Bolivia is a country brimming with stories passed down through generations, even beyond its borders. The myths and legends of Bolivia stem from its native culture, originating from its indigenous peoples, as well as from religious and Catholic beliefs.
Bolivian Legends
Bolivia is a Latin American country characterized by its cultural diversity, its religious traditionalism and its wide mythological range. That is why, to their credit, they have many surprising stories, as well as fabulous myths, many of their legends being known throughout the world.
Over the years, its culture has been constituted derived from the influences of a great variety of ethnic groups, which since ancient times, have inhabited its territory. In the same way, it is worth highlighting the important role that the influence of European culture has played, after the explorations of the Spanish colony to American lands.
It is said that even some of them date back to the times when writing was not yet known, or at least not in the way we know it today. Many of these chronicles had their birth in ancient Bolivia, originating, as has been previously pointed out, during the time of Spanish colonization, with the arrival of the conquerors.
The most frequent themes on which most Bolivian legends are based are those related to the origin of the universe, or also to the appearances of rare animals with extraordinary characteristics, or mythological creatures, as occurs with myths and legends. from other South American countries.
Urban legends
Bolivian urban myths and legends have become very popular in several Latin American regions because many of them contain vivid and fantastical descriptions that are easily understood worldwide. You can also read about the myths of Honduras.
The Ghosts of the Chest Hospital
One of these best-known Bolivian legends is the one that refers to the ghosts that visit the Thorax hospital. It has always been said that within the hospital, ghosts appear constantly, as well as other entities from beyond.
One of the most talked-about stories related to the Thorax Hospital, located in La Paz – Bolivia, is a story told by one of its nurses named Wilma Huañapaco, which became part of this urban legend.
The events took place on August 4, after having completed his shift, which for that day was a double shift. The nurse tells, who was ordering the documentation related to the patients she had attended that day, she realized that it was already around 2 am
Suddenly, he began to feel that the environment became extremely dense and a feeling of great heaviness invaded his body, somehow preventing him from moving from the chair where he was. Her senses were also affected, as she could not speak, hear, or smell anything.
Trying to move, he turned his head back and saw the figure of a very tall man, surrounded by a strange green light. The silhouette of that man vanished and it was then that the nurse regained control over her body and her senses, continuing with her work.
The nurse assures that what she had witnessed was not a hallucination, since she was awake at all times, since she had to take care of many sick patients. When questioned about the occurrence of that event, the nurse reported that since she was a child she had the ability to see and perceive the presence of ghosts, spirits and other supernatural beings.
This is just one of the many cases that have been reported about types of extrasensory experiences and that have been occurring for many years within the hospital. There are even reports described by some stretcher bearers, who also claim to have seen ghosts of all kinds, in particular, a man who walks through the corridors of the emergency room and who has no head.
The Thorax Hospital, known in La Paz - Bolivia as the General Hospital, is located very close to the morgue, a fact that gives it some logical explanation as to why ghosts visit it so frequently.
The Ghost of the Garden Cemetery
The legend of urban Bolivia known as The Ghost of the Garden Cemetery is full of cases, whose protagonists, when recounting their experiences, requested that their names not be registered. One of the characteristics of urban Bolivian legends is that they occur not only in the country's capital, but also in any region of the Bolivian interior, since each population has its own stories.
Although many of these legends are based on events that occurred in recent times, they do not have sufficient argumentation or other evidence to be considered true. One of the chronicles referring to the Ghost of the Garden Cemetery was made by a woman who indicated that one night she was on her way to her house in the company of her husband, after coming from a meeting with friends.
The lady narrates that they felt very tired and that they still had a long way to go to get home, so her husband decided to take a shortcut, thus taking the road to Sopocachi, a neighborhood in the city of La Paz in Bolivia. That same road is the one that leads through the vicinity of the Garden Cemetery and when passing by there, the woman claimed to have seen a person dressed in black.
According to the wife's vision, that person would be a lady, so she asked her husband to stop the vehicle, because the woman could be cold, since she was not wearing any coat in her clothing and they were in the middle of the winter season. Her husband listened to her and after slowly stopping the car, they called the mysterious lady.
The husband was even more surprised when he saw that lady dressed in black, because this was not just any woman, but a ghost and that almost caused him a heart attack. Arriving at the hospital and being treated by the paramedics, the man, a little upset by what he had seen, kept repeating that the woman's eyes were completely white and that she seemed to float in the direction of the graveyard.
Many of the people who have had these encounters in the vicinity of this pantheon prefer to forget those traumatic experiences. It is said that the Garden Cemetery is not the only pantheon in Bolivia where people claim to have seen ghosts wandering among the tombs.
Horror legends
The legends of Bolivia of terror, have a range of stories that instill a lot of fear and deep fear today. However, they are listed as one of the most preferred stories among the myths and legends of Bolivia, because these stories have a large fan base for both children and adults.
The man who became Sicurí
This legend from Bolivia tells the story of a newlywed couple who went to live near the shores of the Yaguarú lagoon , a place where the neighbors warned new visitors about the presence of a Sicurí , a large snake, very similar to the anaconda.
Due to this, they always tried to alert the inhabitants of the area, especially women and children, so that they do not leave their houses, without the company of a man. Since the couple moved to live in the region, the locals began to draw attention to the fact that a strange man was prowling the houses.
The inhabitants described him as a tall and slender individual, who always dressed in black. They say that one day, the owner of one of the houses surprised the stranger while he was spying on his house, and without thinking twice, he took out his shotgun and shot him three times.
The next day, outside his residence, the body of a dead Sicurí was found , so everyone began to think that the mysterious man was bewitched and transformed into the fearsome snake.
the coffin
This is one of those terrifying Bolivian legends that has had a profound impact on everyone who hears or learns about it. It has traditionally been said that on Tuesdays and Fridays, the inhabitants of the city of Potosí in Bolivia should not go out in the early hours of the morning.
The story tied to this legend occurred many years ago, specifically the times when the Spanish were in charge of the mines in the region. A couple arrived in the town with their five children, full of hope for a better future and being able to make a great fortune.
However, that same year they arrived in the area, the youngest of their daughters became seriously ill with measles. After spending a few months with the disease, the poor girl died. The spouses, together with their other children, returned to Spain after a few years, but left the body of their little girl buried in Bolivia.
When about 15 days passed after the family's departure, several miners saw with great astonishment how a burning coffin passed in front of their eyes, going in the direction of the train station. But, the most chilling part came when the sun rose at dawn and touched with the first ray of sunlight, the coffin returned to the cemetery.
In those years, the train that went to the capital, La Paz, left the city of Potosí every Tuesday and Friday at midnight, and that is why now nobody goes out on those days so as not to witness paranormal events.
Short stories
As we mentioned earlier, Bolivia has a wide range of myths and legends, falling into all sorts of categories: urban legends, horror stories, and the well-known short Bolivian legends. Other Latin American countries also have their share of myths and legends, such as Ecuadorian legends.
The Legend of the Merry Widow
They say that two centuries ago, a man named Martín went to share in the town festivals in the company of his younger brothers, who had insisted that he accompany them. This was not typical behavior of him, because on the contrary, he was characterized by being a reserved man who was always working.
Arriving at the party, Martin's brothers all began to dance, while he sat in a corner to wait for the celebration to end. He suddenly approached a beautiful woman, with a slender body with black eyes and curly hair of the same tone. She began to make conversation with Martin who clarified that he was not a party man and that he was there only for his brothers.
He also told the young woman that he was not very talkative and that he did not know how to dance. The woman managed to invite him to go outside the party for a chat. The atmosphere was presented for romance, as the weather was quite pleasant and the moon looked splendid. After a couple of hours of talking, they kissed.
The woman told him later that it was very late and that he should go home, so Martin offered to accompany her. But, something strange happened to Martin's horse at the moment when the woman was going to climb on his back, because he neighed in a very strange way, as she had never done before.
When they set out on their way, the woman told Martín that her house was near the cemetery, a fact that surprised the man, since there were no houses near the cemetery. Despite this, he went to the place indicated by the lady.
Finding herself exactly on the outskirts of the pantheon, that woman let out a scream of terror, a scream so loud that it could be heard in every corner of Bolivia. Martín was horrified when he witnessed the moment when the mysterious lady turned into a walking skeleton. It was the Merry Widow, a supernatural entity that tries to kill all its victims with a scare.
The Condor and the Chola
The Condor and the Chola, or cholita, is another of the short Bolivian legends, which is located in a Bolivian province where the most beautiful girl in the region lived. The young woman was in charge of taking care of a flock of sheep.
Every day that girl walked the meadows herding her sheep, preventing the occurrence of any danger. Everything was going smoothly, until one summer morning, a large condor passed by, and when he looked at the beautiful young woman, he immediately fell in love with her, so he tried to kidnap her.
One day he waited until the other shepherds had gone home. Then, using her claws, he took the girl by the shoulders and took her to the top of a mountain top, which was the place where that huge creature lived.
Every day, poor Cholita begged the condor to allow her to return home, to be with her parents, whom she had to help with the work in the fields, but her pleas were unsuccessful. Since there was no food to eat, the young woman lost weight as the days went by.
Although the condor brought her raw meat, since they had no fire, she could not cook it, much less eat it. At that moment, the bird realized that humans needed fire to cook food. She managed to heat up a piece of meat and gave it to Cholita to feed her, but she insisted on wanting to go back to her house.
The condor then understood that he could not keep her by his side and that she was never going to love him, so he climbed on top of him, and holding tightly to her feathers, they took flight towards the young woman's house. Upon arrival, in gratitude, the girl gave her a smile and in return, she kept one of the condor's feathers as a souvenir of her.
the mine keeper
The Mine Guardian is one of the legends of Bolivia that tells the story of "El Tío" (The Uncle), the nickname given to the protector of the underworld in the city of Potosí , Bolivia. According to tradition, where God's dominion does not reach, the miners place themselves under the protection of "El Tío," who is none other than the devil.
It is said that mining has been going on for many centuries in Bolivia, whose date coincides with the arrival of the Spanish colonization, something that resulted in innumerable deaths. The risks that miners go through are very high, being among the main causes of death the lack of protective equipment, oxygen, and other accidents, in addition to lung diseases.
It is common to find figures of the "uncle" in the corridors of the mines, with offerings of beers, cigarettes and even sacrificed animals so that he stays happy, protects the miners and returns them home soon.
the jichi
The inhabitants of the province of Chiquitos in Bolivia, have the belief that there is a guardian genius that has the power to change form. Most of the time, this cool creature takes the form of animals like snakes, tigers, and even toads.
It is said that this magnificent guardian guards the waters of life, which is why it is kept hidden in rivers, lakes and wells. They say that to all those communities that do not value this water resource, the guardian goes and as punishment, imposes a terrible drought.
This creature is called Jichi , to whom the Chiquitano people pay tribute, because if it is angered, the prosperity of the fishing industry is in danger, as is the survival of the villages.
rain and drought
Rain and drought are part of one of Bolivia's short legends, linked to the origin of the Earth, as it speaks of Pachamama . The story tells that Pachamama , meaning Mother Earth, and Huayra Tata , the wind, were a couple.
Huayra Tata dwelled in the abysses and the skies, though every so often he descended and emptied Lake Titicaca to fertilize Pachamama , transforming that water into rain. However, there were times when he fell asleep in the lake, and the waters became troubled.
At those times a drought would occur, but Huayra Tata would always awaken and return to the mountain peaks, which was his home. With this story, the indigenous people explained the rainy and dry seasons.
the guajojo
In this new collection of short Bolivian legends, we will tell the story of the guajojó, a bird whose song could be heard at sunset in the jungle. Those who have heard it describe its call as a sound similar to crying, which can be heartbreaking, leaving those who hear it deeply disturbed.
Its call is so loud it can be heard throughout the Amazon rainforest. Although the guajojó is a bird, a legend tells of it once being a woman. She was the daughter of a chieftain who had fallen in love with a man from her own tribe.
They say that when her father found out, he tried to take the suitor to the thickest part of the jungle to kill him using his powers of sorcery, since he did not consider him to be a worthy husband for his daughter.
Suspicious of her beloved's mysterious and prolonged absence, the woman went to look for him, only to find the scene of the crime. She then threatened to denounce him to the tribe, but her father transformed her into the guajojó.
Since then, it is said that she wanders throughout the jungle, mourning the death of her beloved. And if you found this topic interesting, you can also read about the legends of El Alicanto on our blog.
