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otro video del sombreron (deyni)

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Guatemala

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Mexico

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Un hombre bajo con un sombrero grande y negro y botas muy ruidosas.

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The Spanish legend of El Sombreron retold delightfully with humor and cross dressing Gangreousthumb Productions

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With Halloween just around the corner, it is appropriate that this week's blog deals with the distinctively Guatemalan horror tale of El Sombrerón, or the man in the large hat. He is said to be a type of goblin or ghost that travels with a pack of mules in the evening and delights in braiding the hair of young women. Below is the tale as it appears in this article from The Examiner:

In a local village near Antigua there lived a young lady, the daughter of the woman who owned the store. She was a very pretty girl, with long hair and brown eyes. One night when there was a full moon, she was sitting outside, admiring the evening sky. Suddenly a short character with a big hat and a guitar approached her. He began to sing her a song, but at that moment her parents overheard and made her get inside the house. From that day she was not able to sleep because he either appeared in the house or sang to her from the street.

Night after night he repeated this visit; he played the guitar well and with the sweetest of the voices he sang love songs until one night, the foolish girl allowed him to braid her hair, which was his intention all along.... to lay his hands on her long silky hair and tangle his tiny fingers in it to make the tightest and most beautiful braids. If she was foolish enough to let him, she would be cursed forever and she would become his "bride".

After she has the first braid done, he will leave her ...but not entirely. He will come back and throw tiny pebbles and dirt in her food, so she cannot eat it, until she becomes so thin from lack of food, and so distressed from her broken heart, she will die. If she survives, she will become an old maid: a woman cursed to spend the rest of her days alone...and never know any other love but the one from his songs.

This tale is quite intriguing, but what does it mean in terms of Guatemalan culture? Well, if you recall from last week's blog, Guatemala scores very high in collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance according to Hofstede's Value Dimensions. The story has elements that reflect all three of these.

When the girl wanders off in the night, she is exhibiting individualist behavior by putting her desires over those of her family. Similarly, she is not obeying her parents' orders to stay away from the man, thus challenging the family's hierarchy. Finally, it would be unusual for a young woman to visit a strange man in the evening especially without her parents' permission. This disregard for the social customs would not sit well in Guatemala with its uncertainty avoidance score of 101.

There are also some indications of the culture's high context orientation. Although not obvious to readers from outside the country, the idea of long hair and hair braiding has significance to Guatemalans with roots back to the culture of the Mayans. This aspect of the story delivers a great deal of meaning to those within the society without relying on dialogue.

This tale communicates to young women the danger of disregarding the standards of society. If a young lady wants to experience love and a happy marriage, she should not fall for the tricks of men who call her off into the night without going through the proper channels to establish a relationship. By bypassing the family, this man was clearly trouble, and the girl in the story found out the hard way.

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With Halloween just around the corner, it is appropriate that this week's blog deals with the distinctively Guatemalan horror tale of El Sombrerón, or the man in the large hat. He is said to be a type of goblin or ghost that travels with a pack of mules in the evening and delights in...

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Once upon a time in a Mayan village, twins were born to a hatmaker and his wife. The couple was overjoyed the day their sons were born, but their joy did not last long. One of the boys was kind, soft-voiced and even-tempered. But the other lad was born with the devil in him. He was always doing just what his parents told him not to do, and as he grew older, he continued to do whatever he was not supposed to do.

He was not cruel, but he was mischievous. He hid his brother's toys; he stole fruit from the neighbors' gardens. He teased children, and spilled his milk, and laughed when he should have been quiet, and would not speak when teachers asked him questions. He never stopped running and jumping and playing, and his parents fretted and worried and wondered what to do.

At last the boy's mother begged her husband to call upon the "brujo" for advice. Among the Mayan people, the "brujos," wise men, were known to have the power and the magic to cure every imaginable ill. They could cure bodies, minds and spirits, so the people said. They knew exactly what to do to fix whatever problem arose.

So the hatmaker went to visit the "brujo" and begged him for help. "My son is a troublemaker," the man said. "Please, tell me how to calm him down and cure him of his mischief making."

The "brujo" sat and thought, for wise men always listen carefully and think long and hard. And they pray. Finally, the "brujo" spoke. "I know how to help you," he said. "You must return to your shop, and there you will make a huge sombrero, the biggest sombrero you have ever made. Bring it to me, and I'll solve your problem."

The man returned home and worked for several days, fashioning a sombrero so large, it would have fit upon the heads of several of the villagers altogether. When he was done, the sombrero was so big he could not carry it, and so, with the help of his good son and his neighbors, he carried it to his cart and rode it to the "brujo's" home.

"Now," said the "brujo," "I will put my magic inside." He lighted his candles and placed rose petals upon his altar, and closed his eyes and prayed. He began to weave. He was weaving magic into the sombrero, but no one was allowed to watch. People say this took him many hours; the sombrero was big, remember, and the magic was strong. By sunset he had completed his task.

"Take this home now," said the "brujo," "and place it in the middle of the floor of your house. Your son and the magic will take matters from there."

The man did as he was told.

In the middle of the night, the father awoke, startled, when he heard a large crash from the living room where the sombrero sat.

He ran to see what had happened, and there he found the sombrero moving, walking as if powered by its own spirits.

"Help!" the man heard, and he bent down and listened. "Help me, father," came a voice from beneath the sombrero.

The man tugged at the hat, and sure enough, there was his son, his head in the center of the sombrero, his legs thrashing about.

"Take this off my head!" the boy cried. "I climbed under to see what I might see, and now I can't get this thing off!"

The father tried to lift the hat, but he could not remove it. It was stuck to the boy's head, and no matter how he struggled and pulled, and no matter how the boy pushed and shoved, and no matter how the neighbors pulled and yanked at the sombrero, it remained stuck to the boy's head.

The hat never did come off. The boy had to wear it all the time, and the villagers began to call him "El Sombreron," the Big Hat. They laughed when they saw him running through the village, only his legs visible, that enormous sombrero atop those little legs.

"El Sombreron" never grew taller after that day. The hat was so big and heavy, it pushed him down, and he stayed short, like a small boy, even though he grew longer in years.

They villagers laughed at him only for a while, though. The trouble was, there was magic in that hat, and "El Sombreron" learned it all, and so he never did stop making mischief. He could make himself invisible, and he could climb up walls and across ceilings, and he could walk through walls, so sometimes, when he was invisible, he would tear through the streets, stealing fruit and tipping carts. And some nights, still invisible, he would sneak into the neighbors' stables and steal their donkeys.

For a while people prayed "El Sombreron" would vanish altogether, but he never did. And it seems he never vanished at all, for all over Guatemala people still talk of him. It is he, they say, who turns things inside out and upside down, and is the cause of all the little annoyances in life that nobody can quite explain. That's the way things are sometimes.

The second book collection of wonderful tales from "Tell Me a Story" is available for $14.95, plus $3.50 for postage and handling. Send your orders to "The Spectacular Gift," in care of Andrews McMeel Publishing, P.O. Box 419242, Kansas City, Mo. 64141; or call (800) 642-6480. Be sure to indicate your newspaper's name on your order. Allow three to four weeks for delivery.

Tell Me a Story Archives

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EL SOMBRERON (a Guatemalan tale), Tell Me a Story

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Once upon a time in a Mayan village, twins were born to a hatmaker and his wife. The couple was overjoyed the day their sons were born, but their joy did not last long. One of the boys was kind, so...