retold by S. E. Schlosser

There once was an evil priest who did not fear God or man. His duties for the church included counting the offerings and ringing the bells to summon people to Mass. But his heart was filled with greed, and he began to take advantage of the good people of his parish. The priest stole money out of the offerings to keep for himself, and when he had filled a chest full of gold, he killed a man and buried him with the chest so the murdered man’s ghost would guard it. Anyone who tried to dig for the treasure would be devoured by the skeleton of the murdered man.

The evil priest planned to return to Spain with his ill-gotten treasure, but he fell ill with a fever a week before his ship was scheduled to leave. On his deathbed, the priest repented of his crime. He swore to his confessor that his soul would not rest until he returned the gold to God. The priest died before he could reveal the place where the treasure was buried. As he gasped out his last breath, he said: “Follow the bells. They will lead you to the treasure.”

The Padre who attended the dying priest did not heed his words. But the sweeper who was working in the hallway at the time of the evil priest’s death was struck by the notion of buried treasure. He was very poor and wanted a better life for himself and his family, so the sweeper determined to take the treasure for himself. Each night for a week, he took a shovel and dug in the monastery gardens, searching for the priests treasure. He found nothing.

One night the sweeper was awakened from his dreams by the sound of the parish bells ringing out loudly in the darkness. He leapt to his feet, fearing some emergency, and then realized that his wife and children had not stirred in their beds. Remembering the evil priest’s last words, the sweeper felt sure that the mysterious ringing of the bells was for his ears alone, to lead him to the treasure.

Taking his shovel, the sweeper followed the sound of the church bells up and up into the hills. He was gasping for breath when he reached the source of the sound. He was on a wide ledge overlooking the valley. Two trees guarded the spot, and it was beside these trees that the glowing, ghostly church bells hovered. Taking his shovel, the poor sweeper dug a deep hole among the roots of the trees. After several moments, his shovel hit something hard! Eagerly, he swept the dirt away from the object and found a small chest. He hauled it out of the ditch with trembling hands, placed it on a rock, and broke the lock with the edge of his shovel. when he opened it, piles of yellow gold met his dazzled eyes. He gathered up a handful of coins, reveling in the weight of so much money. The coins were cool to his touch, and he felt the smoothness of the metal as he rubbed the coins between his fingers. And that was when he heard the moaning…

Looking up, the sweeper saw the skeleton of the murdered man whom the evil priest had buried with the treasure. It was rising out of the pit under the trees, eye sockets glowing with blue flames. “Mine,” the skeleton intoned, stretching its bony arms toward the sweeper. “Mine!”

The sweeper screamed in terror and leapt away from the box of treasure, dropping the coins that he held in his hands. He ran down the hill as fast as he could go, the skeleton in hot pursuit. Behind him, the bells began to ring again as he fled for his life from the ledge.

The sweeper kept running long after the sounds of pursuit ceased, and did not stop until he reached his home. It was only then that he realized he had left his shovel back with the buried treasure on top of the hill. it was an expensive shovel and he could not afford to lose it.

Waiting until daylight, the sweeper went reluctantly back up into the hills to retrieve it. When he reached the ledge, there was no sign of the skeleton, the chest of money, or the hole he had dug the night before. He found his shovel at the top of a tall tree whose first branches began nearly twenty feet above his head. The skeleton must have placed it there after it chased him down the hill, he decided grimly, knowing that there was no way he could retrieve it.

Turning sadly away, the sweeper’s eye was caught by a gleam in the bushes near the rock where he had placed the treasure chest the night before. Carefully, keeping his eye on the place where the skeleton lay buried, the sweeper felt around the rock until his hand closed on two gold coins that the ghost had missed. Casually he put the coins in his pocket and hurried from the ledge. When he got home, the sweeper put the coins into a sock and hid it under the floorboard for safekeeping.

The sweeper never went back to the ledge to retrieve the evil priest’s buried treasure, though sometimes he was still awakened by the mysterious sound of the bells. He knew it would take someone more pious than himself to banish the ghost of the murdered man and reclaim the money for God. But he did use the gold coins to send his eldest son to school, and with the left-over change, he bought himself a new shovel.

retold by S. E. Schlosser

He was sulking a little, standing at the sidelines while all the other men danced with their pretty partners. His girl had not come to the dance that night. Her mother was ill, and so his girl had remained at her side. A fine pious act, he thought sourly, but it left him at loose ends.

His friend, Ernesto, came up to him between sets with a cold drink and some words of encouragement. “After all, Anita is not the only girl in the world,” Ernesto said. “There are many pretty girls here tonight. Dance with one of them.”

Bolstered by his friend’s words, he started looking around the dance hall. His eye fell upon a beautiful young girl standing wistfully at the edge of the floor beside the door to the terrace. She was dressed in an old-fashioned white gown and her skin was pale as the moon. Her dark eyes watched the dance hungrily from her position behind a tall fern, and he felt his heart beat faster. Such a lovely woman should be dancing!

He made his way through the bustling crowd and bowed to the girl in white. She looked startled by his addresses, as if she had not expected anyone to notice her that night. But she readily assented to dance with him, and he proudly led her out onto the floor for the next set, all thoughts of Anita gone from his mind.

Ernesto and some of his other friends gave him odd looks as he danced with the girl in white. A few times, the man opposite them bumped right into them as if he had not seen his partner at all. He was furious and wanted to stop the dance and make the man apologize to the girl in white, but she just laughed and hushed him.

When the dance was over, he hurried to get his fair partner a drink. Ernesto approached him at the refreshment table. “When I told you to dance, I meant with a partner,” his friend teased him.

“I was dancing with a partner,” he replied, irritated by his friends remark. “The loveliest girl in all of Mexico!”

“You’ve had too much to drink, my friend,” Ernesto replied. “You were dancing by yourself out there!”

He glared at his friend and turned away without answering him. Making his way back to the girl in white, he handed her a glass and asked her to stroll with him along the terrace. The night was beautiful, the sky full of stars, and he stared at the girl in white with his heart in his eyes as they stood looking out over the beautiful scene.

The girl in white turned to him with a sigh and said: “Thank you for the dance, Senor. It has been a very long time since I had such pleasure.”

“Let us dance again, then,” he said infatuatedly. But she shook her head.

“I must leave now,” she said, catching up her skirts with one hand and drifting toward the stairs at the side of the terrace.

“Please don’t go,” he pleaded, following her.

“I must,” she said, turning to look at him. Her eyes softened when she saw the look on his face. “Come with me?” she invited, holding out a pale hand.

His heart pounded rapidly at the thought. More than anything in the world, he wanted to go with this lovely girl. And then his mind registered the fact that he could see the stone wall of the terrace through the girl’s hand. His desire melted away before the shock of that realization. He looked into her face again, and realized that she was fading away before his eyes.

At the look of horror on his face, the girl gave a sad laugh and dropped her hand, which was nearly transparent now.

“Goodbye,” she said, her body becoming thin and misty. “Goodbye.”

Then she was gone.

He gave a shout of terror when he realized he had been dancing with a ghost. He bolted from the premises, leaving his horse behind, and ran all the way home.

When Ernesto came the next day to bring him his horse, he told his friend the whole story. Ernesto whistled in awe. “You saw the spirit of Consuela, my friend,” he said. “She was the daughter of one of the local aristocracy who lived in this region more than a hundred years ago. She died of consumption the night before her first ball and they say her spirit sometimes attends the local dances, hoping to claim one of the dances that she missed.”

He shuddered at the thought of his dance with the ghost. “I will not be visiting that dance hall again,” he told Ernesto. “From now on, all my dances will be with Anita!”

And he kept his word.

Starting with this article, and for the next 3 weeks, we will be retelling a story from Mexico’s legendary tales of the paranormal.

La Llorona

Perhaps one of Mexico’s most known and retold tales is that of La Llorona (the crying woman). The story of La Llorona is told throughout Latin America and many Hispanic regions of the United States. Each location has its own version of La Llorona, but they all share some basic details. That is of a woman rejected by her husband or lover, who then kills her children in a lake or river, and is condemned to wonder for eternity in search of them, weeping as she wanders.

Here is one of the oldest versions of La Llorona; In colonial times, there was a beautiful woman by the name of Maria, also known as “La Malinche’. She was a mistress to the conquistador, Hernan Cortes. According to the legend, she had two sons by Cortes. One day, Cortes decided to return to Spain with his two sons. Maria, not being of Spanish blood, was considered of a lower class and could not accompany him. She escaped with her children, but was discovered by Cortes’s men. Before she could be captured, she took out a knife and stabbed her babies and threw their bodies into a lake. She then kills herself by drowning. It is told that when she reached the gates of heaven, she is asked about her children. She is not permitted to enter until she finds them. Returning to earth, Maria wanders in search of her missing children, while crying in despair. Thus she earns the name “La Llorona”, or the crying woman.

The story of La Llorona is often times told to children. They are admonished to behave or La Llorona will snatch them away!

Here is a a short film produced by some very young film makers about one version of La Llorona.

Miguel Hidalgo and several criollos planned a revolt against the Spanish colonial government. After discovering that they had been betrayed, Hidalgo commanded that his brother Mauricio, accompanied by Ignacio Allende and Mariano Abasolo, go with armed men to make the sheriff release pro-independence inmates on the night of 15 September. Eighty free prisoners were set free. On the morning of September 16, 1810, the church bells were rung and Hidalgo gathered his congregation. With Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama at his side, he addressed the mass of people that had assembled in front of his church. Although history does not record his exact words, historians believe that it contained the following topics; My children: a new dispensation comes to us today. Will you receive it? Will you free yourselves? Will you recover the lands stolen by three hundred years ago from your forefathers by the hated Spaniards? We must act at once. Will you defend your religion and your rights as true patriots? Long live our Lady of Guadalupe! Death to bad government! Death to the gachupines (insulting label for Spaniards in pre-independence Mexico).

The first major conflict occurred several days later and is known as the Battle of Guanajuato. Miguel Hidalgo did not live to see Mexico become independent from Spain. He was captured on March 21, 1811, and after he was found guilty of treason by a military court, he was executed by firing squad on July 30, 1811. It would take Mexico until September 27, 1821 to finally rid itself of Spanish rule and become an independent country.

Each year, on the night of September 15 at around 11:00pm, the President of Mexico rings the bell of the National Palace in Mexico City. After the ringing of the bell, he recites the cry of patriotism which is based upon the “Grito de Dolores”. The president says the names of important heroes of the Mexican War of Independence and ends the “Grito” by shouting ¡Viva Mexico! three times from the balcony of the palace. After the shouting, he rings the bell again and waves the Flag of Mexico. This is followed by the playing and singing of the national anthem by the assembled crowd. This event brings together several hundred thousand people from all over Mexico and worldwide.

FUN FACT: Miguel Hidalgo’s complete name was Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor.

The City of Santa Ana & MX LIVE Entertainment invite you to come and celebrate the 33rd annual Fiestas Patrias & Mariachi Festival in Historic Downtown Santa Ana on Saturday, September 17th and Sunday, September 18th from 12 am to 10 pm. Join us as we commemorate Mexico’s independence from Spanish rule.

This is the biggest and most anticipated Fiestas Patrias celebration in Southern California with over 250,000 people in attendance! The free festival features great food, carnival rides and games, Latin Grammy and Billboard artist performances, community entertainment and more.

MARIACHI FESTIVAL

The City of Santa Ana and MX LIVE Entertainment are proud to present our inaugural “¡Viva El Mariachi!” festival on Sunday, September 18th. This event promises to bring some of the finest Mariachis and most exciting Ballet Folklorico dancers in the world. Santa Ana’s Fiestas Patrias is already the most successful Mexican Independence Day celebration in Southern California, so the addition of “¡Viva El Mariachi!” is sure to add to the festivals prestige!

Visit the Fiesta Patrias website.

EBT & WIC are accepted.

Entertainment at every market varies.

For more information, visit the website.

EBT & WIC are accepted.

Entertainment at every market varies.

For more information, visit the website.

The Exhibition will immerse you in a sweet experience, engage all your senses, and reveal facets of chocolate you’ve never thought about before.

You’ll explore the plant, the products, the history, and the culture of chocolate through the lenses of botany and ecology, anthropology and economics, conservation and popular culture.

And if all that sets your mouth to watering, we’ll send you off with a chocolate treat to satisfy your cravings.

The Exhibition is a fully bilingual exhibit. All text is in Spanish and English.

This project was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation.

The exhibit is running through September 11, 2011.

For more information, visit the MUZEO website

The MUZEO is located at 241 S. Anaheim Blvd. in the heart of downtown Anaheim.

In 1861, the Mexican president, Benito Juárez, declared that Mexico would suspend payments for external debts for two years.  The moratorium on debts was the primary reason that France, England and Spain signed the London Convention, whereby they agreed to intervene in Mexico to reclaim their rights as debtors.  Upon their arrival in Veracruz, Spain and England accepted the Mexican explanation and returned; but France had other planes, which included an invasion to impose Maximiliano I as the Emperor of Mexico and to counteract the increasing power of the United States.

Leading the French army was General Charles Ferdinand Latrille, Count of Lorencez, who left Veracruz in the direction of Mexico City.  He passed through Tehuacán and advanced westward.  To counter this advance, the Mexican Government assigned the command of the Eastern Army to General Ignacio Zaragoza.  While on their march toward Mexico City, the French Army encountered tough resistance.  On May 5, 1862, General Ignacio Zaragoza and his army won the Battle of Puebla against the French army.  The Mexican victory came as a surprise because the Frence army was much larger and had superior materials.

As the saying goes in English, “it’s possible to win the battle, but lose the war.”  The French went on to win other battles, and Maximillian was eventually made Emperor in 1864.  But due to continued Mexican resistance and pressure from the United States, the French army left in 1867.

Cinco de Mayo is a day to commemorate the courage of the fighters against oppresion.  Perhaps this is why this is such a popular celebration wherever there are Mexican decendants.