Myths and LegendsWhat's fact? What's just an old wives' tale? Read up on these persistent, sometimes creepy, totally believable urban legends to separate truth from myth.
Mexico is one of the largest countries in the world and a popular vacation spot to party it up. But you might have second thoughts before booking those spring or summer break plane and hotel tickets if you grew up hearing the multiple spine-chilling urban legend from Mexico that revolve around mothers, children, and ghosts.
These ten urban legends and creepy stories from Mexico - including the famous La Llorona and Chupacabra, the not-so-famous La Lechuza and El Cucuy, and everything in between - are hard to forget, and for the murderers and ghosts taking center stage in the legend, the stories will never be forgotten.
"La Llorona," otherwise known as "The Crying Woman," fell head over heels for a man who gave her the ultimatum: him or her children.
The Crying Woman chose the latter, drowning her own children, in hopes to be with the man she loved. But after rejecting her, she took her own life as well. Whereabouts of the man, and if he was the children's biological father, still remain unknown.
The Crying Woman goes around the streets of Mexico, grieving the loss of her children. Children must never wander the streets alone or misbehave, or La Llorona will come out and get them.
A warning from the parents, "El Cucuy" (otherwise known as the boogeyman) is a creature who preys on children who have misbehaved their parents. He can show up at any given moment in the night.
In your closet.
Under your bed.
At the foot of your mattress.
Always listen to your parents, or the boogeyman will find you...
In the 1930s at Hospital Juarez, "La Planchada" (aka "The Ironed Lady") fell for a doctor, but he left her for another woman. Slipping into a deep depression, La Planchada contracted an illness that, ultimately, killed her.
Rumor has it that she had looked down upon other nurses, as well as murdered a patient in hopes of overcoming her heartbreak from a man she was no longer able to trust.
She is said to roam the halls of hospitals and tend to the needs of patients, as well as return to the room where she died and heal whoever is staying there.
Traced as far back as the 1870's, the vanishing hitcher is exactly what it sounds like. He hails down drivers, only, to suddenly vanish, sometimes even when the car is still moving, with no explanation. Some say that the hitcher often appears in the form of a young girl, leaving an address for her house.
Drivers are often greeted by two grieving parents, who are said to announce that today would have been their little girl's birthday.
"La Lechuza" is a woman who turns into an owl, waiting outside of the houses of her victims, often crying until her victims come out. Also known as "The Witch Owl," rumor has it that she sold her soul to the devil to become more powerful.
Sometimes she appears as an owl the size of a human being, often with the head of an owl and body of an elderly woman.
First caught in the act in March 1995, "Chupacabra" (or the goat sucker) is a tall creature who lurks in more than one-hundred farms, sucking the blood from the animals. Others have also identified "Chupacabra" as a werewolf creature with vampire fangs - basically, a vampire werewolf.
Whether called the bloodsucker or Chupacabra, this creature is one of the most pervasive cryptozoologic entities out there, having made appearances in Puerto Rico and across North America.
