What La Siguanaba Means to Me

[This is a matter of personal interpretation, so please I’m not here to argue.]

There are many variations to the story of La Siguanaba, and while in the present day it is treated as a folk tale to scare children or serve as a crone/hag archetype during parades, at its core, it is a misogynist allegory not only about how women are never to be trusted, but also, how women exerting their sexual agency is a monstrosity. Likewise, if men are drunkards or cheaters, the appearance of La Siguanaba is a cultural moral regulator not only for the improper behavior of the men, but also a condemnation of their partners at home for their failure as women.

There is an alternative perspective, however, one told to me by my mother as a child in the 1980s, as it was told her as a child back in the 1930s. That La Siguanaba was an ancestor, a spirit tied to the rivers, and that she was once an indigenous woman wronged by the vileness of men. And so, her role was to protect women and punish the men who wronged them. But as is the tendency with centuries worth of Christian-based social morality, what was otherwise a powerful figure of feminine spirituality, was monstrified into a misogynist caricature. In the vocabulary section to Cuentos de barro by Salarrue, he classifies la Siguanaba as symbolizing el espíritu del río, the spirit of the river. To me, that’s a beautiful way to think about her. As the protector of rivers and womxn.

And so, as an illustrator, I have consciously chosen to respect and honor La Siguanaba in my artwork as not only a figure of strength, resilience, and our ancestral spirit, but as representative of all the cachimbonas salvadoreñas, both past and present, out there fighting for our communities.