October 2009: Creepy Creautres and Other Cucuys

Latino Book Club will meet on October 31st to discuss Xavier Garza's Creepy Creatures and Other Cucuys at Pomegranate Books at 3pm.

Some questions for us to ponder upon:
1. Which creepy story is your favorite?
Irene's favorite was "The Lechuza Lady" were the husband refuses to listen to his wife and insists on going out to drink. The Lechuza (Owl) lady is the angry mother of a son killed by a drunk driver. MADD might have a Mexican tale supporting their efforts.
Cathy still remembers her grandfather scaring them as children with scratching of this nails. Many of the tales in the collection have the hand of the dead man coming through the wall to get his victim.

2. Have heard or read another version of these tales?
Speaking of versions, to begin with Olga pointed out that in her native country, Mexico the term used for "things that go bump in the night" is "Cuco" and not "Cucuys," the term used on this side of the Rio Grande.
Of course Llorona, which has two versions in the collection is probably one of the most popular folk myth of the mother looking for her dead children. The version that I have heard is of a mother with no help, single and poor, unable to care for her children, kills them out of desperation and then kills herself. Her spirit haunts looking for her children and crying for them. She picks up living children claiming to be hers. So a tale used by parents to warn their kids of the dangers of wandering away.
It is also interesting to read Sandra Cisneros "Woman Hollering Creek" the story in the collection of the same name, which deconstructs the lamenting, crying woman "Llorona" to the hollering woman "Gritona."
The Chupacabra is more of a mythical figure and more popular in Puerto Rico, where animals are feared to be killed by these strange creatures.

3. Do you know of similar tales from other cultures?
Llorona, the woman who steals children, is a common theme in other cultures: Robachicos in Mexico, Boogey Man in the Anglo world.
In the Indian (Asian) culture as well I grew up listening to ghost stories, a part of many oral tradition cultures. They are ways to warn of things that we don't understand within our rational, logical way of life. They are how natural justice functions, a way of warning people to not stray from the path of justice.

The collection of stories is certainly written for kids, and the style is very simplistic, to the point of being just too simple. Yet it was a great conversation for Halloween and on the eve of Día de los muertos, when all dead people are invited back to the realm of the living.
I must mention this lullaby that Olga sung to us. Of course this would be considered completely inappropriate in the culture of the US.
"Duérmete mi niño
duérmete me ya
porque viene el cuco
ya te comerá."

Just in case you don't read Spanish:
"Sleep my child
Sleep now
because the cuco is coming
it will eat you up."

This is the last blog for this year. We will meet back up in January to start our third year. We will be reading Sandra Cisneros Caramelo.