I didn’t hear the story of La Llorona until I was 13. At the time, my cousins Adán and Jorge were living with us after moving back from Zacatecas. During the day, they’d work delivering roofing materials throughout Southern California. In the evening, we’d sometimes talk about what it was like to grow up in Baldwin Park and then move to Mexico right before high school. Eventually, Adán would start with the creepy stories about weird phenomena in el rancho.

Those stories were creepiest to me, because Adán swore he’d lived through the events or knew the main character personally. Adán is the one who told me about witches transforming into owls or dancing balls of fire. He’s also the first person I remember telling me about the legend of La Llorona. It was creepy, of course, but I was just glad he told me while sitting at the kitchen table and not around the campfire at Kern River.

Here’s what you’ll need to be La Llorona:

• Black and white face paint to paint like a calaca
• Baby powder or hair paint to lighten up hair
• Long hair teased so it looks ratty (or buy a cheap wig and tease)
• Flowy and dirty white dress (or a few yards of white fabric fashioned to look ghostly)
• Works best: if you live by a river or creek and moan “¡mis hijoooos!”

An added bonus: if you dress up as La Llorona, you can save money on candy for trick-or-treaters. The little kids will run when they see you.

Photo by Rio Yañez

If you went to a Dodger game and checked out the jerseys Chicanos wear, you might think Fernando Mania was in full swing. Chicanos love representing the pudgy Mexican pitcher who made his debut with the Dodgers late in the 1980 season. He won the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards in 1981. Mexicans went crazy over Fernando. Twenty-seven years later, they’re still going crazy.

What you’ll need:

• Fernando Valenzuela jersey. If you don’t already own one, borrow one. If you know any Chicano Dodgers fans, chances are your friend will own a jersey. Promise to keep it clean. Seriously. You don’t want to return it with beer or wine stains.
• Baseball raglan tee (great if it’s a cold night)
• Dodgers official Starters cap
• White or grey pants to match your jersey (sweats could work)
• Blue belt
• Cleats or sneakers and baseball socks
• Mitt and baseball
• Pansa or beer belly
• Shaggy hair
• World Series ring
• Master the crazy wind up and don’t speak English

You’ll be a hit with Dodger fans no matter how the playoffs go. If the team turns things around, you’ll bring a smile to fans’ faces as they recall a successful postseason. If the playoffs don’t end well, you’ll remind fans of the team’s success in the ’80s rather than recent disappointments.

While waiting for a friend in Westwood, I had some free time to duck into a shop. I chose Aahs! — a gift shop with a busy Halloween window display — to check out costumes and accessories.

As I expected, the ready-to-wear costumes kind of suck. They’re cheaply made, unoriginal and often offensive to ethnic minorities. For women who don’t want to bare lots of skin, there are few choices. The men’s costumes make a poor attempt at frat boy humor. Kids costumes buy in to boring gender norms. And girls’ costumes are inappropriately revealing (short skirts, form-fitting dresses, bare midriffs). And don’t even mention couples costumes.

Oh, and the costumes can be pricey. So what are you supposed to do for Halloween if you want to be original, not spend a lot (recession, anyone?) and have fun?

Do it yourself.

I know, I know. You may not be particularly crafty or creative, but that’s why we have the internet.

Last year’s Halloween on a Budget costume ideas:

• La Chilindrina
• Frida Kahlo
• La Adelita
• Scarecrow
• Cantinflas
• Old School Chola
• El Chapulín Colorado
• Vendedor de Flores
• Oscar de la Hoya
• Antonio y Mirthala

More to come!

One of my favorite episodes of Gilmore Girls, at least aesthetically, is the episode where the whole town takes part in the Festival of Living Art. In the episode, the town characters portray famous paintings like “The Last Supper” in full costume, but must stand perfectly still.

This episode, along with the requisite Diego Rivera print or two hanging in my apartment inspired another low-budget costume.

Vendedor de Flores

There are two different paintings you could use for inspiration (see above): “Vendedor de Alcatraces” and “Cargador de Flores.”

Here’s how you do it:

• For a women: long white huipil
• For a man: white shirt, white loose pants (for best effect shirt and pants made of manta)
• Small straw hat (for the male version)
• Long rebozo or solid fabric to tie the basket to your back
• Large round basket
• Lots of lillies or other flowers
• Huaraches (sandals)

The only downsides of this costume is that you may have to be on your knees a lot for the full effect or the basket of flowers might get annoying.

Bonus: You can use the flowers to flirt with a cute guy or girl at a party.

“Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.”
- Cady in Mean Girls

While checking out the recent launch of Machochip (go read it, Alex is one of the editors!), I was reminded about a costume rooted in escándalo I’ve yet to blog about: Oscar “Golden Boy” de la Hoya.

Earlier this fall, photos of the golden boy surfaced all over the gossip blogs. They were a bit embarrassing. I mean, if you consider wearing women’s lingerie and posing like a boxer embarrassing. Still, they’re hilarious, and a great Halloween costume for the man eager for an excuse to dress in drag, the straight guy comfortable with his sexuality and who can walk in stilettos, or the woman who just wants to dress “like a total slut.”

Oscar de la Hoya

• Skimpy lingerie
• Fishnet stockings
• Stilettos
• Boxing gloves (maybe add some medals or a belt for added effect)

If you’re worried about getting cold, get a boxing robe.

For some inspiration… go here, but not while you’re at work!

Why dress up as a boring superhero when you can be a red grasshopper? I realized afterward that putting together a Chapulín Colorado costume may not be as low budget or low effort as some of the other suggestions. Who actually has red tights lying around? Also, I realized that if LA stays as warm as it’s been for the Halloween parties this weekend and Halloween next week, it might be too warm to dress up as el Chapulín Colorado.

El disfraz:

• Red hoodie sweater (optional: a Chapulín Colorado t-shirt, but you still need to cover your arms)
• Some yellow fabric (felt would work) to make the heart and CH emblem
• Bright yellow shorts
• Red opaque tights
• Antenitas de vinil, or red antennae with a yellow and red ball on the end (I found a pair at the 99 cents store, but they fit tight since they’re made for kids)
• Red and yellow sneakers (like these)
• El chipote chillón (the red and yellow hammer)
• Steady stream of famous phrases

Since I already have the antennae, shirt, and shoes, I think I’m gonna dress up next Wednesday as el Chapulín Colorado (or la Chapulina Colorada?) in disguise, kinda like guys who wear Superman shirts under their suits and go as Clark Kent. I have another costume I’m working on, but I wouldn’t wear it to school/work.

Center photo by /Nathan Gibbs (blog) used under Creative Commons license.

For Halloween 2000, my friends (the Ratas) hosted a 1980s themed party. I dressed up as Punky Brewster. My roommates went as metalheads or punks. Another friend dressed up as an old school chola. It was scary.

Really.

She greeted everyone when they knocked at the door of the Ratas’ apartment with a harsh “whaddaya want?” All the party guests were thrown off by the chola in front of us, until she laughed and we realized it was our friend.

1980s style chola

• Pendleton shirt over a white t-shirt or ribbed tank
• Baggy Dickies (khaki colored) held up with a black letter belt
• Nike Cortez or other old school sneakers
• Long, permed hair; tease up your bangs (the higher, the better; use AquaNet liberally)
• Dark makeup, heavy on the eyeliner and lipliner
• Gold script name on a necklace or a small cross
• The three dots or a tear drop
• Bonus: a new name (e.g., la Sad Girl, Smiley or Shy One)

The chola costume can be done pretty well, but I’d be careful where you go. In the case I mentioned above, the party was on the Westside and was attended by a bunch of college students. If you’re wondering whether or not the costume is a good idea, it’s probably best to leave it at home.

Lastly, to get in to character, I suggest watching Mi Vida Loca and listening to Art Laboe play oldies on your local station.

Photo by Pantavila used under Creative Commons license.

Most of the low-budget costume ideas I’ve written about have been geared toward women (or men who want to dress in drag). Here’s one for the guys: the Mexican comedic genius of Mario Moreno’s immortal character, Cantinflas.

What you’ll need for the costume:

1. Small, beat up hat
2. White thermal or henley shirt
3. Red bandanna
4. Old belt or even some twine to hold up your pants
5. Loose, dirty and tattered pants (brown, beige or blue); make sure to wear them low
6. Beat up old shoes
7. Cigarette
8. Scruffy facial hair, but make sure you get the moustache right
9. Brown scrap of fabric to hang over your left shoulder (tie it in a knot or two)

I’m not sure where you’ll find a small hat, but you can always try a second hand store.

If you need inspiration to see how he speaks, walks or acts check out YouTube videos.

Photo by thevid used under Creative Commons license.

Current events (and scandals!) are always ripe sources for Halloween costumes. As a native of LA, I’m much more interested in what the mayor is doing to improve this city rather than who he’s sleeping with. Still, if you want a risqué couples costume with limited effort (and cost), why not be Antonio Villaraigosa and his girlfriend, former Telemundo political reporter, Mirthala Salinas?

Here’s how to do it:

For Villaraigosa:

• A dark suit with a red or blue tie
• Spiffy shoes, make sure to get them boleados (shined)
• Shave off the goatee and/or mustache (sorry for all those Chicanos attached to their goatees)
• Short hair, it’ll make your ears look bigger
• A cheesy smile (emphasis on cheesy)
• NO wedding ring

For Salinas:

• Spiffy suit in either a dark or light shade
• Spiffy shoes
• Long black hair
• Simple jewelry
• Telemundo 52 logo printed 4 times in color. Form a box with some cardstock so that it looks like a television reporter’s microphone (for the mic, I suggest borrowing one from a friend who has a karaoke set).

That’s it.

Other things you might want to think about: add a nametag since two people in suits isn’t much of a costume. You can make this a threesome by having a friend dress up Corina Villaraigosa, the mayor’s ex-wife.

Bonus: hide from immigrants’ rights activists at the party or carry around plans for reforming LAUSD in your pocket.

Next up in the low-budget costume series: Cantinflas

One year for Halloween, my cousin Victor called my mom asking for help to put together a costume. My mom suggested her patented scarecrow costume. It was easy to put together, you’d be sure not to look like the rest of the kids at your school, and you’d be a favorite of the costume contest judges. Victor won an award that year.

Since then my mom, Lori and I have all dressed up as scarecrows. I know there are plenty of ways to put together such a costume, but I’ll stick to the Mosqueda-style scarecrow and add a few pointers on ways to make it a little less PG-13, scarier or cuter.

What you need:

1. Straw hat; the more beat-up, the better. We had some straw hats from the father/daughter dance in Girl Scouts. I believe the theme for the dance was line dancing.
2. Jeans or overalls. We always used jeans since we didn’t have overalls.
3. Flannel or denim. As you can see, we chose flannel. It’ll keep you a little warmer on a cool night out trick-or-treating.
4. Scraps of fabric with different patterns. These will be the patches you’ll sew on to your jeans and shirt.
5. Strips of fabric about 3/4 of an inch thick.
6. Corn husks for tamales. Sew (or glue, tape, staple) strips of the dried corn husks on to the strips of fabric. Sew the strips to the cuffs of your jeans, collar and cuff of your shirt. You’ll want to make it look like the corn husk stuffing for the scarecrow is coming out of the hat and the patches (see photo). And yeah, straw would be more authentic, but using corn husks is more rascuache.
7. Orange fabric for a jack-o-lantern mask (optional). You can also try a burlap sack as a mask.
8. Old-looking shoes.

To make your scarecrow gory, just add some fake blood or carry a bloody prop knife. We all know scarecrows can be pretty creepy.

If you want to show some skin and try a more adult look, opt for a short denim skirt or shorts instead of pants. Wear colorful or striped stockings.

Finally, to make your scarecrow cute, you can add some cute face paint (draw on nose, rosy cheeks) or makeup. I skipped the makeup last time I did the scarecrow costume for Halloween ’98, but I still got a compliment from a UCLA cheerleader. That was pretty cool.

Next up in the low-budget costume series: philandering politician and mistress (hmmm, I wonder who that may be).