Throughout the Southwestern United States and Mexico, the tale of a girl who finds herself dancing with the Devil continues to take on new shapes and variations as times and tellers change. “Pata de gallo,” which literally translates as “rooster’s claw,” refers to the physical attribute that eventually reveals the identity of the girl’s dancing partner. Leyendas (legends) usually begin when a young girl, often a very proper young lady or one who has only recently begun attending dances, attends a big event at which a handsome and beguiling stranger appears. The stranger begins dancing with the girl, and she feels swept away by the experience, intoxicated by dancing with a handsome and mysterious man. At some point, however, she or someone in the nearby crowd notices that the man has a physical abnormality: in place of one of his feet is a rooster’s claw protruding from his trouser leg. In most versions of the story, the girl manages to flee from the man. A loud crack of thunder immediately follows, sounding through the dance hall and followed by a smell of smoke. When everyone looks, the dance floor is scarred with charred marks, and everyone realizes that the girl had been dancing with the Devil all night long.
Variations on this legend generally change elements of the mysterious dance partner or the nature of the setting in reflection of norms of the era in which the story is told. Some cultures prefer to tell the story with an animal’s hoof rather than with a rooster’s claw. In some versions, the stranger even has a tail that no one notices until the crucial climax of the story. A Pecos Valley collection includes the tail and hoof details, but is distinguished by its claim that the dance partner is an evil spirit, rather than the singular Devil. The location of the dance also varies with the time period of the story. Older versions of the tale, dating to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, usually set the diabolical encounter at a ball or lavish dance. An account from a 1970s urban legend collection by Gillian Bennet and Paul Smith places the action in a discotheque in Tijuana. Other versions claim that the unearthly visit occurs in a roadside bar or club.
The tale also gives moral instruction: it is a warning against girls becoming involved with untrustworthy strangers who do not belong to the community. Several variants of the narrative place a distinct emphasis on the girl’s disobedience as a catalyst for the supernatural events that follow. In one account, the girl goes dancing in spite of her mother’s wishes “that she stay home and look after her little brothers and sisters.” Once she notices the stranger’s claw, the room goes pitch black. When power is restored, the girl is found lying “half out the door, her lovely face clawed to shreds.” In many versions, the girl is warned by her mother or grandmother not to go out to dance halls generally, as they believe that such places harbor sin and temptation, a perfect stomping ground for the Devil. In one tale the girl does not even make it to the dance. She is so defiant that she injures her mother with scissors so that she can escape the house, and the ground swallows her up as soon as she is out the door. In some tellings, the Devil even dances the girl into hell, and then bows to the remaining crowd before departing from the dance hall.
“Pata de gallo” represents a version of the common “Devil Appears at a Dance” motif (Baughman motif G303.10.4; Thompson J1786), which has been translated through the cultural lens of Mexican American folklore to become a distinctive and frequently referenced narrative. With the growth of urban legends, the tale has gained new life and frequently gets passed along as an allegedly true story. In 1985 a San Antonio newspaper carried an article by Professor Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez assembling and discussing the various recent incarnations of the legend. The popular myth-busting website Snopes.com maintains a page on the legend, noting that while it is found often in the American Southwest, it is generally not well known anywhere else in the United States. The story, with its easy adaptability to time and place, likely will continue to persist as a supernatural legend and a morality tale for many years to come.
Cory Thomas Hutcheson
See also Dancing with the Devil; Death Waltz; La Mala Hora; Scary Stories
Further Reading
Bennett, Gillian, and Paul Smith. 2007. Urban Legends: A Collection of International Tall Tales and Terrors. London: Greenwood Press.
Herrera-Sobek, María. 2006. Chicano Folklore: A Handbook. London: Greenwood Press.
Limón, José Eduardo. 1994. Dancing with the Devil: Society & Cultural Poetics in Mexican-American South Texas. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Mikkelson, Barbara. “Satan’s Choice.” Snopes.com. January 16, 2007.
Philip, Neil. 2003. Horse Hooves & Chicken Feet: Mexican Folktales. New York: Clarion.
Schlosser, S. E. 2008. Spooky Texas. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press.
West, John O. 1989. Mexican-American Folklore. Little Rock, AR: August House.