SAN ANTONIO \u2013 For generations on San Antonio\u2019s South Side, hearing the tale of the Donkey Lady or driving out to the old Elm Creek bridge late at night has served as an unofficial rite of passage.<\/p>\n
Local lore long warned of a disfigured, vengeful figure haunting the woods around the bridge off Old Applewhite Road. <\/p>\n
Two San Antonio natives, a popular author and an artist, are peeling back the layers of that urban legend, unearthing a tragic human story buried beneath the myth.<\/p>\n
Former Texas Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla and local artist Thelma Ortiz Muraida have teamed up on a new book that re-examines the centuries-old folklore, shifting the focus from a terrifying monster to a historical woman wronged by her community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really important for us to claim those stories, reclaim them, and restore the Donkey Lady\u2019s humanity,\u201d Tafolla said. \u201cOften human beings who have experienced some kind of injustice don\u2019t get to tell their side of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the book, the creators reconstruct the woman historically known as \u201cLa Callada\u201d \u2014 the quiet one. Rather than a creature of terror, they depict an independent woman who lived self-sufficiently in nature and was targeted, ostracized and violently attacked by fearful neighbors.<\/p>\n
To capture the mood and historical weight of the setting, Muraida visited the bridge and turned to raw charcoal for the illustrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to pick a medium that would sort of reflect that sort of mystery feeling. And I chose charcoal,\u201d Muraida said. \u201cIt kind of conveyed the dark side and the light side. You see this array of values of black and white inside of, like telling the depth of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/AAEZKPVPKRA2FC2GHTRTDT3BBY.png\"\/)
Two San Antonio natives, a popular author and an artist, are peeling back the layers of that urban legend, unearthing a tragic human story buried beneath the Dokey Lady. (Copyright \u00a9 2026 KSAT.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings)<\/p>\n
Both Tafolla and Muraida grew up in San Antonio hearing the ghost story passed down by family elders. Today, they see the enduring myth as a reflection of prejudice, greed and mob mentality that frequently targeted outsiders.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the monsters, I need to repeat, are not the Donkey Lady. They\u2019re not the people who are different,\u201d Tafolla said. \u201cThe monsters are the intolerance, the hatred, the suspicion of those who are different from us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the collaborators hope to transform the South Side ghost story into a testament to resilience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Donkey Lady is a voice of resistance,\u201d Tafolla said. \u201cShe\u2019s a voice that says, \u2018this is mine, and I\u2019m here I\u2019ll stay.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 For generations on San Antonio\u2019s South Side, hearing the tale of the Donkey Lady or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[112410,112411,82,84,83,4937,112414],"class_list":["post-481617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-carmen-tafolla","tag-donkey-lady","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-south-side","tag-thelma-ortiz-muraida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}