Leyendas Del Salvadoreñas VS. Leyendas Mexicanas

“Mexican vs Salvadoran Popular Urban Legends”

Every county has as a part of their culture different legends, stories of the supernatural that are passed on through generations by tells, stories and some would even clam them as personal experiences.

One of the most popular stories that seems to prevail in most South American countries is the so called “La llorona” (Crying lady) This particular story tells of a lady who lost all her children on the same day and she went mad because of that, later to end up dead herself. The story says that her soul comes back to earth at midnight and wonders the streets moaning and crying for her missing children to the already very kwon cry “ay mis hijos!” (oh, my children!). Most stories say that she wears a white robe and appears to random people who are out late at night. In El Salvador they have almost the same story but they actually know this story as “La Siguanaba” which is just a name with no meaning, in the Salvadorian version she also lost her kids and she also wonders the streets looking for them.

In some parts of Mexico people believe in little creatures of the super natural known as “duendes” (goblins), the legend said that the goblins play around at the night with little kids and, if the parents don’t notice it and the kid plays every night with this creatures they will end up taking the kid with them, and are never to be seen again. In El Salvadorian culture they also have this “duendes”. But they recognize one of these goblins by name as to be a main goblin or a meaner goblin; they call this creature “El Cipitillo”. Many people say to have seen him and also the stories are similar as to say that they like to play with little kids at night. During my mission I met a sister at church who claims to have play with this Cipitillo goblin when she was a kid and even swears that “El Cipitillo”is a real being, that he actually exists for she has seen him personally.

There are countless stories and tales that seem to be linked or even been exactly the same not only between Mexican and Salvadorian popular urban legends but throughout the whole Latin America area, they are perhaps as old as the first habitants of this continent and some other stories may have been brought by the conquistadors, mixing with the local legends and passed on to our days as myths. Some people tell this tells as personal experiences and sometimes they tell these stories with such intensity that are very convincing, may be this is the reason why these stories have survived the test of time and I would bet these stories will continue to be part of these countries cultures for many more generations to come.

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