Right outside of Mexico City you will find The Island of the Dolls in the Xochimilco Canals. Thousands of dolls hang in the small forest of the island, and according to the old caretaker of the island, the dolls are all possessed by spirits.
In 2001 Don Julian Santana Barrera was fishing in the Xochimilco canals, not far from Mexico City with his nephew. The old man farming alone on his small island on the canals was around 80 years old and was well known for being a peculiar man among the locals. Sometimes in the 1950s, Santana Barrera had left his wife and rest of his family to live as a hermit on this island known as The Island of the Dolls without any electricity in a one-roomed hut.
Santana Barrerawas a religious one, and rarely ventured outside of the island. He sometimes went over to the closest village to have a drink, but had been barred after he started to preach loudly about the bible and spirits many years ago, and had since then, stayed on his tiny island by himself and the spirits he claimed haunted his island.
While Santana Barrera and his nephew were fishing together he started singing and claimed that mermaids were in the water, waiting for him.
The nephew was used to the peculiar habits of his uncle and left for a moment, not thinking too much about it. When he returned he found Santana Barrera lifeless with his face down in the water. According to the nephew it was in the very same spot where a little girl had drowned that started the hauntings on The Island of the Dolls and his uncle’s lifelong project.
The Island of the Dolls in Mexico
But what story is behind this haunting on The Island of the Dolls has continued to intrigue people, and turned it into one of the most well known ghost stories in modern time?
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Mexico
As you navigate the labyrinthine waterways of Xochimilco on colorful trajinera boats, the atmosphere begins to change. The air grows heavier, and the sunlight struggles to penetrate the thick canopy of branches on the Laguna de Tequila.
This place used to be a place of hiding for the Aztecs when the Spanish conquistadors came and rid their way of life. Now, the man made canals and small islands called chinampa, popularly known as floating gardens are one of the few remnants of that time.
It is here you will find The Island of the Dolls or Isla de las Muñecas in Spanish, and the tiny farming island has by far become the most well known chinampa, and perhaps the most famed ghost story we have from Mexico.
The Ghost of the Drowned Girl in the Canals
Sometime in the mid 20th century, Don Julian Santana Barrera, the caretaker of the island, started collecting dolls and hanging them up in the trees in the forest on the chinampa island in the lagoon around the same time he had been beaten up for talking about religion in town. The habit of collecting dolls had started in the small, but soon hundreds and then thousands of dolls were hanging in the trees over the next decades.
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He said he had discovered the drowned body of a young girl in the waters years before surrounding his home. Some say he saw her drifting down the canal dead or he didn’t manage to save a drowning girl he saw tangled up in the water lilies. According to many retellings she had been playing with her sister when they got separated and she was taken by the current.
The details of how it started is hazy, and any signs of a drowned girl connected to this story has not been found and there are no official reports about this. His family mostly think that Santana Barrera merely imagined the drowned girl. But he still set up a crucifix on the place that he claimed she died and.
The next day he came across a doll drifting down and he believed it belonged to the girl. The doll was wearing a straw hat with sunflowers. Some also claim he heard the voice of the girl screaming she wanted her doll. He hung it from the tree as a talisman to ward off evil spirits. But seemingly, it seems it started to attract spirits if we are to believe the legends.
Tormented by the spirit of the deceased, Santana Barrera began hanging dolls from the trees as a means of appeasing the girl’s restless soul. He was a catholic christian that also believed in the local mysticism.
A Forest of Staring Eyes
The dolls that dangle from the branches on The Island of the Dolls have become grotesque effigies, each one seemingly frozen in a moment of silent terror. Their dismembered limbs, weathered features, and empty stares create an unnerving tableau that chills the bravest of hearts. As the wind whispers through the trees, the dolls sway with an otherworldly energy, as if animated by forces beyond mortal comprehension.
According to those close to him, it was like something possessed Santana Barrera, and it was like something on The Island of the Dolls changed him and drove him to always trying to appease the drowned girl’s spirit as well as the rest of the dolls.
The artificially made islands called chinampa is a remnant from the Aztec and people grew their crops on the island. When the crops failed on Barreras island, it was supposedly the spirits of the dolls fault and he needed to appease them somehow. Santana Barrera claimed that the dolls themselves were possessed and continued to collect dolls, trading them to him throughout his life.
Santana Barrera traded them for his vegetables, he scoured the canals and found old, discarded dolls and hung them up as they were, even if they were missing a limb or was just a single head. If they were covered in moss or dirt didn’t matter, they all ended up in his collection on The Island of the Dolls. In the end there are about 4000 dolls on the island. When people came to visit he welcomed them and showed them around, looked at the dolls as his protectors and charged a fee for taking their photos.
The family of Santana Barrera opened the island to the public after his death in 2001 when his nephew, Anastasio Santana Velasco took over as the caretaker of the island. It ended in the Guinness World Records Book as the biggest collection of haunted dolls. In the one-room hut that Barrera lived alone in they displayed the first doll that Barrera found all those years ago.
They also have put his favorite doll, Agustina there with her glasses and turquoise. She is the only doll with a name on The Island of the Dolls. She is said to have powers of healing, and people tend to leave little offerings for her. It is also said she used to walk around at night.
Today it is his great nephew, Rogelio Sanchez Santana that is a caretaker of The Island of the Dolls and a guardian to the dolls.
The Hauntings in the Forest on the Island
Local lore suggests that the Island of the Dolls is a nexus of paranormal activity, with the dolls serving as vessels for the spirits that inhabit the island. His nephews claim that the same screams that his uncle had heard can sometimes be heard on the island among the trees.
Visitors have reported disembodied whispers, eerie laughter, and the feeling of unseen eyes watching their every move. Some claim to have witnessed the dolls moving on their own or heard the anguished cries of the girl whose tragic fate led to the creation of this haunted forest on the haunted island.
Most trajinera boat rowers are willing to take tourists over to The Island of the Dolls, and there have even become a stop on the tours on the canals, but to this day there are still those that refuse because of the superstitions and legends hanging over the island. People leave offerings by the dolls for blessings and some even come to change clothes of the dolls as a sort of worship.
As the water laps against the shores of Xochimilco, the island’s ominous presence beckons the curious, daring them to step into a world where the boundary between reality and nightmare is forever blurred—an experience that, once embraced, may leave an indelible mark on the soul.
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References:
Featured Image: Wikimedia
Real story behind ‘haunted’ Island of the Dolls in Mexico
The haunting story of the man who built the Island of Dolls | Guinness World Records
The Island of the Dolls – Wikipedia
The spooky story behind the Mexican Island of Dolls bring chills to those who visit – ABC News