Abuela’s Not-So-Sweet Bedtime Tales: Las Brujas – Part 1

It's the eve of Halloween and that means the veil is thin between worlds and my familial stories resonate even stronger during this time. I last left off with my grandmother Maria who encountered a witch that took the form of a ball of light but we need to go back a few years before her daughter, my second eldest aunt, Kate was born and my eldest aunt, Nina, was highly sought after.

This story takes place in Mexico at my great grandfather Vicente's ranch where spirits danced, demons whispered in your ears and witches laughed all throughout the night. My grandmother Maria had my uncle John, who was just a toddler, and had recently given birth to my aunt Nina. Maria would tend to her children and at night would hear whistling, laughing, and could a certain presence around the house and in the garden that seemed to be otherworldly.

One night Maria was asleep when she had a nightmare that three shadowy female figures were surrounding her newborn daughter Nina's crib and wanted to take her with them. Maria woke up from her sleep, drenched in sweat, and looked over at her daughters crib where she saw the three women standing over the crib with nails as black as night. Maria's mother-in-law Rumelda ran into the room with a candle while chanting some words which caused the women to scream and laugh as they instantly disappeared as the light came into the room.

Rumelda told Maria that those were witches who were wanting to steal Nina for her youthful blood so that they could become young again. In Mexican folklore witches are born old and must consume the blood of newborns to age in reverse. This caused Maria great concern as she could hear the witches laughing and whistling in the gardens just outside the house but Rumelda told Maria to get a pair of steel scissors and hang them near Nina's crib to ward off the witches. Maria did as her mother-in-law instructed and from then on could hear the witches cackle, whistle, and try to get inside but were unable to with the help of Rumelda and Maria's love for Nina.