The Island of the
Dolls, also known as La Isla de las Muecas, is a chinampa of the Laguna de
Tequila that can be found south of Mexico City's downtown in the waterways of
Xochimilco. Due to the abundance of dolls scattered over the island in a
variety of designs and colors, it is a well-liked tourist destination.
History
A young girl is said to have drowned after becoming entangled in the
canal's lilies, and her body was discovered on the Santampa Chinampas' banks.
Santana claimed to have heard the girl scream, "I want my doll," and
out of fear, he hung up the doll he had discovered close to the girl's body.
After the incident, he claimed that each time he walked outside, he discovered a fresh doll dangling from a tree. In the same place where the girl drowned, he later passed away. Many people think that the girl's ghost, which still prowls the island, was responsible for his demise.
Location
In the canals of Xochimico, close to Mexico City, is the Island of the Dolls, also known as Isla de las Mucenas, a well-liked tourist destination. Don Julian Santana Barrera, the sole resident of the island, is the beginning of the tragic tale behind the dolls' existence.
The Story Behind The Disturbing Arrangements
By hanging these dolls throughout the island and the chinampas, Santana combined Catholicism and mysticism to defend himself and the island from what he perceived to be evil forces.
The drowned child's soul and other ghosts that were plaguing him, he
thought, would flee if these unwelcome, shattered toys appeared.
He spent more than 17 years of his life collecting dolls from dumpsters and trash cans, as well as from friends and the television. The bulk of the dolls have a distinctive quality, such as being ugly, aged, burned, maimed, or malformed.
Tourists from all over the world risk the island to visit its eerie inhabitants because the tale of this island and its terrifying collection of dolls has caught their attention.
According to the legend, Santana Barrera witnessed a little girl and her sisters swimming alongside the river's bank more than 50 years ago when the powerful current swept one of them away. The little child perished before Julián could save her.
He dove in after her but couldn't get to her in time. According to reports, Julián felt responsible for her passing and suffered from grief for the rest of his life.
The legend varies as to why he did so; some say it was out of respect for the deceased girl; others say it was done to ward off her ghost; still, others claim it was done to shield the girl's spirit from other demons in the water.
Santana Barrera continued to accumulate dolls after that, to the point where he was being traded for the island's crops in exchange for dolls, and he hung them practically compulsively for the remainder of his life. Over time, broken and abandoned dolls began to occupy the entire island.
Though he was a recluse, whose house was deep in the woods, without any neighbors for miles and miles, some claimed he could hear footsteps, crying, and wails close to his home. Many people believed that Santana Barrera himself might have the spirit of the young girl because his family claimed he acquired the dolls "as if moved by an unseen force."
On his remote island, Julián passed away inexplicably in 2001. Anastasio Velasco, his nephew, discovered Santana Barrera's body floating in the lake one day as he was assisting his uncle in planting pumpkins. It was reportedly in the same location where the young girl had drowned 50 years earlier.
The daughters' cries and his uncles' canes thudding on the ground, according to Anastasio, can both be heard late at night.
The Xochimilco
canal system leads to the island, which is visible from the coast in an eerie
silhouette. With their missing limbs, cut heads, tattered skirts, and other
horrifying physical flaws, the dolls dangle from trees all around, creating a
nightmare scene.
People on the street and in the neighborhood vouch for the dolls' supernatural abilities, claiming that they can hear footsteps and whispers coming from the dense forest and that they blink, turn their heads, and blink as they watch tourists strolling around the island. On a shrine in a shed on the Island of the Dolls, the original first doll and a few of Santana Barrera's other "favorite" dolls are all arranged together.
The Island of the Dolls is a well-known tourist destination today, drawing tourists from all over the world who are interested in ghosts, adventure, the macabre, and those who are unusually brave, even though it was never intended to be that way.
The region saw a considerable increase in tourism after Xochimilco was named a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1987.
After Santana passed away in the early 2000s, his family looked after the island and turned it into a popular tourist destination. On the island, visitors frequently leave gifts like money, souvenirs, and the dolls they made for themselves.
Written by: Yuvashree S
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