Tlahuelpuchis (la vampira mexicana) || Relatos del lado oscuro

0:00 Very good night and all of you welcome to tales on the dark side. You know that my particular opinion about vampires has never been very positive and that to me there doesn' t seem to be any romanticism or any cute thing behind a vampire that in any way, a vampire can be a pale teenager with a distant look and wandering around here or there, nor any ridiculous guy who dresses in black, paints his lips red, leaves his hair long and considers that with that it' s chick. No. The vampire is somehow an intermediate being between a rotting corpse and a living being the tlag. Puche is a vampire has nothing to do with a human specimen. It is a degraded variant tales of the dark side, brown, beings, strangers, events, is inexplicable, truth stories that other minds prefer to ignore as such, according to European legends, which are not necessarily the same as America, as Africa, as Japan, but which have great similarities. According to that,

1:34 the vampire is an undead and, therefore, would be a corpse. Being a corpse, it is a dispossession, characterized by the nauseating pain that surrounds it. It' s not pretty and you don' t dress with a third, but it' s a stinking corpse has certainly begun to degenerate the life that gives you a demonic spirit and the fact that you feed on the life of other beings keeps you in some way more or less complete. I insist more or less complete. However, this is a being who is not alive. Therefore, your skin has lost, softness, lightness, flexibility, your movements can be breathed in or directed by this cursed spirit. However, they are not the movements of a living being. Therefore, they are rigid closer to a kind of telekinesis than to a natural movement. On the other hand, they are not eternal, they are not all- wise, they are not omnipresent and they are not extraordinarily strong. They simply live much more, know much more and can move very well from the very fear of human beings. It' s complex, but we usually always talk about European vampires.

3:07 And that is not entirely correct, because in many cultures, as I said, there is the idea of creatures who suck blood to live and as such can overcome the lives of average human beings and reach very long ages. Mexico is no exception. Mexico is a country where there was also that belief, and also a terrible belief, because it is still present. Except the name' s not vampire. They' re called witches, but they' re nothing but a vampire Let me explain a little more. In fact, the idea of these beings is very central, it is very central to Mexico, atliscora land of witches. Everyone knew that the witches came down from the skirts of the Volcano or went up. But the oldest belief, good the most distributed that of the witches of Tlaxcala. And I' m not referring to the current people of Tlaxcala, but in the time of the colony.

4:23 Before the colony they were known as tlahuelpuchis, and it was something that was widespread throughout the Altiplano, not only in Tlaxcala. What surprised me most is that, while the term tlago, elpuchi is Tlaxcaltec from the time of Tlaxcala as a pre- Hispanic kingdom, the idea, this very idea that I am going to describe to you of this character, was also present in Mexican territories, in the areas of what is currently Mexico City, of what was Tenochtitlán. It was extended, of course, to areas of Cholula, to areas of Morelos, to low areas of Guerrero, to the area of Veracruz, to the Olmeca toltec zones. Everywhere they believed in this, everyone gave it a different name, depending on their own dialect, but essentially it meant the same thing. Tlago, the puchi could translate something like brazier that shines or haze that shines. The term is a little complicated to explain, since it was an idea more than a word, but as such it described that and it is that what they were describing was these fireballs that for so many years we have heard that they exist. This is very notorious because on many

5:54 occasions I have had the opportunity to talk to current people, young people, who have witnessed this. I' ve had a chance to talk to the elderly, who lived this too. Therefore, it is one of those issues that has caused me a lot of curiosity and the idea of tlahuelpuche is essentially that. The Tlahuelpuchi. When the Spaniards arrive, they come across all sorts of horrors in Mexican territory. To start off from the coast towards the highlands. They encounter tribes that had sompantlis, that is, beautiful ornaments where they placed the skulls of the people who had been sacrificed or who had died in the war, and decorated with this the entrances of their cities. The skulls already decomposed, decarbonated, some even more caldosos, others still with remains, were there adorning. The Spaniards weren' t just any candy. In fact, the first to arrive were probably criminals taken out of prison, sent to the ships on the condition that if they helped in this task, they would be forgiven for their crimes. Then they were very, very dangerous people, very rough, but still they were not prepared to meet what was traditional in Mexico. We understand that here they cut off an individual' s chest, took out his heart and spread the body and that, for example, the

7:29 pozole that we now enjoy so much. Well, actually, if he had human flesh, okay, and it' s not like they fed on human flesh. It wasn' t a cannibal town. It was a town that had a ritual that eventually included human flesh intake, but the handling of bodies and everything was quite everyday. But that wasn' t all they had to do with it. In Mexico there were many stories. People told many stories and this made it easier for chroniclers to tell some of these stories. And when they get to the Tlaxcala area, within the many things they hear was the legend of the tlahuelpuchis and they know why they told them. Come on.

8:16 You don' t think the Spaniards came and the people came quickly to tell you, you hear the legend of my people about such a thing. No, of course there was no certain fear these strange characters and obviously the news was flying that where they were passing wreaked havoc. However, the real reason I told them the story is no other, but they saw it, according to that very ancient tradition. When the Spaniards arrive in 1, 500 twenty, more or less, they observe something that happens in the area of what today is the malinche and ask what they answer to nail the puchis and they ask what it is and then tell them the story. And that' s how it comes to our day. Of course, she' s still alive. It is a legend that has not disappeared and that is in force, but it does not arrive because some of these chroniclers who heard what the people of those places explained kept it. The funny thing is that what the tlage the puchis already told him, the name comes from this species as a brazier or from this kind of hornito, from this small brazier that is used to burn the cupal and incense, but that shines, that is, they used that definition rather and the correct translation would be rather like fog that shines.

9:52 They described women in the communities as what was happening. Sometimes small children disappeared or were found within the house dead without blood, with very peculiar wounds, or were found outside in pens, equally without blood, dead. People at the time believed that this was because of women who had the ease to transform themselves as if they were naguals, to transform themselves into animals to do this damage. These women, who could be regarded as what we would call witches, fed on a daily basis of common food and could go unnoticed completely, given that their human appearance was normal the appearance of an ordinary person.

10:56 However, the strikepuchis were born with a drink the puchis were born with these gifts that developed from adolescence. Up to that point, no Tlahuelpuchi could know what that was. From adolescence, these women began to develop a need for human blood, especially infant blood. According to legend, each of these people learned in their own way why. Because the Tlahuelpuchi, at least in understanding this region of the Center, was not part of a guild like the witches in Europe who made covenants or covenants in Mexico. They were people who suddenly realized they were this and, obviously, it was not something that could be discussed with the whole colony. It was a matter that developed little by little.

12:01 It could be because of a cursed inheritance, that is, because they had been bewitched or cursed by a similar person another, because, indeed, there would have been some contact of the parent with an atlahuelpuchi. While this type of Mexican vampire preferred to attack an infant, if not, he could also attack an adult. Pollution, unlike European belief, would not occur in the adult himself, but in his offspring, so that the adult could go on without presenting any symptoms, without any problem, but his child would be born with this disease or with this strange suffering or characteristic, so that, when he reaches adolescence, this woman. Because, while some claim that there could also be men with these characteristics, the vast majority were women, since men would probably die very soon before developing skills. Once he starts feeling the need, he' s going to look for it and he' s going to find a way. Sometimes, one atlago, the puchi passed the knowledge to another let me talk to him. This is because, besides, it ' s very interesting. In ancient belief, they could be recognized, for

13:37 example, in the street, in a lot of people, in a market, and the other people saw two women alike, common and ordinary in traditional clothing, with nothing particular, but they would immediately recognize each other. Usually, they' d both give in. The Tlahulpuche was very territorial. It was therefore possible to know who might be the one that affected a certain region. But eventually, when they came across the road with another they immediately recognized each other. Two things could happen, one that immediately went away without saying a word to not be evident and not be put at risk, or two that one of them would introduce the other into the world of vampirism, that is, realize that the other did not yet know what this was like and then teach it. In that case, over time, both could share certain experiences. While each would hunt on their own, while each would have its own family, yes, eventually they would have encounters. Now. The Tlahuelpuche was an ordinary ordinary woman. So, I was going to have a husband, I was going to have some kids and I' m going to have

15:09 some brothers, some cousins, some guys. According to tradition a ta tlau, the puchi never attacks a relative, unless it is to kill him, to force him, to keep quiet. Otherwise, she' d be condemning herself. Therefore, he can develop a large family and will never attack one of his family members. Another thing, he' s not just gonna have a family. Following the European tradition and seeing what Mexican trahuelpuchi are considered there would also be very long- lived. Five or six times the age of life of a normal human being. Therefore, an atlago the puchi would have a family and then look for another place to have a second family, because obviously there would come a time when someone would realize that this woman does not age. That was the secret, an atlago, the puchi will die when he stops doing what he knows how to do. Now, what does the tlag know how to do? The puchi sucks blood. He doesn' t do it every day, it' s not his only food, it' s not the only thing he' s gonna do all day. No.

16:36 According to tradition, blood intake occurs about, two or three times a month, no more, and only occurs from adolescence. But how is this. He just comes knocks on the door and says listen excuse me you have a newborn, allows me to suck your blood. Of course it does not use zoomorphosis, that is, transformation into an animal according to ancient rituals, at least with ancient beliefs. The nahual could, through certain enchantments, certain dances, certain chants transform from human to animal to go, to steal, to go to kill, to do many things in the same way the tlago the puchi could do, only it was a little more complicated. The first requires burning a number of substances, among which was the cupal, in which there is also incense capulin rod and even some herbs that produce strong odors. Once this is burning and releasing a huge amount of smoke, she feels no forgiveness before she does what they call her the pass, that is, she crosses over this species, this kind of anaphre. It goes over three times in

18:10 three directions. Never to the west. It starts from the north, returns to the south and then jumps to the east and then sits looking towards the west and then, according to tradition, it will come off the legs, the arms of what he doesn' t need and the transformation into an animal begins. Obviously, this requires that it not be discovered. Therefore, he will seek to do so in a remote remote place, since if he lives in a family, at some point, one of the members of the family could notice even only by the smell or by the presence of NAFRE the one where he is burning things, so he will prefer to move away to some hill. But of course it' s not that simple. Tell me if you, right now that you hear me, could just at eleven o' clock at night say dearest forgiveness. I' m gonna go get some buns and come back in the morning. Obviously, someone' s gonna ask what you' re going to. Therefore, the drink the puchi used to sleep the whole family through something in the food, through something at dinner or simply through what we would call the breath, a kind of bao that sleeps people.

19:41 Using this, sleep the family. But to avoid suspicions, he' s capable of the mountain. Already on the mountain he makes the spells and hides the remains of his body and then travels in a very simple way, either as a dog, as a zopilot or as a nocturnal animal like even a large guajolote. At a distance, however, they can be distinguished. That' s where the name Tlahue the puchi comes from, as in the distance they are seen to shine as if they were surrounded by fire fireballs of fire. Of course, once they get to a place, what people are going to see is an animal. It can be from a tecolote, a chicken, something that goes unnoticed. The great advantage of drinking, puchi, at least according to tradition and belief, is that it can opt for harmless - looking animals. What use it would be to transform himself into a dragon.

20:51 They would make the whole town rise up in arms and organize a hunt, therefore, a hen, a dog, something everyday to enter the home and then attack. That' s a part that has caught my attention enormously. I was talking to them. These beings transform, but as they transform, they obviously shed this kind of glow that would seem to be a ball of fire. But when they reach fate, it' s hard to tell it apart. So, if anyone hears a flutter on the roof of your house peeks out, there' s going to be an animal and a point, but that' s the interesting part. If the tlau, the puchi enters probably look for the smallest at that point, it will use those same, those same abilities or that kind of power. Let' s call him that so no one notices. He' ll take the infant, drink the blood. Maybe I' ll do it right there, or I' ll go out on the ground somewhere nearby, and then it disappears at dawn here Nothing happened. When her family wakes up, they' re going to find her doing food or anything or even getting dressed to go to work. Because this is a story that is still alive today. It is not a story

22:21 of the 15th century, but a story that is still alive today. Now, let' s get on with the legend. We' ll see some business later. There the legend tells that once the drink, the puchi satisfied this need for blood can pass even weeks without bothering anyone, but yes, for example, there is a serious case in which there is no infant. It may happen that the tlahuel puchi assaults some night traveler, especially or some adult. At this point it is when the contamination occurs and if that person comes to have offspring, probably among the descendants there is a tlahuelpuche. They are not eternal, no, of course, they are not alive. They are living beings, unlike the European vampire, who is an undead, that is, an animated corpse. These are living things. They can eat common food, they can lead a common life, they can look like ordinary people, but deep down they continue with this dynamic and longevity about four or five generations. Some accounts from a long time ago said that people who had been known by the great- grandparents who spoke of that person were known, yet the person was still alive and still looked the same. So, well,

23:53 yeah, they' re a lot longer than a normal human being. How to protect yourself from it is very simple and this I do to me. It was my turn to see him, in fact, in a house where there was a newborn many years ago. I was still touched by a house where when I arrived there were scissors, big scissors some scissors to cut chicken at different points tied with red slats. It was my turn to see a bucket of water under the crib and a mirror at the door. They were different tricks. Formerly it was said that in order to avoid the attack of an atlage, the puuchi could be used from plants, such as garlic, but not only garlic in the European sense of hanging a necklace of garlic, but placed on an tortilla between the baby' s clothes. Another was, for example, placing the scissors under the baby' s bed. But sometimes, when living in very precarious conditions and the baby slept in the petate with the parents, they could choose to place a large metal object under the petate, such as a machete, as long as it was placed with another on the cross, the mirror could also be placed. This tool was very good, because Tlahuelpuchi, in its animal state or in its human state, is

25:26 still reflected as human. Therefore, it was useful to unmask her. Thus, she, crossing in front of a mirror and turning around and being reflected, would panic and run out and, of course, there were other remedies, not even burning some things to drive them away if it was known that they were on their way because you could see they could burn some herbs, chilies and different products from the region. Also incense the cupal caused people to walk away could see them from a long distance and warn that they were there Now why do I say they were there? Because sometimes they were together.

26:12 While the hunt is not shared, they could be seen together. That' s why I was explaining to you that they recognize each other. They can even work together when it refers, for example, to something that puts them at risk. A witch hunt, for example, can put them at risk once a witch is detected. The oldest tradition said that by burning the members that was falling apart. That I' m not really sure could do, but well, burning or just catching her when she comes home and kills the other one, trapping her during the attack and killing her For that it would take cutting off heads and doing a lot of barbarities. This is all part of the law. Now, the legend also has a very interesting part, and it is that, over the years we have been talking to people who have heard stories from me personally, I have had to talk to many people who have seen witches and are not ugly old ladies with warts riding in a broom flying in the middle of the night. They refer to the fireballs and the people I' ve spoken to have the least suitable profile to be fanciful and have told me now. Why this is not so frequent. First,

27:42 because it' s not a frequent matter. They already existed in that age of these legends, but they were not so abundant out there everywhere. Second, where you could do a ritual today in the city of Puebla. Let ' s think you live in two in San Sebastián de aparicio. Where he would have to go first walking in the middle of the night to make a bonfire, burn herbs and do the whole ritual to the hill of Malucan does not come alive, Where he could go to do it in his house. No man, I' d probably live in a 28- square- foot house and there you can' t make a saumerium believe me. Besides, who among us today hears a hen flapping the roof and is going to put on irons and mirrors. Most likely someone comes out, shoots him and cooks him, because he is. The city. It' s a very complex city. However, this is still happening on the outskirts, where a person could go out and do all this. I know it sounds fantasy. You can explain to me in a thousand ways what witches are. At some point someone told me they were decomposition gases. No. No, no, it ' s gases that decompose. A decomposing gas is a product that is decomposing and releasing a good gas. It came off if, by chance, there ' s something that can turn it on and on, because it' s on and it' s over. It' s a fireball and it'

29:15 s over. He doesn' t believe me. Throw a lighter at a fire and you' ll see what happens. That' s 100% gas fuel. It' s a flame and it' s over. And this can last a long time moving without turning off. Now, you must remember it because this happened here in Pueblanada a six or seven years on the Tlisco road, on the Lisco highway, there was a camp of road people who were doing some repairs back then and they began to see precisely fireballs coming from an added street, going up and down. This caused them to panic.

30:04 Even the camp manager called to ask for support from someone who could turn that off, thinking it was a fire and threatening the camp, where there were machines and so on. At that time, a state police patrol arrived, who came to see what was happening and stayed there They called for civil protection support. Civil protection came and they stayed there to see what that was, because it wasn' t what they expected. These were two fireballs, as they narrated, coming up from the glen, reaching a certain point, turning around and coming down, and so they were until some point before dawn came a reporter from Atlisco, from a sister station of us. Over there from Atlisco. Who could see what was going on and document how the state police, civil protection, the people from the truckers' camp and the journalist were there, watching those fireballs go up and down. After a while, the fireballs went away and disappeared into the glen. They didn' t do anything or at least they didn' t see him do anything, but they won ' t burn either. They burned nothing. The description of the place was his own so everything would have been burned. However, grassland. It didn

31:36 ' t burn, it didn' t burn the bushes, it didn' t burn anything at all. Already when dawn and that leaves the characters, those who were there come down to the area where they had seen these phenomena. And ironically there are no traces of fire, no burning grass, nothing. This happened six years ago. It was news. We had a chance to interview in those years the news person who was there and well, it was a very interesting story. But I' ve come across similar ones. One of them is in Pachuca, Hidalgo. There I have been told of an event that occurred in the seventies, rather than in the early eighties eighty - one, eighty- two, thinking about the age of these people and well, this family, a family of evangelical Christian faith, moves to live there because of work, to a house that was on the outskirts already at the foot of the mountain and moreover, it was in the back of a property. From there there was a lot of hills and a beautiful landscape.

32:45 In that family there were three children, six years old, eight years old and probably ten. In the next house there was also a similar couple of children and they start playing together. Very soon they become good friends and jump from one side to the other and throw parties until an afternoon where at dusk, they kept hanging there from a swing they had and shouting happy of life. And the mother of the other group of children rushes in, the lady enters at full speed, calling her children and calling the mother of this other family. When she goes out and meets the two moms, she tells her very excited, very frantic, to get the kids in the house because the witches are coming. Obviously, the lady, who was an evangelical Christian, was not quite sure what this lady was talking about. If it was a superstition, if it was something, then I didn' t understand. This lady is just saying please, get her children, close the doors, close the windows in one room and obviously there were no crucifixes to put on, but if there were scissors to hang, scissors to the window and the door and not let them leave for any reason anywhere, the person who narrated it to us remembered very clearly of that incident, that well, for not ruining

34:16 the thing to the neighbor. This lady puts her children in, closes the door, closes the window and looks out the window to see what to go to all this mess. And then watch in the distance the lady herself how those fireballs appear in the distance. They didn' t come together. I ' d come one over there and one over here. Like flying over trees, jumping from one tree to another. Suddenly I was going down to the ground, suddenly I was coming back up. They are not very large trees and they are not very abundant. They' re more of a kind of casserole. Then he jumps from one to the other until he walks away from where these two houses were and he' s going to get in the lower zone already. And that' s the next day. Well, the kids are going to sleep, all quiet, all very quiet. The next day, well, everybody gets up like nothing else, the kids go to school.

35:23 A little later the neighbor gossips. We see him like this and he tells him that he had seen each other. And if you tell him if I saw anything in heaven, who knows what witches were. Wait for you and we' ll hear from some little boy who died. In fact, during the course of the day news came that two or three blocks down in a house where there was a little boy of months had died the baby had strange marks on his arms and face and had dawned dead. A thousand nine hundred and eighty- eight. Do not think that there is in the time of the colony and this has been told to me by someone who surprised me because I would not expect it. But besides these, well, there are a lot of others. It has touched me, as I said, to enter still a house where we were casually throwing line outside, we were topography for a play and the very attentive neighbors invited us to have a drink, to cool ourselves a little towards a heat of the devil and during the conversation there in broad features. I noticed the detail of the mirror at the door, the bucket of water, under the cradle and several elements that were out there and already asking more in confidence, why for the witches. But there ' s actually a huge difference. An atlago, the puche is not a witch. The witch' s idea is that of a sorcerer is a person

36:58 who makes spells, who makes spells to affect or for whatever the tlagelpuche is a vampire, although he can eat normal food, he requires the blood to live and continue living. A curious detail that we were told many years ago was that there was a woman in a village of Querétaro, who had her children, had her husband and saw the husband die first then saw the children die and the woman still looked the same. After a while, the woman was no longer seen. People thought he might have died. Some time later, however, news came from one of these men who was on the verge of having seen her in a town in the State of Mexico, just as young as another man with other children. Some time later there was news that he had been seen in another town with another man exactly the same. The three stories they told were from a great- grandfather, then a great- grandfather and then a grandfather. Three generations had heard and had seen this woman look exactly the same. Curious the similarities between a European legend and a Mexican legend. Anyway, thank you so much for your company. Thanks to Doña

38:29 Blandina, who, as always, is accompanying us and listening very soon, follow us, also on our YouTube channel, stories from the dark side