14 Short Mexican Legends Based on Popular Folklore

Short Mexican legends are famous for their mystical content and the cultural syncretism that makes them up. They are an important part of popular culture, since they represent and at the same time transmit values ​​and imaginary about life and death, masculine and feminine, morality and injustice, sanctions and rewards.

In this article you will find 12 short Mexican legends, as well as a brief description of this type of narrative and what are the functions they fulfill.

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14 short Mexican legends (and their meaning)

Legends are the stories that are transmitted from generation to generation through the spoken word, and to a lesser extent through texts. These are narratives that may include historical, fantastic, or supernatural elements and characters, that interact with people and impact the phenomena of everyday life. They have the function of explaining human or natural situations, and have the power to represent an important part of the imaginary, the values ​​and the social conventions.

For this reason, legends vary according to the place where they emerge and the culture that transmits them. In Mexican legends we can find a wide repertoire of symbolic images and mythical representations that fulfill important social functions. Although there are many more, below we will see several short Mexican legends.

1. The weeping woman

Legend has it that a long time ago there was a woman who, in an attempt to get revenge on the man she loved, murdered her children by drowning them in a river. Immediately afterwards she repented, and because of her fault she decided to commit suicide.

Since then, she has wandered the streets of different cities at midnight (especially she appears near places where there is water), and she repeats incessantly "Oh my children!" For this she is known as "La Llorona"

The roots of this woman, and the reasons that lead her to take revenge on her, vary according to the version. Likewise, there are those who say that she is a woman who specifically appears to drunk men and punishes them through fright.

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2. The Popocatepetl and the Iztaccíhuatl

In central Mexico there are two volcanoes called Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, as an Aztec warrior and the daughter of one of the chiefs had been named, respectively. Popocatepetl had to go to war, but he promised Iztaccíhuatl that he would return as soon as possible.

However, another warrior who had listened to them and was also in love with the daughter of chief, let Iztaccíhuatl know that Popocatepetl had died in combat, although this had not happened. The sadness was so great that Iztaccíhuatl decided to take his life, and when Popocatépetl returned and did not find his beloved, he did the same. In a sign of trembling, the gods decided to bring them together again in the form of two great volcanoes.

3. The alley of the kiss

This legend, typical of the city of Guanajuato, tells that a suspicious father had separated his daughter Carmen from the one in love with her. To such an extent he disliked her loving bond that he promised to marry her to another man, richer and more prestigious, who lived abroad. Before complying with it, he locked her daughter in one of the typical houses of the city, which was characterized by being high and one very close to the other, divided only by a small alley.

Fortunately for the lovers, the window of Carmen's room adjoined that of a house for sale, which was quickly acquired by the lover, as the only solution for her reunion. So the lovers could be together again.

But, shortly after, they were discovered by the father, who in a rage, stuck a knife in the chest of his daughter. His lover could only kiss him goodbye. Since then, this alley has been dubbed the kissing alley, and it is tradition for couples who go through it to kiss right there.

4. The Mayan hummingbird

They say When the Mayan gods created the earth, each animal was assigned a task determined. But, when they finished, they realized that there was no one to transport ideas, thoughts and wishes between them.

On top of it they had finished the mud and corn, which are the materials with which they had originated the rest of the things. They only had a small jade stone left, so they decided to carve it and create a small arrow. When they finished it they blew on it and it flew off. They had thus created a new being, which they called x’ts’unu’um, which means hummingbird.

5. The Mulata of Córdoba

La Mulata de Córdoba was a woman condemned to the stake by the Holy Office, near the east coast of Mexico. She was credited with the power of eternal youth and being the advocate for impossible cases, such as those of unemployed workers and single women. She was always surrounded by men who easily fell in love with her and lost their way of her righteousness. First of all the above, they said she had pacts with the devil and that she even she received him in her own home.

Until she was arrested by the Court of the Holy Inquisition, being accused of practicing witchcraft and having arrived on a boat that had not docked at any beach. One night before serving her sentence and while she was in a cell, she requested that they bring her a piece of coal, with which she drew a ship and she was able to fly out of the bars. When she arrived, the guards could only find a smell of sulfur, whose existence is related to this day.

6. The alley of the dead

This legend tells that in Oaxaca City, southern Mexico, a man whose job it was to light the city's oil lamps, was killed on the spot. He had finished his work, but he quickly realized that he needed to light one, so he returned just before he returned home. He died mysteriously and, since then, legend has it that his soul appears after 9 o'clock at night, to walk the alley of the oil lamps.

This is one of the legends of Mexico with more recent origins, but that does not mean that it ceases to be part of the popular culture of the region.

7. The nagual

Since pre-Hispanic times, several of the gods that have been part of Mexican culture have had the power to change from human to animal form. This faculty was later transferred to warlocks, witches, and shamans, who acquire the abilities of the animal into which they transform and they use it in favor of the community.

Thus, legend has it that nahuals constantly appear to people, especially at midnight and taking the form of common animals.

This is one of the Mexican legends in which the influence of pre-Hispanic folklore based on many animistic beliefs according to which nonhuman objects and animals have intellectual faculties peculiar to our species.

8. Devil's alley

Located in Mexico City, they say that the devil himself appears in this alley. A skeptical man decided to check such a story, with which he was encouraged one night to walk around. It was a shady place where there were some trees.

When he was not even halfway there he stopped, as he believed he saw a shadow behind a tree. Immediately he continued walking, and they say that the shadow approached him, taking the form of a man who laughed intensely. The previously skeptical man ran out, but began to feel that the ground was sinking and trapping him hard to prevent his escape.

However, he managed to escape and broadcast his encounter with the devil to those he encountered along the way. In other versions it is said that the apparition was towards a drunken man and that, to avoid it, it is necessary to daily deposit jewels and offerings under the tree where he appears.

9. Island of the dolls

In Xochimilco, one of the delegations of Mexico City where there is a large lake with numerous trajineras, it is said that a man named Julián Santana collected abandoned dolls.

The man lived in one of these trajineras, and the reason why he put the figures together was to drive away the lake spirits. Specifically, Don Julián offered these dolls as a symbol of peace to drive away the spirit of a girl who drowned right there.

Currently there is a small island with the dolls collected by Don Julián in the channels of Xochimilco, and they say that the soul of this man constantly returns to take care of them. In this way, this Mexican legend has given way to an urban legend whose reality takes place in the present time.

10. Princess Donají

This legend tells that Cosijopi, the last governor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the southern part of Mexico, had a daughter whom he named Donají. During a war between the Mixtecs and the Zapotecs, Donají was taken hostage and later beheaded. Although her body was buried, the place where her head lay was never disclosed.

Some time later, a shepherd who was passing through the Oaxacan mountains uprooted a lily (wild flower also called lily). By doing this, she found what appeared to be a human head underground, and by rescuing it from it, she led it to meet her body in the temple of Cuilapam. It was then that Princess Donají's soul was finally able to rest in peace..

This is another of the many examples that show the extent to which death has a relevant role in Mexican legends, and almost always goes hand in hand with narrative elements related to the drama.

11. The vampire tree of Guadalajara

Many years ago, a foreigner from Europe came to a town in the area of ​​Guadalajara, Mexico. She was a strange and reserved person, but her lack of interest in socializing with the people of the region was not the most disturbing thing.

In fact, since the arrival of this mysterious man, first the corpses of animals began to appear, and then the lifeless bodies of children, all of them bled to death.

One night, the townspeople decided to look for the foreigner to confront him, assuming that he was the perpetrator. That night they found him trying to bite a local, so they drove a wooden stake into him and then buried his body under a pile of bricks.

Years later a tree grew out of the bricks from the wooden stake, and It is said that when cutting the branches of it, trails of blood appear inside the cut, of the victims of the Guadalajara vampire.

12. The legend of Tepoztécatl

Tepoztécatl is a legendary character from the Morelos region of Mexico. It is said that he was the son of a pregnant princess through magic through a small bird that landed on her shoulder. As she was not married, the princess's parents became angry with her, and the young woman was forced to separate from the baby after her birth.

And that's how Tepoztécatl's journey began, when his mother abandoned him in the forest and was picked up by a colony of ants. These small insects fed him cooperating with some bees, which gave part of his honey so that the ants could take it to the little one.

Months later, the ants left the little Tepoztécatl next to an agave, and it took him in among his leaves and fed him with his sap. Some time passed, and the agave left Tepoztécatl on some logs and put it in the river, place in the that the child traveled until an elderly couple from Tepoztlán found him and adopted him in their family.

Years later, when Tepoztécatl was already a strong and intelligent young man, a giant serpent-like monster named Mazacóatl appeared to frighten the people of the region, and the old man who had adopted the young man was chosen to fight with her. As he felt old and weak, his godson Mazacóatl replaced him, and killed the snake using a blade made of obsidian crystal.

13. The stone shepherds

This Mexican legend comes from Teloloapan. He tells us that many years ago, two shepherds joined a group of pilgrims that, after having made promises to the Lord of Chalma, they traveled to her hermitage walking for several days, to pay tribute to him.

But at a certain point along the way, the shepherds told the rest that they were exhausted, and that they regretted having promised to go to Chalma, so that they would wait there for the collective of pilgrims to return on their way to return. However, when they started walking again, the latter looked back and instead of seeing the shepherds, they saw two rocks shaped like a woman.

14. The grotto of Xalapa

On the Macuiltépetl hill, belonging to the city of Xalapa, there is a cave in which it is said that once a year mountains of treasures and riches appear, visible only to people in dire need. One day, a mother who had spent all of her money trying to heal her baby without getting any positive result, he saw a golden reflection inside the cave, and upon entering it, he saw great mountains of gold.

As he carried his baby in his arms, he put it down on a pile of coins and began to fill his pockets with riches, using both arms to be able to carry more and leave it in the saddlebags of his mule, which he expected outside. But when she returned to the cave to find more gold and carry it to the saddlebags, she saw that both the treasure and the baby had disappeared.

Bibliographic references:

• Erbiti, A. (2004): Myths and legends of Mexico. Buenos Aires: Austral Latin Circle.
• Fernández del Castillo, Francisco (1991): Tacubaya. History, legends and characters. Mexico D. F.: Porrúa.