Compared with many larger cities in the United States, San Antonio, Texas boasts quite a prolific record for numerous paranormal activity and legends. It is the supposed home of the ghostly "La Llorona", a spirited Insane Asylum, the "Haunted Railroad Tracks", several ghostly Missions including the infamous Alamo--and then there's the elusive "Donkey Lady".
Since the 1950s or so, San Antonio parents and school children alike have told and retold the bizarre, ever-changing story of "The Donkey Lady". The story has many different incarnations and twists; it is probable that many other versions will not be recounted here in this blog.
I first heard of Donkey Lady as a kid while living in a suburb of northeast San Antonio. My sister, a neighbor friend Jenny and I were all playing at our house around Halloween in 1993. In the "spirit" of the season, Jenny urged us to try the "Bloody Mary" trick: my sister closed herself into the darkened bathroom, recited "Bloody Mary" three times into the mirror, and...well, nothing happened. I laughed so hard at my sister that Jenny locked me in a dark closet; from outside, Jenny urged me to recite "Donkey-Lady, I HAVE YOUR SON" three times. I did...nothing happened, thankfully. After getting out of the closet I asked Jenny who the "Donkey-Lady" was. She said it was the spirit of a horribly ugly old woman who somehow "lost her son", and returns from the dead with a donkey's head and hooves for hands and feet. Supposedly she will claw, kick and bite to death whoever invokes her name claiming they have stolen her son from her.
For years I never heard another word about Donkey Lady--in fact I thought Jenny had just made the story up completely. But more recent research in San Antonio folklore shows that the Donkey Lady legend may be based in a true story. Locals of south San Antonio call a certain small bridge over the Medina River "Donkey Lady Bridge". The now-closed bridge is on old Applewhite Road, just east of the Medina River Natural Area. They claim this is where the Donkey Lady met her fate.
There are two main storylines for this legend.
Version 1
The first story is that Donkey Lady was physically-unattractive, elderly and/or physically deformed or irregular-looking woman, either a widow or an "old maid", who was odd in character, anti-social or just private. For this she was shunned by the local community in south San Antonio. She lived in an old house in south San Antonio near the bridge that her namesake was later given to. The woman's house caught on fire; the inferno disfigured her in a way that sadly made her appear "donkey-like" in facial and hand features. As her house burned down, the lady supposedly came out on all fours, weeping and crying out like a braying donkey; her face seemed elongated, her hands and feet appeared to be hooves as a result of the fire's damage to her body. Most stories agree that the fire was a criminal act of arson--either her husband or lover set the fire, or local neighbor children were responsible. Either way, her child or children were said to have died in the fire.
Many say that Donkey Lady was Chinese in origin *(related to Chinese workers who had moved to the area in 1917--please see the comment at the end of this blog entry)*. The woman's ethnic features at least made her stand out amongst the Hispanics and Whites living near her. Donkey Lady is supposedly buried either in the "Chinese" cemetery on Zarzamora Road called St. Dominick-Guzman Cemetery (a couple miles north of the bridge), or in a Chinese family plot section in Mission Park Cemetery (several miles farther to the northeast).
The overseer of the St. Dominick-Guzman Cemetery, Joey Guzman, claimed in 2009 that Donkey Lady was an unusually tall Chinese woman who had been seeing his uncle against his family's wishes. It was supposed that the woman may have been pregnant with Guzman's child at the time, and that the child was born and raised by her later. The couple's love affair ended only when Guzman was struck by lightning and killed while riding horseback--the result of a curse that great-grandfather Guzman had supposedly placed on the couple's hopes for marriage! Joey Guzman claims that Donkey Lady was not buried in this cemetery (despite local lore), since she was never a member of the family, and that her interment there would never have been permitted by the family anyway. But Guzman's claim is shaky, because most of those buried in this cemetery are known to have been Chinese; in fact this graveyard is more commonly known as "Chinese Cemetery".
Curiously, traditional Chinese women often bound their feet into tiny shoes, which appear like hooves, making a "clop-clop" sound when one walks. Could bound feet explain why people likened the unfortunate woman to a "donkey"?
Version 2
The second version takes place in the 1950s. A kindly old woman who lived alone would often walk her donkey to graze around Applewhite Road, in the vicinity of the bridge. Supposedly her donkey happened to bite a local boy, and the boy complained to his father. The father rounded up some friends to confront the "Donkey Lady", and during the confrontation the donkey and the lady were killed: they were either forced off the bridge where they both drowned (hence the bridge's name), or burned to death when Donkey Lady's house was set on fire.
Making Sense of Conflicting Accounts
The first story seems to incorporate elements of another local legend that is often considered to be separate story: a 7-foot tall Chinese woman purportedly buried at Mission Park Cemetery in the "Chinese" section. She supposedly took her own life (either out of shame for her appearance or a failed love affair), and her ghost is doomed to walk the cemetery eternally. So it is possible that Donkey Lady's "Chinese" connection was borrowed from this tale. Or could the 7-foot tall woman--supposedly buried just a few miles north of Donkey Lady bridge--be the Donkey Lady herself?
Some tellings of the story include Donkey Lady's search for her "lost child". This idea seems to borrow from the better-known "La Llorona" folktale which originated in Mexico, and is quite popular in south Texas to the present day. Some people claim Donkey Lady was an elderly Hispanic woman; in fact, many people's telling of the Donkey Lady story closely mirrors that of La Llorona. Interestingly, despite the fact that some San Antonio legends are borrowed from old Mexican folklore, the "Donkey Lady" tale appears to be patently American in origin, originating from south San Antonio sometime in the 1950s-1960s.
It is difficult to tell which of the story versions is closest to the truth, and sorting out the different accounts is very confusing. Central to understanding the legend's original basis in fact is to determine why the woman was called "Donkey Lady". She was either:
(A) a woman with a pet donkey,
(B) a woman with a revolting (or otherwise "donkey-like") physical appearance, or
(C) a combination of both.
It is likely that this story--like many others similar to it--originated from only 1 of these main reasons ("A" or "B"). It is also probable that subsequent retellings of the story over time and imbellishments and personalizations added by new generations give Donkey Lady a more sinister (and thereby, more interesting) character. Quite possibly, "Donkey Lady" was just an elderly unmarried woman living alone who had a beloved pet donkey, and was known by the locals as such. The perjorative term "Donkey Lady" could be compared to the present-day slang term "Bag Lady", which defines a homeless or otherwise destitute woman who carries all her meager belongings around in a plastic bag, and is shunned with distrust by the local community as an "outsider".
Both stories end with the unfortunate woman's persecution. It sounds feasible that her donkey may have bitten a local person at some point in time, but no evidence of a violent response by that community has yet been discovered. As it seems that Donkey Lady probably lived roughly between the years 1900-1960, it may be possible to establish Donkey Lady's true identity and story by researching historic documentation. Land records, old city directories, cemetery records and death notices in San Antonio newspaper articles on house fires, drownings and/or murders in that vicinity would be the only true way to determine this, as it is clear the present-day local public has forgotten who Donkey Lady really was.
Some claim that Donkey Lady still has living descendants in the San Antonio area, who choose to keep quiet on the fate of Donkey Lady out of shame or respect for her memory. Curiously, a flower memorial stand (similar to the one pictured below) is often found placed by the Donkey Lady Bridge in recent times. Similarly, for years someone had left flower arrangements on the supposed grave of the 7-foot tall suicide victim at Mission Park. Although the memorial at Donkey Lady bridge may have been left for any one of several murder victims found in the area since the 1970s, it is assumed that the regular arrangements left at the Mission Park grave stopped being placed once the relations of the interred had either died or moved from the area.
The Urban Legends
Since the 1970s many young thrillseekers have searched for Donkey Lady's supernatural incarnation, by going to the bridge named after her. The search for her spirit seems to be based in a strong sense of superstition regarding the number "3". People say that if you honk the car horn 3 times on the bridge at night, and also call out "Donkey Lady" or "Donkey Lady, I have your son" 3 times, she will appear on all fours as a half-donkey, half-woman and proceed to ram and claw the car! Supposedly Donkey Lady will become annoyed and chase you as you run or drive away. Many bridge visitors have reported smelling a dead body or a scent of fire while at the scene. Others claim to have heard what sounds like a large animal running through the water, or seen red eyes glowing in the darkness of the thick woods near the bridge.
Supposedly if one parks their car in front of the gate of St. Dominick-Guzman cemetery, and flashes their headlights across the tombstones 3 times, one will see the spirits begin to hover around the graves. Rumors of satanic cult meetings in the area over the last 30+ years--as well as the discovery of murder victims' corpses there in recent years--have contributed to the mysterious and sinister character of the place.
Still many others have not experienced anything strange while invoking the Donkey Lady to appear.
In the 1980s, a person could call a phone number and hear a preset recording of a donkey braying and clacking its hooves: supposedly the "Donkey Lady" is on the other end of the line. The number is no longer in service, since the San Antonio area code was changed to (210) around the year 1990. The old number was (512) 225-LADY, appropriately; but that number is no longer in service. It was seemingly a pre-recorded "joke" number, lost in the shuffle of San Antonio's evolving technological progress.
Conclusion
Today both the St. Dominick-Guzman (Chinese) Cemetery and Donkey Lady bridge are closed to vehicular traffic, though local visitations by car and on foot continue. With the advent of the internet age in the late-1990s, the Donkey Lady story has mushroomed in scope, and undoubtedly the pull of the site's infamous legends and its remote location have influenced the tragic deaths near that place in the last 40 years. Many people continue to recount new and different versions of the Donkey Lady legend, posting their own story derivations and personal experiences with Donkey Lady in online blogs and websites. It is my hope that in this age of "information overload", some good old-fashioned historical document research can put a real face and name to the "Donkey Lady".
--RJF
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Further Reading:
"Horror Haunt in San Antonio Unearths Ghostly Tales" (KENS 5 News, Nov. 4, 2009):
http://www.kens5.com/on-tv/Horror-haunt-in-San-Antonio-unearths-ghostly-tales-69120272.html
David Polanco's blog, "Donkey Lady In San Antonio":
http://www.aeonity.com/david/donkey-lady-bridge-in-san-antonio
Brown, Mel. "Chinese Heart of Texas".
