In this short, two speakers discuss a striking performance costume that creates an optical illusion, noting its reference to an elf from a movie and elements of feng shui. They then explain a local legend called "nono sapun so," a dwarf‑like entity believed to inhabit miniature mountain formations and guard hidden treasure, likened to a leprechaun. The conversation shifts to the broader historical context, highlighting how Spanish colonizers attempted to eradicate indigenous culture, yet the folklore and mythology have persisted and even rebounded, underscoring the resilience of these traditions.
And Binyas comes out, optical illusion, crazy, just looking insane. I was like, how is she doing this? I think she was like laying down on the floor. Or crawling like this. Crawling like this so she could be as short as possible. The whole costume was like this big. Yeah.
Insane.
But this was, I read this, this was a specific reference from a movie, like an elf from a movie. Feng shui.
She has so many references in there, but the major one is, um, nono sapun so, it's like In the mountains, you have this like mini miniature mountains this small, and the belief is that there is an entity living in there like a dwarf, and we call it— and it's guarding that, and there's treasure inside. It's almost like a leprechaun. Oh, I see. Yeah, that's—
it's so incredible to see how much, like, when you were explaining, like, a lot of that culture was trying to be eradicated by Spanish, so like everything, like It's kind of interesting how it kind of bounced back in a way where these lore, this folklore, and this mythology continues to exist. The fact that there's so many examples to derive from is incredible.
But you're right, a lot of these identities— I would say identities because at some point maybe they were real— they were just demonized by the colonizers, you know. Babaylas before, they were so powerful, the communities, that they demonized them. And there was this one character named Yawa in my island. She was a woman who had shamanic powers. And now the equivalent of Yawa in my dialect is now the devil. Yeah, so it was really demonized by the colonizers. That's why we have this podcast, to talk about the implications of these stories that are being shared and told.
