The protagonist is Bubba, appropriately downtrodden and overworked by his wicked stepdaddy and loathsome brothers Dwayne and Milton, who spend their days bossing him around. 6-8)Ī Cinderella parody features the off-the-wall, whang-dang Texas hyperbole of Ketteman (The Year of No More Corn, 1993, etc.) and the insouciance of Warhola, who proves himself only too capable of creating a fairy godcow that she's so appealingly whimsical makes it easy to accept the classic tale's inversions. What might work well as an oral cautionary tale translates into a detrimentally moralistic book. Lurid gouaches paint grotesque expressions, and the device of a vignette of the grandmother’s face gradually transforming into the frightening bird adds to the disquieting theme. With a suspicious white feather falling from her hair, Grandma intervenes to assure Zulema that it was just a bad dream. Undeterred, Zulema continues in her ways, but at night she investigates a tapping at her window and discovers the oversized, white-feathered body and creepy wide eyes of the Witch Owl, ready to take an instantly reformed Zulema away. But she finds her comeuppance in her 90-year-old grandmother, who warns her of the Witch Owl that “always comes looking for mean little boys and girls” and takes them away. One-dimensional Zulema is “the meanest little girl in the whole wide world,” equally unleashing her wrath at children, adults, puppies and kittens. So the next time you are in South Texas going down a rural road at night, be wary not for only deer, coyote, and other wildlife that may be on the road, but also keep an eye out for some wild and weird owls.The disturbing use of scare tactics to reform a mean-spirited, nine-year-old bully lies at the heart of this bilingual English/Spanish story. Some people will pray while others will seek a folk healer (curandera), and still others will blast the bird away with a rifle or shotgun.Įven though many of the stories differ, one thing that people seem to agree on is that an encounter is definitely very scary and you will always remember. ![]() People who have had these frightful encounters with a lechuza usually can try a couple of remedies. Soon she will swoop down on the poor unsuspecting person and carry them off as prey. Every night, she is said to transform into a five to six-foot tall bird (most commonly an owl) with the face of a beautiful or wizened old woman and enormous wings.”Sometimes she will lure out her prey with strange noises such as a baby crying. In others, she is a woman that has sold her soul to the Devil in order to gain supernatural powers. Many people believe in her existence, while others claim to have actually seen this creature. According to, “She particularly enjoys attacking people who have had one too many beers. The legend of La Lechuza remains very popular in South Texas and Mexico. Some other stories say she is a bird spirit who appears from beyond the grave and wants to avenge whoever killed her. ![]() Other stories say that lechuzas are just spirits of betrayed or jilted women who want to seek revenge. ![]() What exactly is a lechuza? Lechuzas are witches (brujas) who morph into birds. Since the days when Texas was Mexico, generations of children in South Texas and into Mexico have grown up hearing stories of lechuzas. However, many folks along the Coastal Bend and into the Rio Grande Valley believe some owls are more than meet the eye. Deer begin foraging, coyotes are howling, and owls are hooting and hunting. This week I am discussing a couple of spooky ladies and other crazy lore of South Texas just in time for Halloween and Dia de los Muertos ( Day of the Dead).ĭuring a still night under a full moon in South Texas, things can get a bit wild and weird…Īnd it is not just because it is the Halloween and Dia de los Muertos time of year In our part of the country, there are copious amounts of spooky stories, many which are passed down from generation to generation until they become legend.
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