El Sombreron:

After buying all the newspapers with out faces and "MISSING" on the front page, I stuffed them in the truck, covering them with an old blanket. I went back into our kind hosts home-The dead mans family. I went to Find my sisters, Velia, Dilia, Pita, and Juanita. I told the about the news papers.

Pita had a scared look on her face, the rest of us looked worried. I had a feeling Pita had a thought the rest of us didn’t. "What's wrong pita?" I asked her.

"What if el sombreron comes to get us when he sees us in the paper?"

"I don’t think we should worry about a mythical legend right now. We need to focus on getting out of here." It was evening now. I was planning on leaving the next morning. The thought of la Llarona was apparent. She is a mythical being that has proven herself to be real. Why couldn't this legend be real too? "Then again, a bedtime story couldn't hurt. Tell us about el sombreron, Pita."

"Ok…" she said still scared. "El sombreron is a very short, scary

looking, man-like, creature. He loves to braid hair and wears a big

hat. This one time, he saw a girl with long hair and big eyes. He

showed up at her house that night and sang her a song outside her

window. The next morning a herd of donkeys with braided manes

and tails were tied to her house. The next night he showed up to

sing to her. Again, and again, he came. One night she followed

him to El Sombreron's house. Strangely enough, the song

hypnotized her into eating dirt. He also braided her hair. Her

parents noticed she stopped eating and sleeping. She was nearly

driven mad. Finally her parents decided to cute her hair short.

Then, El Sombreron left and never came back."

"Wait, so he literally hypnotized her and drove her mad?" Delia asked "Like that could ever happen."

"We all have big eyes and long hair…" Velia added.

I gave my sisters a hug and sent them to bed. I went to sleep too.

I woke up around eleven pm. I saw a figure with fangs and a hat in the window. I blinked a couple of times and it was gone. I decided to stop worrying and go back to sleep.

I heard screaming. It was the middle of the night. I jolted up and surveyed the room. Pita was missing and the window was open. I yelled at my sisters to get up. I burst through the window to find el Sombreron holding my sister down. He was singing an eyrie song that made me shudder. Pita's screams slowly got quieter and quieter. My sister were outside now and I yelled at them to help. we pulled him off of her. He was surprisingly heavy for a man of his size.

We got him on his back. Each of us were holding a limb down, restricting his movement. "What do you want?" Juanita yelled in his face.

"Please, please!" He wailed. "I saw you guys in the paper and just wanted to braid your beautiful hair."

"Why did you try to hypnotize pita?" I aggressively shook him.

"Normally people don't just let me braid their hair!"

"How about this, we let you braid our hair, and you will never come back?"

"Ok. Ok. You guys are hurting me! Get up please!"

We reluctantly got off of him. He stood up and violently shook his limbs to get blood flow back. We all sat down in the grass and let him braid our hair. It was nice considering our hair had not bean done since we left mama.

Finally, we went back inside and passed out on the beds. Now, I'm just anticipating the questions from my sisters in the morning.

​

A Note From The Author:

Latin American folklore creature El Sombreron had some very interesting characteristics and legends. I wrote a short story about him that could be inserted into the novel Summer Of The Mariposas. El Sombreron is a short, evil man that hypnotizes girls into eating dirt, with his songs. He loves to braid, especially girls hair who have long hair and big eyes. All of the main characters in Summer Of The Mariposas have long hair and big eyes; Pita, Odilia, Delia, Juanita, Velia. Because they all have this characteristic I thought that el Sombreron would be a great character to write about. In my depiction of El Sombreron in my narrative, I maintained many Characteristics from the original so that I am able to make my character and legend recognizable, but modernized the tale by Adding the ability to talk in order to convey the theme that being kind and pure of heart leads to redemption. I kept the hypnosis factor and the appearance of my character similar.

 

My depiction of el sombreron has kept most if the main characteristics of the original Latin American legend. There are two main attributes he kept. The both enjoy braiding and the ability to hypnotize people with his music. Both love braiding. In my narrative pita said "'He loves to braid hair'" In the folklore, he also loves braiding hair. They both hypnotize people with his songs "'the song hypnotized her'" it says in my narrative. Another feature that is similar is his physical appearance. I Described him to look the same as in the original depiction. Although I modernized the original character, El sombreron still  has many of the same characteristics. Some of the main characteristics kept were the fact that he likes to braid and he still hypnotizes people with his songs.

 

I also made some changes to El Sombreron in my narrative. According to online sources, the Latin American folklore does not mention my monster ever talking, Only singing. In my story he talks and sings. "'Please, please!' He wailed." This shows that I modernized the character. I did it because it gives more context to develop the theme. The them is being pure of heart can lead to a better life. Because he was able to speak, it shows his distress and how the girls had mercy on him even after his wrong effort.

 

My depiction of El Sombreron in my narrative, I maintained many Characteristics from the original so that I am able to show that character and legend,   but modernized the tale by Adding the ability to talk in order to convey the theme that being kind and pure of heart leads to redemption. Overall, My narrative about el sombreron has some differences and likeness. I modernized the character to show the theme of my story. I kept some characteristics to make him recognizable and still be his legendary self.