Narrative of the Month

Project MORE: Narrative of the Month

June 2002

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HK: Helen Kichefski (Interviewer)

NA: Natividad Albarran (Interviewee)

END OF TAPE, SIDE A

HK: Can you tell me a story of Mexico?

NA: This is a story that happened in Chicago. Um, [pause] is about, it was a place where they make Mexican dances and they, um, they always went to the dances all the time but then, like suddenly, they started to do something that was not appropriate, it was something that was not good for the dance. There were some girls dance, um, wearing clothes, real sm, small clothes. And they were all dancing like, inappropriate. And so then one day, um, there was a dance. It was a Saturday and at, um, at the dance there was a girl. She was really pretty, [pause] really pretty. It was the prettiest girl in the dance. And she was with, um, with four of his, her friends. And so, but she would not dance with nobody. Everybody would invite her to dance, even her friends, and she did not accept. And then suddenly, in front of the dance, in the door appeared a limousine. And, and then a guy the, he was really handsome, he was, he had, he had shiny shoes, then he was real, dressed real cute, he was, he was handsome. And so, he, as he entered to the dance, the people let him pass through. And they were all looking at him. And he went straight to the girl, to the pretty girl and invite her to dance. And so she danced, and she accept him. And so they were dancing, and the people were dancing too, and, but then, suddenly the people stopped dancing and they were looking at the couple and they saw something weird. The couple that were, the, the couple, that were, you know, the girl, the pretty girl and the handsome guy, they were not, they were dancing but now, they were not dancing on the floor, they were dancing like on the [pause] air [pause] and so the people got surprised, and then sudd, suddenly, the lights went off [pause] and, and so, and as soon as the lights went off the limousine disappeared, it just disappeared. And so they were surprised, the limousine disappeared. And the lights were off and, and then when the lights came and, um, the couple was not there no more. Um, the, the girl was missing and even the guy, and the girl’s friends were looking for her everywhere and they couldn’t find her. They were looking for her everywhere. And they were looking for her and they went outside and they didn’t saw the limousine, and they were looking for her and then they saw a big truck, and, and so they were looking for her, and then, suddenly they look at the bottom of the truck and she was under it, hugging from it, something on the truck. Then, so they couldn’t take her out and then, and so they, they called the, um, fire department. And they were trying to get her out of there and soon, and then they got her out, but, but she couldn’t talk. She only, she only do with her hands, signs, she show signs that somebody scratch her. And well, her clothes was all torn off and, um, she has scratches on her face and all, all over her body and she couldn’t talk. But then, um, three months later she, uh, she came back in and she went to the news, and she told that, she could talk then. And she said that the devil took her with her. That the devil did that because, um, the dances were not appropriate. So--

HK: Hmm, that’s a good story. Do you have another story from Mexico?

NA: Yes, about the mountain.

HK: About the mountain? OK.

NA: OK. This other story was in the, the mountain, my father was born there.

HK: What city? Where?

NA: It’s in a town, called Caca ( ) [pause] called Cacawananche. And there’s the house where my father was born and then in front is the mountain. And he told me this story that, um, in the mountain there is a lot of gold, a lot of treasure. And, like, years ago, um, they buried there, four soldiers and alive, they buried them alive and so then, um, and then the people found out there was gold up in the cave and so they tried to go get it. But some people came back.

Some people didn’t came back. Did not come back. And the people that came back tell the story that, um, as soon as they enter the cave and they were trying to get the um, gold, the spirits of the soldiers rise up and tell, and tell them, “All or nothing. Take all or nothing.” And like, and then since there was a lot of gold and they couldn’t take all of it, and they took a little bit on the way out they would die. Or some people even got scared by seeing the spirits and they die. And so, and if, some people that were brave and did not take any of the gold and they could get up and if they tried to take a little bit, they all die. They cannot get out of the cave. And a lot of people did that and one day, um, my, my great-great uncle went there and, um, the same thing, the soldiers told him the same thing, um, that, “Take all or nothing.” And so my uncle was brave, and he didn’t took nothing, he just left. And, because mostly a lot of, mostly the time the people never come back from the cave and so he came back and told all the people of that town, um, to never go to the cave. To let the soldiers rest, um, rest in peace. So, [pause] so now the people don’t go, they don’t go there. They only go there to see, you know, to go up the mountain, to see the beauty of it. And it is really pre, pretty and I found out that on the very top of the mountain there is another town. So maybe people go up there. But now, I found out something else! They said in that, there, um, it’s not nice, kind ( ) in the mountain. You know, there are some people in the mountain, you know, men that are mean, dangerous men, they hide there.

HK: Um hmm.

NA: So if some other people, if they go to see the mountain they go all together, a lot of people together in the daytime.

HK: Um hum. Not alone.

NA: No, not alone.

HK: Any other stories from Mexico?

NA: Yes, about, about a treasure. They say that um, [pause] wherever you see gold, go, I mean fire, on the floor it means that there is treasure there but you cannot tell nobody, it’s only for you, for no one else. Even to somebody that, there’s no, even if you like look for it, the gold because it was only for you, not for the other people. One day um, my cousin and my aunt, my three aunts, they were um, walking. They were going to do something, I don’t know where. And so then, my cousin saw something weird on the ground. So he took a little stick and dig on it. And as he dig it look like there was a treasure on the bottom. And as soon as he dig a treasure, um, it, they said that it rised up. And then my aunties were excited so they were trying to dig and then when they tried to dig, everything turned, turned into cement, hard. And then my, my cousin do that again, it would come up, it was like, it was really easy to get it out.

HK: It was meant for him maybe and not--

NA: Yeah. And then by the end they didn’t even took it.

NA: And another story about, my father told me this story about, there was a man, who everywhere that he went, even when he was eating, in his plate he saw the face of a person like a ghost, a spirit. And so, everywhere that he, uh, looked, he was there. And [pause] was a ghost. It was a ghost, and, so, but he was a nice ghost. He was not a bad ghost. He was a nice ghost and so one day, um, the guy, um, he got brave and he, he, when he saw the face again of the ghost he said, “What do you want, what do you want of me? Why you bother me all the time?” And then the man said, came out and said, “I’m not going to do nothing wrong to you. The only thing, I wanted you to do me a favor.” Said, “I want to tell you a place, where there’s um, [pause] a treasure, it’s money from me, it’s my money. I want you to, half of it, I want you to give it to the poor people. And the other half, you can have it. But you have to be really careful. You have to be really careful to burn it first, or something could happen.” And, then he said, “OK.” And so then he did what the ghost told him to do. He got some, the money. Half of it was for him and half of it was for the poor people. And then the ghost came back again. And so then the guy said, “I did what you wanted to. And then he said, “Yes, you did what you wanted but you did something wrong you were not suppose to do. You’re not going to last a longer. And then, like a year passed and he died. The thing that he did is, did not did is that on the gold, everywhere there is gold, um, they said that there’s, um, there’s like dust, and if you like sniff it, it can kill you. You have to, before you get the gold, before, you know, as you get the gold, the dust, like it flows everywhere and you have to burn it with alcohol and holy water [pause]. That’s how you burn it. And they even, even they say there’s some treasure, that it’s, it’s has like a ribbon around it, and it’s a ribbon but you look at it like it’s a snake and you have to burn it too, with holy water. It’s not really a snake, but you, you look like it’s a snake. So you have to be brave.

HK: And do the right thing.

NA: Um hum, and so the guy, he did the right thing except for that, burning the dust so he died.

And, I mean because he was, you know, they said that, um, God sends some of the spirits like if, like you are brave, and if there’s a spirit that wants to give you his gold away to the peoples is alive, like, God has to choose, like if you’re brave he’ll send it to you. Like I’m not brave. I’m, they said that God will never send me, because, I’m not brave like as a ( ). And I can die.

HK: Good. Good story.

END OF INTERVIEW

Approx. 12:37 minutes.