Dominican Folklore

[Guatiao]

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?

[Chirimoya]

Originally Posted by capodominicano

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

Ciguapa?

[Guatiao]

Originally Posted by Chirimoya

Ciguapa?

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

[AnnaC]

Originally Posted by capodominicano

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]

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]

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.

Originally Posted by Anna Coniglio

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

[Pib]

Originally Posted by Mirador

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]

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 pregunté
que quién estaba con ella
y me respondió 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 César).

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]

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

María la O, María la O, tu madre es puta y la mía 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, María la O was an indian princess who disobeyed her mother, and as a result was turned into a fish.

[Chirimoya]

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