants of rural Peru. This pale-skinned hunter can be seen
prowling the outskirts of small villages dressed in a leather coat,
tall boots, and a wide-brimmed hat. He seeks out natives who
have strayed too far from the central village, lost travellers,
drunkards or those who are otherwise distracted. Brandishing a
long knife, he dismembers his victims, butchers them and harvests
their body fat (or unto in the native tongue.)[1] He sells this ill-
gotten unto to foreign industry as material components for their
factories and machines. For centuries Pishtaco has terrorized the
native Peruvians, all the while adapting his means and motives to
keep up with the changing world in which he lives. Pishtaco has
evolved as his legend has grown. As his earliest iterations, in the
times of the Spanish conquest, used the stolen fat for the
mysterious process of metallurgy and the production of church
bells, so too did his successors utilize their harvest as lubrication
for the machines of the industrial revolution, until today, when
his bounty is sold for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.[2] The
Mia Morse, Pishtaco, 2020.
legend of Pishtaco has long served as a warning against outsiders
CSU Chico Art
and foreigners in rural Peruvian life. As Peru continues to
modernize, and contact with the developed world increases, the
indigenous communities of Peru show no signs of embracing their
light-skinned neighbors, as tales of Pishtaco live on to this day.

The word Pishtaco is derived from the Quechua word “pishtac,”

which means “to behead”. The tradition of the Pishtaco coincided
with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.[1] Body fats from Indians were used for the
treatment of wounds and diseases among Spanish soldiers.[2]
Moreover, Catholic missionaries sought out indigenous body fat to
improve the sound of their church bells. Even after these practices
vanished, the strong impression left by Spanish culture has never
been forgotten by the native people of the Andes. During the
nineteenth century, Pishtaco was described as a merchant who
seeks indigenous body fats to make soups, medicines, and
supplies for factories.[3] By that point in time, Pishtaco had
become not only a horrific murderer, but also came to typify the
members of the political and economic elite. The Pishtaco legend
is also representative of the stark differences between social and
racial classes. Pishtaco is always described as a white or mestizo Linnea Carr, Pishtaco, 2020.
male. When considered from the darker skinned Indians’ CSU Chico Art

[9]
perspective, whites and mestizos are believed to become more porous. Peruvians have seen their
have become rich because they have exploited the traditional ways of life disintegrating ever since the
lowest class of the society, the Indians.[4] introduction of white men to the Americas and the
constant fear of Pishtaco has served to distance
As time went on, Latin American culture began to native Peruvians from the erosive nature of their
evolve and grow with the modernization of the corrupting force. But with more of the outside world
industrialized world; Pishtaco evolved alongside it. reaching the heart of indigenous Peruvian daily life,
The shadowy figure began to take a new shape as one is left wondering what new forms Pishtaco will
multinational corporations turned their sights to take, who will be his desired target, and where will
Latin America, a land rich in profitable resources. he strike next?
Just as big business extracted value from the land,
tales of Pishtaco extracting fats from vulnerable
communities endured. The parallels between
corporate greed and Pishtaco’s violence are
highlighted by the native tribes’ inability to resist an
invading force and feelings of helplessness that had
permeated indiginous culture since the Spanish
conquest.

The legend has again gained new life in a string of

crimes committed by Latin American gangs.
According to CNN, gang members were arrested
having been found harvesting human fat with the
intention to sell it illicitly to cosmetic and
pharmaceutical companies on the black market.[1]
While those responsible for the crimes were
connected to gangs and not Pishtaco directly, the
similarities are abundant. The publicity of this crime
wave gave rise to a new round of Pishtaco
narratives. In them, Pishtaco received a
transportation upgrade in the form of a car instead
of a horse. The mirrored evolution of Pishtaco and
industry is critical to his long-lasting relevance. As
technology becomes rapidly more pervasive, the
future of Pishtaco is unclear.
NOTES
For centuries the legend of Pishtaco has served as a [1] Anthony Oliver-Smith, “The Pishtaco: Institutionalized
warning amongst the aboriginal communities of Fear in Highland Peru,” American Folklore Society, (1969): 363.
[2] Andrew Canessa, “Fear and loathing on the kharisiri trail:
Peru against the invading influence of European
Alterity and identity in the Andes,” Journal of the Royal
culture. With Pishtaco’s long history of adapting and Anthropological Institute, 6 (2000): 706.
evolving to continuously represent the current [3] ErnestoVasquez del Aguila,“Pishtacos: Human Fat
industry in which foreign powers operate, the Murderers, Structural Inequalities, and Resistances inPeru,”
Pishtaco of the twenty-first century may take on an América Crítica, 2, no. 2 (December 2018) 143.
entirely new modus operandi. A digital Pishtaco may [4] Oliver-Smith, “The Pishtaco: Institutionalized Fear in
not be too far away. Instead of preying on drunkards Highland Peru,” 363-364.
[5] Vasquez del Aguila,“Pishtacos,” 144.
or lost travelers, perhaps he will find his victims in
[6] Vasquez del Aguila, 144.
those who are too deeply distracted by their [7] Arthur Brice, “Arrests Made in Ring That Sold Human Fat,
smartphones and tablets. The instantaneous Peru Says,” CNN (Cable News Network, November 21, 2009),
exchange of ideas provided by the internet has http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/11/20/fat.dea
created an age in which cultural barriers have d.humans.peru/index.html)

[10]
 Antonio chase rosario, El Sombrerón, 2020. gabrielle pate, El Sombrerón, 2020.
CSU Chico Art CSU Chico Art

EL SOMBRERÓN
STOLEN INNOCENCE WOVEN IN BRAIDS

SHIRLEY DAVIS AND KARLA VEGA The exact origins of the legend of El Sombrerón are
CSU EAST BAY HISTORY unclear. Some sources claim that the story was
inspired by a Mayaquiché legend.[7] The legend tells
A figure wanders the streets at night, ambling past of a Mayan woman who is seduced by the grandson
the houses that are found in the village he has of the god of fertility, who is represented by El
chosen to explore. In those houses, are young Sombrerón.[8] Another source places one of the
women whom he is hoping to seduce and tales in the church La Recolección, which was
impregnate.[1] This figure, when presenting itself in finished in the eighteenth century. In a novel by
human form, looks like a short indigenous man who author Miguel Ángel Asturias, he describes the
dons a large hat made of petate (material made of origin of El Sombrerón as happening just outside a
dried palm leaves), and sometimes has backwards church, which would have been built after the
facing feet.[2] When not presenting himself as a Spanish arrived in Latin America.[9] Regardless of
human, El Sombrerón is seen as a ball made of hule the differing origin stories, it is clear that this
(rubber), that bounces of its own accord.[3] Carrying legend is a cautionary tale for indigenous women.
around a guitar when in human form, El Sombrerón They are the victims in the stories of El Sombrerón,
seduces women who have long hair and large brown and they have no choice in the matter. These women
eyes.[4] He sings to them by their window, and when lack agency in these tales, and are only portrayed as
they fall under his spell of seduction, he enters their weak individuals who succumb to seduction by a
home and impregnates them, whether they realize demonic and dangerous man. The women are also
that he has done so or not.[5] Once he has done what powerless to save themselves and must wait for the
he wants with them, he leaves their hair braided or men in their lives to rescue them from the clutches
entangled. These women can only be saved before of El Sombrerón.[10] The moral seems to be that
they have been impregnated by El Sombrerón if women should not trust any men, except those in
their fathers cut their hair and take them to the their family. El Sombrerón could be a representation
church to be blessed.[6] of men who want to take the virginity of a

[11]
young women. Strange and intricate braids in a cut their long braids or wear longer European skirts
woman’s hair after a visit from El Sombrerón, also when alone, or perhaps all together. El Sombrerón
represent how he has toyed with the women in a vanished if their wild hair was cut and blessed in the
perverse way, as hair often represents sexuality in name of God. Indigenous deities held no power over
women.[11] El Sombrerón and only the Spanish had the means to
protect the women.
Aside from the overtly gendered lessons from the
encounters with El Sombrerón, his presence in oral In the end, the legend of El Sombrerón speaks of the
histories and folklore reveal traces of the Spanish gendered standards women were and still are held
overlords and their relations to the native to today. However, it also tells of Guatemala’s
Guatemalans. It comes into focus how the legends history and the ways in which its native people were
continuously single out El Sombrerón’s indigenous forced to change to the standards that their
description and preference for indigenous women. European rulers saw fit.
The women he kidnaps are described as the
embodiments of a native woman, who were known
to wear “abbreviated skirts”[12] with their uncut
long hair; which is sometimes worn in braids.[13]
Why would the legend specify one descriptive group
of people? Why not the “restrained, pious, and NOTES
chaste” Spanish colonial women?[14] Why is El [1] Beatriz Mariscal Hay, “La Máscara Culta de Folclor,” Anales
Sombrerón depicted as a mestizo, a “person of de Literatura Hispanoamericana 42 (January 2013): 166.
mixed Indian and Spanish descent,” instead of a [2] Hay, “La Máscara,” 166.
creole, or an Español?[15] [3] Hay, 166.
[4] Hay, 166.
According to Richard Nyrop, the indigenous in [5] Hay, 167.
[6] Hay, 167.
Guatemala “adhere to a syncretic set of beliefs that
[7] The Mayaquiché are Mayan people who reside in
combines elements of Mayan and Roman Catholic Guatemala, see Edward John Mullen Jr, “A Study Of
ritual and mixes the aboriginal pantheon with 'Contemporaneos: Revista Mexicana De Cultura' (1928-1931)”
Catholic saints.”[16] If El Sombrerón is dated back to (PhD diss., Northwestern University, 1968), 154.
the Mayaquiché legend, but the modern tale speaks [8] Mullen Jr., “A Study Of 'Contemporaneos'", 155.
of an indigenous spirit preying on indigenous [9] Miguel Angel Asturias, Leyendas de Guatemala (Buenos
women who are only saved by the will of a priest and Aires: Editorial Losada, 1957), 47-51.
his power of God through him, then the legend’s [10] Hay, 167.
[11] Hay, 167.
intended audience becomes clear: El Sombrerón is
[12] John Lloyd, Guatemala: Land of the Mayas (Westport, CT:
almost exclusively a warning to native women. If she Greenwood Press, 1963), 31.
continues to participate in her “pagan” beliefs and [13] Lloyd, Guatemala: Land of the Maya, 81.
strays from the decorum of civilized society, she [14] Barbara L. Voss, “Gender, Race, and Labor in the
would be exposed to his desires and evil.[17] A Archaeology of the Spanish Colonial Americas,” Current
woman would be safe if she listened to the words of Anthropology 49, no. 5 (October 2008): 868.
her father and of God, and live a pious life like that [15] Amos Megged, “The Rise of Creole Identity in Early
Colonial Guatemala: Differential Patterns in Town and
of a proper European lady.
Countryside,” Social History 17, no. 3 (October 1992): 421-422.
[16] Richard F. Nyrop, Guatemala: A Country Study
Why would the Spanish bother in appropriating an (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing
ancient Mayan legend? Perhaps, since native Office, 1983), 68.
peoples continuously refused to abandon their pre- [17] Nyrop, Guatemala: A Country Study, 68.
Christian beliefs and practices, the Spanish [18] W. George Lovell, Conquest and Survival in Colonial
conquerors used the natives’ own legend to help Guatemala: A Historical Geography of the Cuchumatán
Highlands, 1500-1821 (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s
further assimilate them.[18] The legend could incite
University Press, 1985), 87.
fear in young native women and persuade them to

[12]
 EL CUCUY
THE BOOGEYMAN’S BOOGEYMAN

BRIANNA DEVLIN AND JIA YU WANG

CSU EAST BAY HISTORY

Most countries in Latin America have their own version of El

Cucuy, but his myth varies depending on the region. El Cucuy
has become an all-encompassing umbrella term for many of the
behavior correcting legends that have been retold in Latin
American communities, including the supernatural monsters of
La Llorona, El Chupacabra, and even the Devil.[1] El Cucuy is a
monster created to correct misbehavior, as his tale warns
children to listen to their parents lest they are ready to face his
wrath. El Cucuy has become a summation of universal mistakes
and lessons that children face as they grow in life.

Originating in Spain and Portugal, it is believed that the legend

of El Cucuy is derived from other Christian legends, including
that of La Vibria, a female dragon in the fourteenth century who
symbolized the essence of evil and temptation.[2] The name El
Cucuy derives from La Cuca Fera, which was a diverse
representation of dragons, extending from Tortosa to Valencia
on the Mediterrean Coast.[3] The legend of El Cucuy made its
way from the Iberian Peninsula to the New World during the
Isabella McMurry, El Cucuy, 2020.
early colonization of Latin America. During the colonization,
CSU Chico Art
the indigenous folklore and myths were intertwined with those
from Europe and Africa.[4]

An older illustration of El Cucuy, drawn by Francisco de Goya,

advocates the correction of moral education in order to break a
child’s cycle of ignorance and false beliefs through usage of
superstitions.[5] El Cucuy is a monster that is adaptable to fit a
parent’s needs, and his tale can be used to enforce whatever
lesson they see fit. Throughout time, El Cucuy’s lore has
changed drastically from one person to the next, as he is at his
most feared when he is reimagined by an individual’s fear and
circumstance. The legend of El Cucuy has transformed
throughout the centuries with many different cultural
influences, but it still serves as a warning against disobedience,
misbehavior, and giving into the temptations of evil.

The following short story is a retelling of Sarah Melissa’s

version of El Cucuy. She states that El Cucuy is well-known
among Mexican-American communities, with parents telling
their children a fragmented story, leaving their children to fill
Nardeen Matias, El Cucuy, 2020. in the rest of the tale with their own fears.
CSU Chico Art

[13]
One evening, Juan and Rosie were walking back
home from school and decided to take a shortcut
through the town’s cemetery. As the night sky grew
pitch black, Rosie and Juan began to sing and dance
among the dried flowers and dusty tombs in an
effort to scare away the shadowy darkness.[6] While
they sang, they saw a faceless figure, cloaked in
several sheets walking towards them.[7] As the
disturbing figure came closer, the cloaks covering
him fell away and revealed a monster with a
hummingbird like tongue and two rows of reddish
teeth. The monster slowly and deliberately stalked
around the couple, knowing that he was instilling
fear in them. Juan gulped and asked the creature
who he was, trying to keep his voice steady as he did
so. The haunting creature made itself known as El
Cucuy, and began to make its way towards Rosie.
Juan jumped to her defense, and Rosie was able to
escape. Unable to escape from El Cucuy himself, Juan
was taken to the creature’s lair. El Cucuy began Madelyn Roberts, El Cucuy, 2020.
carving into Juan, and his blood began to seep from CSU Chico Art
the cuts. The scent of dairy in Juan’s blood reached El
Cucuy and he recoiled from the smell. While El Cucuy
was distracted by his own disgust, Juan was able to
escape the monster’s lair. Juan had never been more
thankful that he listened to his mother and drank his
milk. When retelling their horrid experience to other
children, they would always remind them to listen to
their parents, as listening to his mother was the only
reason Juan survived to tell the tale.[8]

NOTES
[1] Redfern Garza, Creepy Creatures and Other Cucuys (Texas:
Arte Publico Press, 2004), 1.
[2] Jo Farb Hernandez, Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain
(Oxford, MI: University Press of Mississippi, 2005), 94.
[3] Farb Hernandez, Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain,
95.
[4] Amelia Meyer, “Brazil - Mythology And Folklore,” last
modified 2010, https://www.brazil.org.za/mythology-and-
folklore.html
[5] Jennifer Anne Steward, “Stoicism and Goya's Los
Caprichos.” (BA diss., University of Louisville, 2007), 57-58.
[6] Tey Diano Rebolledo and Eliana S. Rivero, Infinite
Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (Tucson: University
of Arizona Press, 1993), 314.
[7] Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, “Que viene el Coco,”
Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, accessed January 26,
2020,
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/90028505 Francisco de Goya y Lucientes,
[8] Sarah M. Murray, “Please Obey All Traffic Laws: Stories” “Que viene el Coco,” 1799.
(MA diss., University of California, Davis, 2016), 42-49. Metropolitan Museum of Art collection

[14]
 LA PISADEIRA
BEWARE OF FULL BELLIES

KARISSA CHERRY AND ALEXIS KARST while they slept leaving them immobilized. Over
CSU EAST BAY HISTORY time, the people of Brazil developed their own
mythical explanation with La Pisadeira. In Brazilian
Imagine a night of overindulgence with your favorite folklore, she is often described as an old woman with
meal. The type of meal that is so good you cannot glowing red eyes and long yellow fingernails. Her
stop eating and you leave feeling stuffed to the point stature is tall and thin and occasionally depicted as
of discomfort. You are so full that as you lie in bed wearing a red cap. She operates in the middle of the
you could not possibly sleep on your stomach, so you night, most commonly lurking on people’s roofs, but
turn over to sleep on your back. You drift away. In the has also been known to watch people from outside
middle of the night you awake, but you are unable to their homes. She sneaks into homes and sit on the
move. You open your eyes to see a pair of glowing red chests of people with full stomachs who are sleeping
eyes glaring down at you and an old woman with long on their backs. Her weight makes it difficult to
yellow fingernails and a red cap is sitting on your breathe and leaves them unable to move.
chest. You want to scream for help, or runaway, but However, some say that if you overcome the paralysis
you are stuck, staring at La Pisadeira! At least that is and are able to steal her cap, she is required to grant
what they call the you a wish in order to
sleep paralysis get it back.
monster in Brazil.
Different countries There are few recorded
and cultures around sightings of La
the world have their Pisadeira because the
own versions of sleep stories are passed
paralysis monsters or down orally from
the hallucinations that family members in
appear when you rural Brazil.[1] One of
awake from sleep the few written
unable to move. records is from Cora
Although physically Coralina, a popular
harmless, sleep Brazilian poet, who
paralysis is still a wrote about her own
frightful experience experience with La
and can leave people Pisadeira in her first
feeling uneasy about book, Poemas Dos
going back to sleep. Becos De Goiás e
Before medical Natasha Martin, La Pisadeira, 2020. Donnell Horton, La Pisadeira, 2020. Estórias Mais. In a
CSU Chico Art CSU Chico Art translated version of
professionals
discovered the her poem, from her
scientific reasons for these symptoms, different native language of Portuguese, Coralina recalls
cultures throughout the centuries wholeheartedly being told to sleep on her side because when, “you
believed that these terrifying events were an entirely fill up your breadbasket, the Pisadeira comes, won’t
supernatural occurrence. This gave birth to folklore let you sleep, and in the morning you’re broken like
about the “old hag,” demons, and La Pisadeira. hell.”[2] La Pisadeira is clinically explained as a
hallucination attributed to the symptoms of sleep
When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, they brought paralysis, but for many people, especially those
with them myths from their home. In the sixteenth before modern scientific revelations, the creation of
century they had “Fradinho da Mão Furada,” which the monster was a justification for the strange
translates to “Little Hand-Hole Friar.” The Friar experience and served as a coping mechanism for
would lay his heavy hand on someone's chest the incomprehensible phenomenon.
[15]
 PAGE 15 | LEYENDAS MONSTRUOSAS

The experience of sleep paralysis is not unique to rationalizations for the hallucinations they see while
Brazil; it is a human experience. People all around affected. Prior to the current scientific
the world, throughout all of history, have understanding of sleep paralysis, it is
experienced sleep paralysis. It is still unclear exactly understandable that people likened the affliction to
how many people suffer from sleep paralysis, but it is terrifying monsters. It is interesting to note that no
estimated that 7.6% of the general population will matter where you are on the globe, whether it be the
experience it at least once in their life, with the icy tundra of Canada, the savannas of Nigeria, or the
likelihood increasing when under extreme stress. rainforests of South America, the folklore associated
[3] Over the course of history, several cultures have with incidents of sleep paralysis tend to pertain
attributed the cause of sleep paralysis to demons or mainly to a witch or an old woman. What science has
other monsters. In 1781, Henry Fuseli painted The not yet been able to explain, is how people from
Nightmare, which shows a figure sitting on the chest distant times and disparate regions have experienced
of a woman while she slept.[4] In northern Canada, such similar apparitions without intercultural
the Inuit people believe shamans are responsible for contact to spread such stories. It just might be La
the experience, while in Japan they believe it is the Pisadeira. So the next time you go to bed with a full
act of a summoned spirit.[5] Ghosts and spirits of belly, be careful.
various names are a popular rationale for the
experience from China to Egypt.[6] In Nigerian NOTES
culture there is a female demon named Ogun Oru [1] José F.R. de Sá and Sérgio A. Mota-Romlin, “Sleep
that causes sleep paralysis, and in Newfoundland Paralysis in Brazilian Folklore and Other Cultures: A
there have been accounts of an old witch that sits on Brief Review,” Frontiers in Psychology 7 (September
the sleeper's chests. Cross-culturally the experiences 2016): 1-6.
are quite similar, each describing what is now [2] Cora Coralina, Poemas Dos Becos De Goiás e
classified as sleep paralysis.[7] Estórias Mais (São Paulo: Global, 2014), 52.
[3] De Sá and Mota-Romlin, “Sleep Paralysis in
Visions of La Pisadeira are almost certainly Brazilian Folklore,” 4.
hallucinations, but that does not discredit the very [4] De Sá and Mota-Romlin, 4.
real fear the victims experience. It is easy to see how [5] De Sá and Mota-Romlin, 5
these episodes were mistaken as supernatural. Being [6] De Sá and Mota-Romlin, 5.
stricken with sleep paralysis is a terrible ordeal and [7] De Sá and Mota-Romlin, 5.
people around the world have developed

CONTACT:

If you'd like more information about the Leyendas Monstruosas collaboration, please contact:
Josh Funk- jfunk1@csuchico.edu
Anna Alexander- anna.alexander@csueastbay.edu

HTTPS://WWW.CSUCHICO.EDU/ART/
HTTPS://WWW.CSUEASTBAY.EDU/HISTORY/

[16]