Dominican Folklore

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Guatiao

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After reading about the galipote/baca, I was wondering if anybody else knows Dominican Folklores. When I visit DR, I always love to talk to my cibao relatives they have the best stories about witches, backward web-footed females, "indios", etc.

PS: What is the names of the backward web-footed females?
 

Guatiao

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Chirimoya said:

That's it!! I remember in the Leon Jimenez Museum they had a beautiful sculpture done by a young Dominican artist.
 

AnnaC

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capodominicano said:
After reading about the galipote/baca, I was wondering if anybody else knows Dominican Folklores. When I visit DR, I always love to talk to my cibao relatives they have the best stories about witches, backward web-footed females, "indios", etc.

PS: What is the names of the backward web-footed females?

I think it would be interesting to hear these stories of folklores. Can you tell us some?
 

Mirador

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Ciguapa

Did you know that the 'cigua' is the national bird (cigua palmera), that 'ciguatera' is something we get from eating contaminated ('red tide' algae) fish?..The word 'cigua' is Taino but no reference to it in current dictionaries... Funny thing this about words, and how their meanings are derived from tacit consensus in a particular cultural/geographical melieu. 'Ciguapa' is a case in point, a universal magical being, beautiful in some traditions, horrendous in others, but a common element is it's deceitfulness, ready to ensnare the innocent and wayward traveller. The backward footedness is tell-tale, and is found in ancient traditions to signify death, 'the land of no return'. I can see myself as a Taino parent, telling the tale to my kids over a campfire, to scare them from venturing to far into the forest.
 

Guatiao

El Leon de los Cacicazgos
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Sorry Anna, I know some but I would probably mess up the stories, it's been a while since I have spoken to older family members. But if anybody knows post some.

Anna Coniglio said:
I think it would be interesting to hear these stories of folklores. Can you tell us some?
 

Pib

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Jan 1, 2002
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Mirador said:
The backward footedness is tell-tale, and is found in ancient traditions to signify death, 'the land of no return'. I can see myself as a Taino parent, telling the tale to my kids over a campfire, to scare them from venturing to far into the forest.
I very much agree with you. I had heard it compared to the European mermaids, beautiful and cruel, innocent and not quite human. She supposedly was so beautiful that men followed her into the forest, but following her tracks was difficult, as she left footprints that pointed in the opposite direction. The promise of a beautiful woman was their perdition.

There's a large sculpture of a ciguapa on the Boulevard de la 27.
 

Mirador

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A few days ago, I heard my four-year-old Aroa singing a curious ditty:

A la orilla de un palmar
yo vide una joven bella
su boquita de coral
sus ojitos dos estrellas
al pasar le pregunt?
que qui?n estaba con ella
y me respondi? llorando
sola vivo en el palmar...

and I asked him where he learned it, and he told me he learned it from his grandfather (ninety-eight-year-old C?sar).

So I researched it and found mention of it originating in the Canary Island, circa mid nineteen century), and that it continued as such:

Soy huerfanita, ay!
no tengo padre ni madre
ni un amigo, ay!
que me venga a consolar
solita paso la vida
a la orilla del palmar
solita voy y vengo
como las olas del mar
 

Mirador

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My wife Altagracia, told me that as a child (in Ban?) she was told that if you stood by the shore facing the sea, and yelled:

Mar?a la O, Mar?a la O, tu madre es puta y la m?a no!

a big wave would break and take you to drown in the sea.


I researched it and how curious, there's mention that it originated in the Canary Islands...

Also, and according to Altagracia, Mar?a la O was an indian princess who disobeyed her mother, and as a result was turned into a fish.
 

Chirimoya

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Dec 9, 2002
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Maria La O is the subject of a beautiful classic Cuban song, also performed by Caetano Veloso.
 

Mirador

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No coincidence that Cuba had the largest Canary Island immigration in the entire Caribbean, and goes to show how much of current literature and musical production is influenced by folk tales and songs. I learned that the Mexican singer Ana Gabriel produced a song with the lyrics of 'a la orilla de un palmar'.
 
Sep 20, 2003
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I very much agree with you. I had heard it compared to the European mermaids, beautiful and cruel, innocent and not quite human. She supposedly was so beautiful that men followed her into the forest, but following her tracks was difficult, as she left footprints that pointed in the opposite direction. The promise of a beautiful woman was their perdition.

There's a large sculpture of a ciguapa on the Boulevard de la 27.

Does anyone have a photo of this sculpture?
 
Sep 20, 2003
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After reading about the galipote/baca, I was wondering if anybody else knows Dominican Folklores. When I visit DR, I always love to talk to my cibao relatives they have the best stories about witches, backward web-footed females, "indios", etc.

PS: What is the names of the backward web-footed females?

Does anyone know anymore stories about Dominican witches or any other kind of supernatural creatures?
 

Mirador

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Does anyone know anymore stories about Dominican witches or any other kind of supernatural creatures?

I suggest you go down to the DR's deep south (el sur profundo), particularly the region between San Juan de la Maguana and the border with Haiti. The stories aren't stories there, people actually perceive and live with this stuff. I'm willing to introduce you to some of my relatives south of San Juan de la Maguana, where there is no electricity (or running water), and story telling at night is a sophisticated and necessary art...
 

macocael

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I suggest you go down to the DR's deep south (el sur profundo), particularly the region between San Juan de la Maguana and the border with Haiti. The stories aren't stories there, people actually perceive and live with this stuff. I'm willing to introduce you to some of my relatives south of San Juan de la Maguana, where there is no electricity (or running water), and story telling at night is a sophisticated and necessary art...

We dont have that tradition anymore around Sonador, except possibly way up in the loma, and I am about to find that out; but people round there still believe in the bak? and other mythical creatures. word is that Tony Induveca has a bak?! My wife says she has heard it howling at night.
 

macocael

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The one we got roaming around sonador or just bakás in general? Ha! Actually just yesterday I came across a book about all the various Dominican mythic creatures, over in the Pichardo used book store on Reyes. Bakás (or more correctly, vacá) are a kind of tropical werewolf beastie: a supernatural animal that, like a zombie, belongs to a particular person (I guess through some sort of diabolical contract) and does his presumably evil bidding. The story in Sonador is that the Induvecas achieved their wealth and power partly through the assistance of a vacá.
 

Mirador

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.... The story in Sonador is that the Induvecas achieved their wealth and power partly through the assistance of a vacá.


In the DR countryside, and some major towns, a person's sudden wealth is attributed to three possibilities. One, he found a burried treasure from the time of the Buccaneers. Two, he hit big time through graft or other illegal activity And three, he bought himself a baká. A baká is a supernatural creature, akin to the genies of lore, for which the owner has made a transaction for its services. The transaction can involve the owner's own life, or the life of close relatives or significant others. I got mine in Haiti, and nurtured it from an egg. It protects me and my herd. And when payback time comes around, my mother-in-law has been signed-up (unwillingly) as collateral.
 

Mirador

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Are you serious about that?

After reading some of our fellow poster's comments on Sosua DA's "bungled" arrest, we should be open-minded enough to believe nearly anything, including hocking your mother-in-law for a bak?'s services.
 
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