¡Ay Cucuy! is a Latino storytelling series and party featuring Latino Chicagoans sharing personal spooky tales of hauntings and encounters with the supernatural.
¡Ay Cucuy! was conceived as complimentary community programming to run in conjunction with The Wizards that shares similar themes of haunting and the supernatural.
During the run of The Wizards, two ¡Ay Cucuy! evenings were held on October 8, 2022 and on Day of the Dead, November 2, 2022. Hosted by Ricardo Gamboa, co-directed by Gamboa and Ruth Guerra and featuring a specialty cocktail menu by Luis Antonio Mora and music and sonics by Vales Madre, both ¡Ay Cucuy! evenings were sold-out, standing room only evenings.
October 8th
Stories By
Sebastian Olayo
Lily Celso
Eliseo Real
Ruth Guerra
Lalo Beas
Karari Olvera Orozco
Ashley Alvarez
Ricardo Gamboa
Story One
Sebastian Olayo
After a divorce, Sebastian’s mother moved with Sebastian to a spooky place called “the suburbs.” There, Sebastian encountered a mysterious basement tenant, a trans chihuahua breeding witch neighbor, and all sorts of other bruja-ja-ja.
Story Two
Lily Celso
Lily remembers the day during her childhood when bodies were pulled out the house down the block after a family died of carbon monoxide poisoning. But this haunting tragedy is just the beginning for Lily’s tale.
Story Three
Eliseo Real
Eliseo has a haunting of another kind. For him, the specter of alcohol and substance abuse and his late father are the ghosts that pursue him.
Story Four
Ruth Guerra
Ruth been through the dating meat grinder and thought she finaly found the one. Then one night, he confessed to Ruth the possessive spirit that doesn’t want him in a relationship...
Story Five
Lalo Beas
Lalo achieved a dream for many Mexicans: he bought and remodeled a house. But, this all-American dream turned nightmarish with the discovery of a haunted crawl space.
Story Six
Karari Olvera Orozco
She’s a certified nightclub diva. But an unexpected visitor at the club leads to a night of suspense and survival for Karari.
Story Seven
Ashley Alvarez
Ashley’s a lawyer with a heart of gold who finds herself in a human horror story as she tries to rescue friends from police custody during the George Floyd protests.
Story Eight
Ricardo Gamboa
¡Ay Cucuy! creator and host Ricardo Gamboa shares a real-life encounter of escaping a predator in this tale about growing up in the spooky temporality known as the 80s.