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Category: Hispanic American History

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

La Llorona: Storytelling for Halloween and Día de Muertos

Posted by: Stephen Winick

La Llorona, the Weeping Woman, is a spirit that haunts the folklore of Mexico and other Latin American countries. In some versions she's a ghost, but in others she's an immortal wanderer, not dead but not really alive either. So far in the series, we've introduced the legend, given some of its history, explored songs related to La Llorona, and discussed the story's role in growing up. Now, we present a telling of the tale. The post contains audio and a transcript of a performance by Joe Hayes, one of the best known storytellers from the American southwest. Hayes's bilingual Spanish-English storytelling has earned him a distinctive place among America’s professional storytellers.

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Growing Up with La Llorona

Posted by: Stephen Winick

This is the fourth blog post in a series about La Llorona, the Weeping Woman, a spirit that haunts the folklore of Mexico and other Latin American countries. We'll present comments on the legend by the writer Rudolfo Anaya, the scholar Domino Renee Perez, our former intern and Llorona expert Camille Acosta, pioneering Costa Rican writer Manuel Argüello Mora, and Esperanza Sernas, a restaurant worker interviewed in 1977 by fieldworker Philip George for AFC's Chicago Ethnic Arts Project. This blog also contains one of the most gruesome traditional descriptions of La Llorona we've seen so far! The whole series will be published in time for Día de Muertos (aka Día de los Muertos) 2021, so stay tuned....

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

La Llorona: Roots, Branches, and the Missing Link from Spain

Posted by: Stephen Winick

This is the second blog post in a series about La Llorona, the weeping woman who haunts Mexican and other Latinx cultures. The series will be published in time for Día de Muertos 2021. In this post, I'll show some of the story's long history, especially in Mexico. I'll give links to primary sources from the 1570s showing the story was already present among Indigenous Mexicans at that time and earlier. I'll also present what I believe is new evidence of a strong link for some La Llorona stories with Spain.

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

New Story Map on the AFC’s Juan B. Rael Collection: Tonada del País

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we are happy to announce the newest addition to the growing group of AFC story maps. Tonada del País: The American Folklife Center’s Juan B. Rael Collection was co-produced with 2021 Folklife Intern Camille Acosta and John Fenn. Click here to view the Tonada del País Story Map Drawing on …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

La Llorona: An Introduction to the Weeping Woman

Posted by: Stephen Winick

In Latin America, in Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S., and especially in Mexico, no ghost story is told as often, discussed as enthusiastically, or interpreted as widely, as the legend of La Llorona. With this introduction, AFC kicks off a short series of blogs on La Llorona stories and songs between now and Día de Muertos

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Navigating AFC Collections Geographically: Pacific Region States

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Staff at the American Folklife Center continue to use new digital tools to support remote discovery and access for our resources by users of all kinds. Whether you are a community scholar, a teacher, an academic researcher, a creative artist, or a curious consumer of local culture we hope that our geographically-oriented research guides offer …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Puertorriqueños de Estados Unidos: Identity, Arts, and Culture

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean. Puerto Rican migration to the mainland United States has largely been driven by economic necessity, whether of individuals’ needs to earn more to support themselves and their families, or large scale economic events such as the Great Depression and other …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Jennifer Lopez, Plus Pete Seeger, Bernie Sanders, Sea Shanties, and More at No Depression

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Over at No Depression, read my musings about the 2021 inauguration, including Jennifer Lopez's rendition of "This Land is Your Land" and the song's journey from its author Woody Guthrie to its performances at the Obama and Biden inaugurations. You'll read about the song's appearance at the 2009 inauguration, where it was led by Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger. We'll also revisit a classic rendition of "This Land" by Senator Bernie Sanders. Embedded throughout the piece you'll find some video treasures from the AFC archive: three versions of "This Land is Your Land" sung entirely or partially in Spanish. We'll also take a side trip into the January 2021 sea shanty craze on social media, and hear Springsteen's version of the classic shanty "Pay Me My Money Down," as well as the Alan Lomax field recording of the Georgia Sea Island Singers.