Urban Legends of Mexico El Chupacabra

 Mexicans are very superstitious, they have firm and deepseated beliefs in flying saucers, ghosts and the Chupacabra (Goatsucking monster who drains the blood from animals).

They believe it so much that even a “B” Movie was made about it.

The Chupacabra

 Supposedly from “eye witness” accounts this is what it looks like…

Goat sucker

 Also here and in many parts of the world there are cow mutilations…. mostly T bone and Sirloin steaks are missing which give rise to the rumor that its a crime commited by a deranged butcher, Jack the Rippers reincarnation or the Chupacabra.

WHEN mount Popocatepetl erupted a few years ago, the government sent the Army up to the village closest to the crater (Xalizintla, Puebla)to conduct rehearsed evacuations as a safety matter. after the first trial evacuation many of the villagers refused to leave. I asked a few of them Why? and they said after they had been taken away in trucks to a town a hundred miles away and they went back…their goats disappeared. Was it goat rustlers, the army personell left behind or the Chupacabra?? No one seems to know.

 Anyway if you should see a Chupacabra …don’t say baaaa ! You’re courting disaster.

On the other hand, if you see a ghost…(an elderly wizened lady of 90 told me this… You should ask the ghost…”Where is the gold hidden?”

spooks

The Weeping Woman Legend

Since Halloween is almost upon us ,this ghost legend should be apropo. The Legend of the weeping woman goes back as far as prehispanic times. Mexican mothers use it to scare their children by telling them if they stay out at night the weeping woman will kidnap them.

 According to Prehispanic Codices (Aztec pictographic books), ten years before the arrival of the Conquistadors, many strange occurences took place around Tenochitlan  (now Mexico City), A sudden fire burned the temple of Huixtlipochtli the god of war, siamese twins were born, a comet passed over in great brilliance (Haley’s to be exact), a crane was caught on Lake Texcoco that had a mirror like rock imbedded in its head and when King Moctezuma looked at it he saw strange white men with red beards riding on deer (horses were unkown in Mexico before 1519), with strange weapons.

All very ominous signs and another worrisome thing was every night the King could hear a woman crying on the lake outside his palace saying, “My children, my children, where are my children?” He sent servants to investigate but they couldn’t find anyone.

After the Conquest and many deaths from the war and plagues, ther were many mothers mourning the fate of their children and the country.

The Conquest

The second legend, about the time of the early years of Spanish Colonialism says that an Indian girl fell madly in love with a Spanish soldier who fathered her children and then abandoned her. The bereft girl drowned her children and commited suicide and now her ghost, veiled and in a white dress wanders the streets of the city looking for wayward children to kidnap.

the weeping woman in the right hand corner

the weeping woman legend

If you happen to be in Mexico City between now and November  22nd, Go to the Xochimilco Floating Gardens and catch a flatboat to see the Theatrical production of “La LLorona”, it takes place on an island in the lake after dark. Go on Halloween for an extra spooky time.

"La LLorona" theatrical play