Most Outstanding Mexican Legends

The Mexican legends they are folkloric anecdotes of oral tradition; that is, they are transmitted from voice to voice, so they do not have a specific author. The legends are stories about natural or supernatural events. These are placed in real times and places, thus providing plausibility to the stories.

They usually talk about miracles or historical events embellished by the vox populi . Within the legends, the myth enters; This tells stories about gods and is part of the ancestral religious tradition of ancient civilizations. On the other hand, the legend in general talks about everyday events that happened to ordinary people.

Island of dolls, Xochimilco

To know the legends of a town is to know its culture to a large extent, since in the legends the interests, the folklore, the values ​​or even the fears of the group of people who share them can be observed. In Mexico, this vocal tradition has descended since pre-Hispanic times.

At that time the oral story was the preferred method to share knowledge about the history and origin of some traditions. On the other hand, during the viceregal era - with the arrival of Catholicism - the tradition of legends about miracles or after-death specters began.

With the passage of time, this custom was used to disseminate mysterious daily events, thus giving birth to the urban legend that is also shared from speaker to speaker. The following is a list of Mexican legends, segmented according to their historical origin.

Legends of the pre-Hispanic era

During the pre-Hispanic era, due to the lack of accessible means of communication, knowledge, feats and fantastic anecdotes were all shared orally, usually by the oldest members of the villages.

The legends of this time usually talk about warriors, the birth of men and the relationship of nature with life. These stories were similar to the fables, since they were used to share a moral to an entire town.

The foundation of Tenochtitlán

Approximately during the 6th century, the inhabitants of Aztlán -now north of Mexico- abandoned their land and began a huge pilgrimage entrusted by Huitzilopochtil, their main deity, in search of the promised land.

To know that they were in the right place, Huitzilopochtli would send them a signal: a golden eagle standing on a large cactus devouring a snake. Seeing this vision, the Aztecs began the construction of the great city that would take by name Tenochtitlán.

As Huitzilopochtli had promised, the area was kind, for its abundant water gave them economic and even military advantages. The Aztec Empire would be powerful and dominate much of Mesoamerica.

At present, this vision of the eagle on the nopal is reflected in the coat of arms of the Mexican flag.

The legend of volcanoes

In times of the mighty Aztec Empire, its neighboring towns were subject to paying tribute. The Tlaxcalans, great enemies of the Aztecs, were fed up with this situation and decided to take up arms.

Popocatépetl, one of the great Tlaxcaltecan warriors, decided to ask for the hand of his beloved Iztaccihuatl, the beautiful daughter of a great cacique. The father accepted, and if he returned victorious from the battle the wedding would take place.

During the absence of Popocatépetl, a jealous man falsely announced to the lady that her beloved had died; After a few days, Iztaccihuatl died of sadness. When the warrior returned victorious he was greeted with the tragic news.

To honor his memory, he joined 10 hills and laid his beloved on top; he would carry a torch with him and keep it eternally. This legend tells the origin of the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes - the sleeping woman - that stayed together forever.

The flower of Cempasúchil

The story of Xóchitl and Huitzilin, two young Aztecs in love, began from their childhood, when both used to climb the hills and offer flowers to Tonatiuh, the sun god. When arriving at age, Huitzilin had to fulfill his duties of warrior and leave his town to fight.

Unfortunately, the young man died in battle. Upon hearing this, Xóchitl climbed a mountain and begged Tonatiuh to allow them to be together. Then, the sun god threw lightning on her, turning her into a beautiful bright orange flower.

Huitzilin, in the form of a hummingbird, would come to kiss Xóchitl turned into a flower. This is the origin of the cempasúchil flower, used in the prehispanic tradition to guide the dead to the world of the living.

Corn people

According to the Mayan tradition, when the great creator Hunab Ku made the world there were only plants, seas and animals, so he felt alone. To improve his situation, he created the first people of clay; however, they were fragile and easily broken.

In a second attempt he made wooden people; these were strong and beautiful, but they did not speak and, therefore, they could not worship their gods, so Hunab Ku launched a great flood and attempted its creation for the last time.

On the third occasion he created the people of corn. They were of different colors, they knew everything and they saw everything, causing jealousy to the gods. The creator blinded them by putting steam in their eyes, so they could no longer see the deities, only venerate them.

Legends of the viceregal era

During colonial times, Mexican legends turned into stories of apparitions and miracles, with strong influence from the Catholic Church, the Inquisition and the ideas of the afterlife.

La Llorona

Perhaps the most popular Mexican legend. It speaks of a mestizo woman who had 3 children with an important Spanish gentleman out of wedlock. After years of asking him to formalize their relationship, the woman knew that the gentleman had joined with a Spanish lady of high class.

As revenge, the mestizo woman took her children to the river to drown them; Afterwards, she took her own life because of the guilt. His soul would suffer through the streets of the city for all eternity, shouting repentant for having killed his children.

The alley of the kiss

In the city of Guanajuato lived the noble Dona Carmen, who fell in love with young Luis. Carmen's father, a violent man, did not agree with this love and warned his daughter that he would take her to Spain to marry her to a rich man. The lady's company lady alerted Luis of what happened.

Don Luis, desperate, bought the house in front of Carmen's. A narrow alley joined the windows of both houses; there, the lovers would come together to devise an escape, but Carmen's father discovered them and stuck a dagger in his daughter's chest. While the young woman was dying, Luis only managed to kiss her hand from the window.

The mulatto girl from Córdoba

During the time of the Inquisition, a beautiful mulatto girl lived in the state of Veracruz. Because the other women kept her for her beauty, she was accused of witchcraft, but the Christian authorities found no evidence against her.

Shortly after, the mayor of Cordoba fell in love with her but was never reciprocated. Enraged, he accused the woman of making a pact with the devil to make him fall in love; Due to her previous accusations, this time she was found guilty and sentenced to the stake.

The night before her execution, locked in a dungeon, she asked the guard for a piece of coal; with this drawing a big boat. Impressed, the guard told him that he looked so real that he only needed to walk; Immediately after, the mulatta climbed onto the ship and disappeared.

The vampire tree

When New Spain was still an adventure territory for European navigators, an English man arrived at the town of Belen in Guadalajara. Upon his arrival, the man was reserved and lonely; suspiciously, the animals began to die and the children appeared without life, bled.

One night, armed with courage, the villagers looked for the person responsible for the murders. A scream came from a cabin: the English man had bitten a peasant. The mob confronted him, nailed him a stake and piled dozens of bricks on top of him.

Legend has it that among the bricks a tree sprouted, thanks to the wood of the stake. The settlers say that if a branch is pulled from the tree, it will bleed as the victims did.

The street of the burned

During colonial times a Spanish family arrived in New Spain. The daughter of the couple, a 20-year-old girl, immediately attracted all the wealthy men, who wanted to marry her. But it was an Italian Marquis who decided to conquer it.

Every day she settled under his balcony, challenging any man who wanted her to duel. Every morning the lifeless bodies of innocent bystanders who dared to pass through his window appeared. Dismayed to cause these deaths, the young woman decided to disfigure her face.

He brought his face to the burning coal, erasing all traces of its beauty. However, the Marquis continued with his proposal, because he assured that he loved her inside. Moved, the young woman accepted to be his wife. He spent the rest of his life hiding his face with a black veil; the street on his balcony was renamed in his honor.

Mexican urban legends

The urban legend is the contemporary version of the classical legend and this takes place in modern settings. In these legends a series of strange, improbable or paranormal events leave the listener with a dark moral.

They have the characteristic of being spread mainly by word of mouth or electronically, thanks to the media or the internet.

The island of dolls

In the tourist channel of Xochimilco, in Mexico City, there is a place completely covered by thousands of dolls. The owner of the area, Don Julián, placed them all over the island to chase away the spirit of a girl, who drowned among the lilies and lurked at night.

Over time the place attracted a large number of visitors, who brought more dolls to Don Julián for protection. As he grew older, Don Julian said that a siren from the river had visited him for a long time to take him away. When the man died of cardiac arrest, his body was found next to the water.

The ironed

Some time ago, at the Juarez hospital in Mexico City, Eulalia worked, a kind and patient nurse. Everyone recognized her for her good attitude, her care and her impeccable clothes and always well ironed.

In the hospital he fell in love with a doctor, with whom he promised to marry; however, he never told her that he was already committed. After the disappointment, Eulalia became ill, neglected her patients and finally died.

Thousands of mourners in the city have claimed to have been taken care of by the nurse, who now wanders the hospital like a soul in pain, taking care of the patients who need it.

The black charro

Legend has it that at night, along the roads in the villages, a man dressed as a charro riding a beautiful black horse usually appears. If you are kind to him and are allowed to accompany you to your home, he will leave you alone and continue on his way.

However, on one occasion Adela, a carefree young woman, found him while wandering. To lighten the pace, he asked the man to put her on the horse. When it was mounted, the horse increased its size and caught fire; the charro revealed his identity: it was the devil.

Upon hearing the girl's cries, the neighbors left but could not do anything and saw her burn before their eyes. She was now the property of the devil, who took her away as she burned.

The Chupacabras

In the mid-1990s, a group of Mexican peasants panicked; at night a strange creature attacked the cattle, sucking the blood of goats and cows alike. All the animals had the same characteristics: a bite in the neck.

The panic was such that American biologists began an investigation into it. They concluded that there was no animal species that had the characteristics of the alleged chupacabra and that it was probably a coyote; however, there are hundreds of photographs and videos of the strange creature that have not yet been explained.

References

1. Mexican Archeology (2016) The creation of men according to the Popol Vuh. Mexican Archeology Recovered from arqueologiamexicana.mx
2. Content (s.f.) 6 Terrifying Legends of the Colony. Content. Recuperado de contenido.com.mx
3. El Universal (2013) The 10 Most Famous Legends of Mexico. El Zócalo Online Newspaper. Recovered from zocalo.com.mx
4. Herz, M. (2017) The legend of the foundation of Tenochtitlán. Inside Mexico. Recovered from inside-mexico.com
5. Herz, M. (2017) The Legend of the Cempasuchil Flower. Inside Mexico. Recovered from inside-mexico.com
6. History Channel (s.f.) The Tenebrous Island of the Dolls. Your History Retrieved from tuhistory.com
7. Orozco, C. (2017) The Legend of Popocatepetl & Iztaccihuatl: A Love Story. Inside Mexico. Recovered from inside-mexico.com
8. Rodríguez, N. (s.f.) The Creepiest Urban Legends and Stories from Mexico. Ranker Recovered from Ranker.com