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What are the common themes/messages of popular Spanish legends/folktales?
How do the legends/folktales affect Spanish cultures?
How do Spanish legends/folktales compare to those popular in the United States?

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Origin Stories- Many Spanish legends explain how things got their name, how things in nature came to be, and why things are the way they are
Punishment- Multiple legends show characters facing serious punishment to possibly deter people from doing certain things
Miracles- Legends describe faithful and generous people (a majority of the time they are poor) being granted miracles

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This legend is the origin story of the yerba mate tree in Argentina. Its leaves are used to make the famous beverage, yerba mate, which has the caffeine content of coffee, the euphoria of chocolate, and the health benefits of tea. In the story a poor family is given the trees by the moon because they had given all the food they had. Another common theme present in this story is miracles being granted to those who show compassion and generosity.

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This is the origination story of Argentina's national flower, the Ceibo. It is another one of Sofia M's favorite Argentinian legends.

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The Ceibo is both the national tree and flower of Argentina. It is very resistant to both ice and fire and it has inspired tangos, poetry and folklore music as a symbol of courage and strength in the face of adversity.

According to legend, there was once an indigenous woman named Anahí who lived on the shores of the Paraná River. She was small and unsightly, however, her looks were forgotten on summer nights when she came to sing with her beautiful voice to her tribe about their gods and the love of their land.

When the conquistadors came to conquer the land, they took Anahí and others from her tribe as prisoners. One night, the guard of her cell fell asleep and Anahí saw a chance of escaping. The guard, however, woke up just as she was getting away and so she stabbed him. His dying holler startled the rest of the soldiers and Anahí was unable to escape. Her punishment for killing the man was to burn at the stake.

On the night of her sentence, she was tied to a tree and a fire was lit. The flames quickly caught on and the indigenous woman began to sing to her land and her nature.

The following morning, the soldiers stood astounded at the spot of her death. In place of the ashes they had expected to find, there was a blooming Ceibo tree showing off its splendorous red flowers.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged argentina, ceibo, indigenas, legend, stories. Bookmark the permalink.

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(Photo by Karen Blix) The Ceibo is both the national tree and flower of Argentina. It is very resistant to both ice and fire and it has inspired tangos, poetry and folklore music as a symbol of courage and strength in the face of adversity. According to legend, there was once an indigenous woman named...

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Other popular Spanish origin stories include "Poinsetta," "The Badger Names the Sun," The Toad's Spots," and "Somersault Street." Poinsetta is the story of a young girl named Pepita who feels bad that her family can no longer give a gift to baby Jesus on Christmas because her mother became too sick to finish a blanket. Her tears cause Poinsettia flowers to grow out of the weeds she decorated the crib of Jesus with.
The legend "The Badger Names the Sun" explains why the Sun has its name and why Badgers hide in holes.
"The  Toad's Spots" explains why toads have spots. A toad hid in the guitarcase of a crane going to perform at a party in the clouds. The toad was dropped down to Earth, resulting in numerous bruises which healed over time, becoming spots.
Many streets in Mexico City near the Main Square used to have names which recalled some true or imaginary event. An example of this was Somersault Street which was named after a legend. After a rich and loved Spanish nobleman named Don Mendo died, his niece with an unpleasant personality and who only cared about money, Paz, tried to claim his fortune. However, in order to claim Don Mendo's fortune, his will required Paz to do three somersaults in the pavilion built in the center of Main Square. Paz ended up giving her inheritance to the Orders of Saint Francis and Mercedes and the street in front of Mendo's mansion was given the name Somersault Street in memory of this legend.

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Many Spanish legends have the theme of punishment.  In many legends characters are punished for killing others such as La LLorona and  El Silbon. In the famous Mexican legend, La Llorona, (The Wailing Woman) a woman kills her children to either prove her love for her husband, or to punish her husband. Because of this La Llorona is forced to wander the lands in search of her dead children for eternity. In the Venezeulan legend El Silbon, (The whisperer),  a man that killed his father  to eat his organs is forced to carry a bag with his father's bone across the region.
Another example of a Spanish legend with a theme of punishment is the Lame man of Olancho. A poor farmer named IIsidro asked his neighbor Juan, a lame man, to help him pay for medicine to cure his wife. Juan answered that he needed all his money so Isidro prayed for God's blessing. When Isidro went home, he found his wife completely cured. Hearing this, Juan went to a church with his pure gold chain as an offering to God in exchange for curing his lameness. Juan succeeded and was able to run out of the church. However, when Juan talked with Isidro after the miracle, he complained that a miracle cost Isidro nothing and him a gold chain. All of a sudden, Juan's leg became lame again and a gold chain fell out of the sky near his feet.

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Uploaded by kyle leibovitz on 2016-10-18.

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I have found that many American Tall-tales also have themes of punishment including A Bakers Dozen and The Eavesdropper.  In the New York Christmas story A Baker's Dozen, an old lady came into a bakery asking for a dozen Saint Nicholas cookies, considering a dozen to be 13 cookies because there was a custom of bakeries in the town to give an extra cookie.The man that owned the bakery refused to give the old woman an extra cookie because he believed customers should get exactly what they paid for. Each week the old lady returned to ask for a dozen of cookies, cursing the man's shop more each time he refused. The man lost most of his business and his family's money was running out so he went to the church to pray to Saint Nicholas. When he returned to his shop he made a batch of Saint Nicholas cookies that turned out fine, and then Saint NIcholas appeared. Sadly, Saint Nicholas asked the man if after all the generosity God had shown, couldn't he spare one extra cookie? After that the man always considered a dozen to be 13.
In the Maryland Tall-Tale, The Eavesdropper, a farmer is punished for his curiosity of whether cattle talk to each other at midnight on Christmas Eve.

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A Maryland Tall Tale

retold by

S. E. Schlosser

There is an old tale which claims that at midnight, on Christmas Eve, the cattle will kneel in the barn and speak with one another. Once an old Maryland man decided to test the tale by hiding in the barn at midnight to listen. So he climbed a rope to the window in the hayloft. He lay down on the rough gray boards, covered himself with hay and waited.

Around midnight, he saw all the cows in the barn kneel. At first he could not make out any words, but then, he heard the cow underneath his hiding place say to its neighbor: "I am afraid our poor old master will not live out the year."

"Oh dear," exclaimed her neighbor. "What a pity."

The old man was so frightened by the cow's words that he hurried over to the window, wanting to get away from the barn as fast as he could. But his sweating fingers slipped on the rope and he fell to the ground, broke his neck, and died.

Since then, the people in Maryland have never eavesdropped on the cattle at midnight on Christmas Eve.
You can read more Maryland folktales and ghost stories in Spooky Maryland by S.E. Schlosser.

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A Maryland Tall Tale retold by S. E. Schlosser There is an old tale which claims that at midnight, on Christmas Eve, the cattle will kneel in the barn and speak with one another. Once an old Maryland man decided to test the tale by hiding in the barn at midnight to listen.

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After reading a multitude of Mexican, Latin American, and Central American legends, I have found that common themes are origin stories, punishment, and God/nature-given miracles. Legends seem to affect Spanish culture by encouraging good morale and faithfulness to God, while discouraging selfishness and spite. Also, people like to remember legends so they name things like streets after them. I thought that United States folklore would be drastically different from Spanish folklore but I was wrong. United States folktales are surprisingly dark and have a common theme of punishment as well.

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http://www.americanfolklore.net/ss.html
https://www.worldoftales.com/South_American_folktales/South_American_Folktale_1.html
The Whisperer-http://latinolife.co.uk/node/1226
"Stories from Latin America" By Genevieve Barlow
About Yerba Mate- http://guayaki.com/mate/130/Yerba-Mate.html
Yerba Mate Legend Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f95ZMikCrKM&t=11s
Ceibo Tree Legend- https://insidebuenosaires.com/2014/01/09/the-legend-of-the-ceibo-tree/
La Llorona video-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfR6Kfw1RCA
https://fairytalez.com/region/spanish/
Authentic- Sofia M. from Argentina