Así Viven Y Trabajan Las Brujas (Pueblo De Brujas) Historias De Terror - REDE

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A neighbor' s witch called me
Marco and I grew up in an old

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building in Mexico City. It was
the decade of the nineties and my life

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ran between the walls of that building. I didn' t have many toys,

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but I made up for that lack
with my imagination, fed by the

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stories I heard behind the doors and
windows facing the hallway. My mother,

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a strong and determined woman, became
my only world after she and my father

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separated. Although he never went into
details, I always knew that separation was

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problematic. My father, according to
my little memory, was a man of

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a strong character and impulsive decisions,
which clashed with my mother' s firmness

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and caution. The decision to separate
was not an easy one My mother faced

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not only the challenge of taking us
forward, but also the social stigma that

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still weighed on single mothers at the
time. She worked all day and I

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was alone at home after school,
surrounded by the walls of our apartment,

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which protected me and at the same
time isolated me from the outside world.

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The journey from my home to school
became my daily adventure, my little dose

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of freedom. I remember every detail
of that road, the bakery on the

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corner, whose aroma is freshly baked, crept into the park in the morning

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where other children played the candy salesman
in front of the school. That path

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was my connection to the outside world, a world that was largely denied me,

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despite the brevity of my daily journey. I held on to every image,

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every sound, every smell was my
way of escaping from imagining a less

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lonely life. My mother was trying
to keep us afloat and although that meant

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that we spent a lot of time
apart, she always made sure that I

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felt safe and loved. The nights
were especially our moments to reconnect our experiences

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of the day. Although I never
mentioned the strange sounds I sometimes heard,

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I remember some of the people in
the building. First there was Don Roberto

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the doorman. This man, always
dressed in a worn- out overall and

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a slightly bent beret, spent his
days guarding the building. But what really

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made him special was his way of
telling stories about the city and its changes

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over the years. Despite his rough
appearance, he always kept sweets in his

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pockets for the children of the building. On the second floor lived Mrs Martínez,

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an old woman who seemed to be
as old as the building itself.

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She was known for her ability to
care for plants, turning her balcony into

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a small hanging garden that gave life
to the concrete grey. Each plant had

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its own story and Mrs Martínez shared
it with anyone she wanted to listen to.

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He said plants were like people.
Each one needed attention and love to

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flourish. Then there was Pedro,
a musician who lived on the third floor.

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His life was a mystery. He
was rarely seen during the day,

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but at night. The melodies of
his guitar were filtered through the walls,

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although some complained about the noise.
Finally, I can' t forget the

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Ramirez family on the first floor.
They were a large, noisy family.

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His door was always open, but
not everything was pleasant. Right next to

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the apartment where I lived with my
mother, there was the most mysterious tenant

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in the building, a woman who
for many went unnoticed, but who for

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me was the center of every mystery, whose presence felt different. She lived

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in the apartment, right next to
ours, but curiously, our paths rarely

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crossed what she knew about her.
I remember his silhouette always dressed in dark,

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his figure was thin and although his
face always seemed to be in shadows.

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There was an intensity in his gaze
that on the rare occasions that it

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fell upon me, my blood was
freezing. The adults in the building were

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talking about her in whispers, exchanging
stories that I heard, reloading my ears

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on the door facing the hallway.
They said that he had lived there for

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more years than anyone could remember and
that the apartment was full of strange objects

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and ancient books. One of my
first memories of her occurred one winter afternoon.

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I was playing alone in the hallway, something I was rarely allowed to

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do. When the door of her
deb apartment opened suddenly for a moment,

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the hallway was filled with the smell
of herbs and wet soil and I saw

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her standing there watching me with an
intensity that paralyzed me without saying a word,

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she extended her hand towards me,
in which she held a small dark

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object. I instinctively took a step
back and at that moment the door closed

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just as quickly as it had opened. I never knew what he wanted to

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give me. Another memory that persists
is the sound of his voice at night.

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From the security of my room I
heard songs and murmurs leaking through the

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walls were melodies in a language I
could not understand. The nights in my

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room were filled with inexplicable sounds,
laughter that faded into the air, murmurs

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that seemed to carry messages, hidden
and steps that led nowhere. What I

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heard was so vivid and at the
same time so ambiguous that my imagination as

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a child could only be wrapped in
a mantle of restlessness. Despite the rumors

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and whispers in the hallways, no
one really seemed to know this enigmatic woman.

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The strangest of all was his apparent
challenge to the human need to sleep

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at night. From my room,
the sounds of his activity were a constant

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murmur. The drag of furniture was
filtered through the thin walls that separated us.

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These night activities were so varied and
persistent that they led me to wonder

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if I would ever rest every day
without fail. At about five in the

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morning, her apartment door opened and
she left the building. Then, an

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hour later, he returned throughout the
day. Whether it was a quiet Saturday

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at home or a Sunday, the
sounds continued. It was as if for

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her the concept of rest was alien
or unnecessary. He could hear his footsteps,

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the constant movement within his department.
When we had two months already living

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in the building, I saw the
lady for the first time receiving visitors,

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an event so rare that instantly captured
my complete attention. They were not ordinary

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visitors, there was no laughter or
warm greetings. Everything in them was a

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mystery. There were three men and
a woman dressed in long black coats.

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What disturbed me the most was the
silence that surrounded them, despite being watching

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them from the door, very slightly
open, I could not hear their steps

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or their voices. Just a deep
silence when you get to the door of

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the lady' s apartment. One
of the men drew from his coat an

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object wrapped in dark cloth, something
that, by the way and by the

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way he handled it, seemed to
be of great importance. They exchanged a

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few words with the lady, words
that did not reach my ears before she

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invited them in, disappearing all together
inside her apartment. That night, for

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some reason, I couldn' t
sleep. At one point I began to

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notice that the woman was putting animals
in her apartment, cats with penetrating eyes

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and black fur, old pigeon dogs. But without a doubt, the weirdest

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thing I ever saw him get into
his house were black rats of those black

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and fat who live in the drain
sewers. During a season that lasted for

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approximately seven months. A particularly disturbing
mystery developed in the building that even now

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I find it hard to fully understand
every fortnight, not a day more or

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a day less, every exactly fortnight, pregnant women began to visit the apartment

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of the mysterious tenant. His arrival
was discreet, almost imperceptible. Visitors,

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whose faces reflected a mixture of anxiety
and concern, were greeted in silence.

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What was going on inside was a
mystery and a very intriguing one, because

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on leaving these women no longer bore
the visible sign of their pregnancy. His

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departure was as silent as his arrival. Back then. My understanding of such

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events was limited. A child'
s logic could not conceive of the complexity,

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let alone the magnitude of everything that
was happening. Inside the apartment of

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the mysterious Tenant. There was a
particular event that even for the already unusual

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standards of the building, highlighted as
especially disconcerting. It was an afternoon when

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a black car of those you only
see on the news or surrounding events of

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great importance stopped in front of our
building. From him came a man whose

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presence in our humble surroundings seemed completely
out of place. He wore an impeccable

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suit, carried a look of authority
and seriousness. I knew right away.

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It had to be someone important,
perhaps a member of some political party or

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a high- ranking official. I
watched it from the window in my room.

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The man looked around before entering the
building as if he wanted to make

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sure he was not followed or recognized. His visit lasted a short time,

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not more than an hour. The
strangest thing about this visit was not his

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appearance or the vehicle in which he
arrived, but his fate, the apartment

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of the mysterious Tenant. When he
came out, his expression was thoughtful almost

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worried. All this that I'
m counting may sound too specific, but

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I remind you that I lived right
next to that lady and as my mother

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worked all day, I could spy
with the door slightly open. One night

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in particular marked a before and after. It all started with an unexpected call

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my mother received at work. Someone
had missed and although she rarely took extra

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shifts the promise of a little more
money convinced her it will only be for

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a few hours. She told me
before leaving, my mother reviewed the usual

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instructions not to open the door to
strangers, not to make noise and,

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above all, not to approach the
neighbor' s apartment. That last one

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seemed too strange to me, because
I' ve never heard of it before.

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It was obvious that I should not
even leave the apartment, but the

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fact that my mother was so specific
to warn me that I should not approach

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the neighbor' s door next door
seemed quite strange to me. With a

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kiss on my forehead and the promise
to return before I woke up in the

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morning, my mother closed the door
behind her, leaving me in the silence

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of our home. Curiosity that impulse
so powerful in a child' s mind

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began to eat me as soon as
the sound of his steps faded into the

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ladder. The idea of spying on
the Tenant' s apartment at night was

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both terrifying and irresistible. After maybe
a couple of hours, I made the

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decision to lean into the hallway once
I was sure my mother had left the

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building. That' s when something
unusual caught my attention. The woman left

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her apartment or carrying several black bags, large and seemingly heavy, left them

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carefully just outside her door. It
wasn' t many minutes before a man

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came to pick up those bags.
I' ve never seen that man before.

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He didn' t live in the
building and the way he came to

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pick up the bags. I had
the impression that was commonplace. I can

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assure you it wasn' t garbage
bags. I' m absolutely sure,

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because when the man goes to the
bags, something inside him moved inside.

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There was something alive. The moment
the man disappeared with the black bags,

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I was overwhelmed by the sudden feeling
of being observed. I turned my head

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slowly toward the door of the tenant
and there she was with her gaze fixed

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on me The terror I felt at
that moment was overwhelming. It wasn'

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t just the fear of being discovered
in a prank, it was a deep

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fear. Scared by his gaze,
I couldn' t move. After what

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seemed like an eternity, she closed
her door softly without making a sound,

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leaving me alone with the heartbeat of
my own heart beating wildly. Then I

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reacted by closing my door in a
box and running to lock myself in my

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mother' s room, because that
room was not attached to that woman'

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s apartment. That night, after
the silent encounter with the tenant and her

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penetrating gaze, the silence of the
apartment was abruptly broken by the sound of

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someone knocking on the door. At
that moment, my heart stopped. There

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was no doubt in my mind who
she might be. It had to be.

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I sneaked up to the door,
moved by a mixture of fear and

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a need, making as little noise
as possible. I approached one of the

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chairs at the door to climb up
and be able to take a look through

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the viewfinder, but when I did, the only thing I found was that

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the hallway was empty. As she
kept watching through the peephole, the woman

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appeared out of nowhere with a disorbited
look and the woman began to struggle the

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door, but as much as she
tried, she could not enter, so

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she surrendered and returned to her apartment, leaving me alone for the rest of

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the morning. I think it'
s more clear that I didn' t

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even try to sleep because of all
the fear I felt in the early morning.

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It advanced around seven o' clock
in the morning. My mother'

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s finally here. I told him
everything. My mother listened to me in

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silence. There was no reproach for
not having followed his instructions to the letter

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with a calm that only now I
understand how the previous knowledge of what was

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happening. My mother took me to
the entrance of our apartment. He picked

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up the mat in front of our
door, revealing a little amulet that I

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had never noticed before. It was
a simple piece. That' s when

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she shared with me the truth about
our neighbor, confirming the rumors and suspicions

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that had floated in my mind.
The neighbor next door was a witch.

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My mother explained that the amulet was
an ancient protection symbol specifically designed to repel

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ceres with dark intentions. She placed
it under the mat since she found out

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about the situation, which had already
been going on for several months. When

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my mother told me that it was
like something suddenly clicked into my head.

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It was kind of like all of
a sudden it all made sense. Strange

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sounds at night, such as murmurs
and the movement of objects without apparent cause,

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the sporadic appearance of animals, occasional
visits by rare people outside the building,

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and the ability of women to remain
active at all times. The only

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thing I never assimilated was that of
pregnant women, or maybe what happened was

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that my mind tried to protect itself
from a strong impression or trauma, because

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my mind, maybe that' s
why I never tried to explain it.

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I know what some may be thinking, but I don' t think that

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' s what I think now as
an adult already aware of many things.

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What I think is that this woman, somehow, using a very strong witchcraft,

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I think what she did was advance
the birth of the baby to keep

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them for a purpose I don'
t even want to imagine. Based on

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my theory, perhaps the women who
were going to see her were women whose

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lives were too complicated to take responsibility
for bringing a child into the world.

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Perhaps the man had left them,
perhaps they did not have enough money,

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or God will know what their motives
were. But I really want to believe

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those women had a very powerful reason
to go to the witch. After that

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night when the witch tried to get
into the apartment, my mother started looking

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for another place and in less than
three months we moved to a neighborhood.

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The place was a little smaller and
the atmosphere with the neighbors was a bit

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unpleasant, but at least there were
no witches nearby, of which we had

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to worry. Yet. To this
day, which I share my story,

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I can' t help but think
what the hell would have happened if my

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mother didn' t laugh that woman
was a witch. What would have happened

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if the amulet hadn' t been
there to keep the witch from coming in?

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I don' t have the answer, but I' m sure that,

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no matter what that Witch would have
done to me, what is a

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fact and I know that you will
agree with me, is that if that

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witch had managed to enter the house, I wouldn' t be here telling

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my story Witch' s problems.
My name is Joaquin and three decades ago,

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when I was young, I lived
in a colony where poverty was the

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norm, not the exception. Every
morning, before the first ray of sun

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appeared from the horizon, the people
of the colony were already standing. Men

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like me were preparing for long hours
of work in distant constructions. Women began

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their day long before preparing food and
making sure their children were ready for school.

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The streets were filled with children in
uniforms sometimes too large or worn out,

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running towards their schools. Children who
did not go to school were preparing

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to accompany their parents to travel the
avenues with their shopping carts. I,

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for one, was a worker,
the work I was working on. It

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was an ambitious project, a series
of apartment buildings. The work was hard,

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physically demanding and mentally exhausting. I
spent my days between the dust and

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the noise of the machines, building
walls. At that time I was single

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and with no more responsibilities than those
of my own sustenance. Life was simple,

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but by that I don' t
mean to have life easier than the

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rest of the colony' s inhabitants. In our colony lived a witch,

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although she did not live in the
colony. When the witch arrived in the

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colony, the accounts of her origin
were shared with me by neighbors whose families

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had resided there for many more years
than I did. As I was told,

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the arrival of the witch in the
colony was a mysterious event one night

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before I set foot in that place, she simply appeared occupying a house that

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was empty, at the far end
of the colony, where the streets had

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no name and the lamps of light
never shone. The house, he didn

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' t buy it, he didn' t rent it, he just broke

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into the house and stayed to live. No one knew where he was coming

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from or why he had chosen our
colony to establish the house that had until

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then remained empty. After the departure
of his former tenants, he became under

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his occupation. The neighbors recounted how, in the weeks following his arrival,

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the structure seemed to degrade at an
accelerated pace, as if the very essence

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of the witch corrupted everything around him. Plants that once flourished in the garden

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now withered and died over time.
The people of the colony began to notice

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strange events. Domestic animals disappeared without
a trace and some claimed to see gloomy

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figures moving down the hallway of that
house. Despite these disturbing signs, no

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one dared to confront her fearing to
unleash her anger. The oldest in the

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colony whispered that the Witch had been
attracted by the despair and misery that permeated

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the place, feeding on the energy
of those who had lost all hope.

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00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:49.920
Others suggested that perhaps he had fled
from somewhere far away, no one knew

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00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:56.240
his real name and those who once
knew did not live long enough to tell

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other people. The accounts of his
curses were common. One of the most

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disturbing stories that deeply marked our colony
was the incident with the children playing football

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in the middle of their game.
The ball flew with an unfortunate trajectory,

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breaking one of the windows of the
house where she was living, the witch.

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The children, consumed by panic,
dispersed in the following days. The

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00:22:25.319 --> 00:22:30.400
children who had been present at the
game became seriously ill with fevers, high

258
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delusions and unexplained symptoms. They confined
them to their beds, while their families

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00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:42.039
desperately sought answers that medicine could not
provide. The Community was convinced that the

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disease was a retaliation for the ballonazo, a curse thrown by the witch.

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After that, parents banned their children
from playing less than a block away from

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that house. What happened to those
children was not an isolated event, but

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rather the beginning of a series of
events that cemented the dreaded reputation of that

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woman who was engaged in witchcraft.
Over time it became clear that any form

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of defiance or confrontation towards her,
even something as involuntary as holding her gaze,

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was sufficient to provoke her anger.
The stories began to accumulate each more

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disturbing than the previous one. One
of the neighbors who, as he sold

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gum at the traffic lights, but
we all knew he was assaulting, crossed

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a day in front of the witch. Like the children, he became inexplicably

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ill. Shortly thereafter his health deteriorated
at an alarming rate. He had delusional

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panic attacks convulsions until he ended up
dying. Another case was that of a

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00:23:51.640 --> 00:23:55.799
young girl who had recently arrived in
the colony, who for obvious reasons had

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just arrived because she knew nothing about
the Witch. As I recall, it

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00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:03.680
was said that this girl, in
the morning she went to the witch'

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00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:07.160
s door to ask her to stop
making so much noise. The following days,

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the young woman began to suffer from
nightmares so vivid that fear kept her

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awake at night, fearing to close
her eyes. Among the many strange things

278
00:24:18.279 --> 00:24:22.720
that happened in the colony. There
was one thing that was repeated every year

279
00:24:22.759 --> 00:24:26.079
without fail, or at least it
was repeated all the years that I was

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living there. From the last week
of October, cats began to disappear,

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00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:37.240
not stray cats, but cats that
were from homes. That' s why

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00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:40.519
the whole situation was so weird.
If a cat that walks on the street

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disappears, that' s the explanation
that walks on the street, but a

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cat that never leaves home cannot disappear. It doesn' t make sense.

285
00:24:49.240 --> 00:24:53.960
After they disappeared. On the third
day of November in the wasteland that lay

286
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.599
on the edge of our neighborhood,
the dead bodies of the missing cats appeared

287
00:24:59.640 --> 00:25:03.119
to be like the dice in a
circle, which made it more than obvious

288
00:25:03.240 --> 00:25:07.319
that this was the work of a
ritual and as it was obvious that this

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00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:11.079
was a ritual, it was also
obvious that the ritual was done by the

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witch. One of the darkest episodes
of the colony was the disappearance of Emiliano,

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00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:18.920
a seven- year- old boy. One day without warning, Emiliano

292
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simply disappeared. The news of his
disappearance was very strong for the whole colony,

293
00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:30.480
because Emiliano' s parents were the
least poor in the colony. They

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00:25:30.519 --> 00:25:36.960
were very shared. When someone needed
to buy a kilo of tortillas, they

295
00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:41.200
could go ask them and they always
behaved well. So, when his son

296
00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:47.279
disappeared, we all started looking for
him, both in the colony and in

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00:25:47.319 --> 00:25:52.559
the surrounding area. Searches were organized, groups of neighbors combed every street,

298
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every house, every corner. All
corners were searched, all except the house

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00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:02.440
where the Witch lived. The situation
was critical, but the fear we had

300
00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:07.519
was too much. It wasn'
t that we didn' t mean to,

301
00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:10.920
but nobody had the courage. In
fact, Emiliano' s parents didn

302
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:15.880
' t even suggest someone was going
to do it, because they were too

303
00:26:15.880 --> 00:26:18.519
afraid of him, too. This
may sound a little ugly. I mean,

304
00:26:18.680 --> 00:26:22.799
the fact that I didn' t
check the house where the Witch lived.

305
00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:26.000
But, assuming the child was inside, it would be to confront the

306
00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:30.640
Witch and, assuming the child was
not inside, it would have been to

307
00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:33.720
provoke the Witch' s wrath for
nothing. So it wasn' t done.

308
00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:37.480
One of the neighbors. He had
a friend who was a cop and

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00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:42.119
he pulled other cops to help with
the search as well. But despite all

310
00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:48.000
efforts, there was no trace of
the child. It was a month after

311
00:26:48.039 --> 00:26:52.839
his disappearance, when a neighbor,
while gathering cans in the wasteland where the

312
00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:56.799
dead cats were each year, discovered
something that felt like a huge bucket of

313
00:26:56.880 --> 00:27:03.400
cold water for everyone. There,
semi- buried under the dry and cracked

314
00:27:03.880 --> 00:27:07.000
earth, were Emiliano' s tennis
shoes as recognizable as the day he disappeared.

315
00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:11.960
There were no other remains, there
was no sign of what could have

316
00:27:12.200 --> 00:27:17.319
happened to him only those tennis,
but everyone from the center of the country

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00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:21.759
knows what that means. No one
dared say it, but I think I

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00:27:21.880 --> 00:27:26.039
speak for everyone when I say that
the impression we had was that the Witch

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00:27:26.160 --> 00:27:29.720
had done something to the child.
Maybe I had used it for a ritual

320
00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:33.400
no longer mattered, I had no
case to keep looking for it. We

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00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:37.960
weren' t going to find out
what happened to Emiliano transformed the colony.

322
00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:41.920
The parents, consumed by fear that
the same might happen to one of their

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children, took drastic measures. Some
decided that their children would only go to

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school, while others, dominated by
even greater fear, chose not to let

325
00:27:52.759 --> 00:28:00.240
their children out even to attend school. In the next few months, a

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00:28:00.279 --> 00:28:06.079
strong wave of bad streak hit us
hard to all who their livelihood was the

327
00:28:06.319 --> 00:28:11.640
harvest. They saw their sales fall
day by day as if the money had

328
00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:17.119
evaporated out of people' s pockets. The products were kept on the shelves.

329
00:28:17.559 --> 00:28:21.519
Some others flat out are out of
work. I got kicked out of

330
00:28:21.559 --> 00:28:26.599
the play. What was happening was
impossible to ignore. It could not be

331
00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:30.599
mere coincidence that we were all being
affected. The only explanation was that the

332
00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:36.839
presence of the Witch there in the
colony had already become unsustainable. So,

333
00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:41.359
little by little, the fear we
felt towards the Witch turned into resentment and

334
00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:47.200
courage. The bad streak that struck
our colony seemed to have no end and

335
00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:52.200
with every passing day, the weight
of our despair became more difficult to bear.

336
00:28:52.440 --> 00:28:56.960
In an attempt to escape, even
for a few hours, from the

337
00:28:56.039 --> 00:29:00.680
oppressive reality of our lives. Sometimes
neighbors and I meet in the small backyard

338
00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:07.200
of a house with a bottle of
tequila as the only company. That'

339
00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:12.160
s when the conversation focused on the
witch lowers the influence of alcohol. Someone

340
00:29:12.200 --> 00:29:18.039
no longer remembers who proposed that we
should face her and teach her a lesson.

341
00:29:18.279 --> 00:29:25.799
The senseless and dangerous idea resonated with
a logic distorted by alcohol. We

342
00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:30.440
arm ourselves with a false value fed
by drinking without a plan. Guided only

343
00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:36.839
by our imprudence, we headed towards
the house where the witch lived already standing

344
00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:41.200
in front of the house, although, according to us we were very brave,

345
00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:45.960
no one dared to take the first
step towards the door. We were

346
00:29:45.960 --> 00:29:49.119
paralyzed. I gathered courage or rather
recklessness to be the first to move forward

347
00:29:49.160 --> 00:29:55.519
and knocked on the door. The
sounds coming from inside the house a mixture

348
00:29:55.599 --> 00:30:00.279
of creaks and whispers barely perceptible suggested
that someone was inside the house, but

349
00:30:00.279 --> 00:30:04.119
no one opened us. So we
hit each other. The turn to leave.

350
00:30:04.759 --> 00:30:07.799
It was at that moment, when
we met in front of her.

351
00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:12.519
The witch was standing between us.
There were no words, no gestures,

352
00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:18.720
only his disturbing and imposing presence.
We ran wildly out. Everyone in their

353
00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:23.680
homes had taken such a strong impression
that it took away my drunkenness and also

354
00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:29.880
took away my sleep. In the
days that followed for three long days,

355
00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:34.920
the walls of my house became everything
I saw. I didn' t have

356
00:30:36.039 --> 00:30:38.880
the courage to walk through the door
and out into the street. On the

357
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:42.319
fourth day, since I encouraged myself
to leave the house, the first thing

358
00:30:42.440 --> 00:30:45.119
I did was to go and see
the neighbors who went to the Witch'

359
00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:49.079
s house. It wasn' t
long before the rumors that people, driven

360
00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:53.799
by the same fear and despair that
had confined me to my home, were

361
00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:59.920
organizing themselves, were planning to take
care of the Witch. She was believed

362
00:30:59.960 --> 00:31:03.079
to be taken out of the colony
and, in case she could not be

363
00:31:03.160 --> 00:31:07.200
taken out alive, they had every
intention of taking her out dead. At

364
00:31:07.240 --> 00:31:10.799
the time I found out, the
details of the plan were scarce, but

365
00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:17.480
the purpose was clear. We all
wanted to get her out of our lives

366
00:31:17.559 --> 00:31:21.119
for good by a group of neighbors. Those most affected by the poor economic

367
00:31:21.160 --> 00:31:26.960
and personal streak, those who had
lost more than just income, but loved

368
00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:33.079
ones at the hands of mysterious diseases
or disappearances, had decided that it was

369
00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:38.279
enough. They were convinced that any
evil that had fallen upon the colony was

370
00:31:38.400 --> 00:31:44.759
the work of the Witch and that
only by eliminating it could we hope to

371
00:31:44.799 --> 00:31:45.960
recover so that it would be better
for all of us. Finally, more

372
00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:52.960
than forty people arrived the night indicated
we went out armed with stones collected in

373
00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.279
the streets, but there were some
with much more hostile intentions. Those were

374
00:31:56.400 --> 00:32:02.079
carrying pistols at the time when the
first mercies thrown with fury broke the windows

375
00:32:02.279 --> 00:32:07.599
and began to break the things inside
the house. The witch was furious,

376
00:32:08.160 --> 00:32:10.960
but we didn' t give her
time to do anything. The only thing

377
00:32:12.039 --> 00:32:15.640
that happened was that she left the
house just to receive a rain of huge

378
00:32:15.720 --> 00:32:22.559
stones thrown hard. The witch had
no escape. Still, gunmen shot at

379
00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:28.759
the witch. When all the tumult
and tumult stopped, the witch was lying

380
00:32:29.279 --> 00:32:34.039
on the ground without life. To
this day, every time I tell the

381
00:32:34.119 --> 00:32:37.880
story, there are people who don' t believe me that the woman was

382
00:32:37.880 --> 00:32:39.640
a real witch, but I know
what she lived in that colony. The

383
00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:44.759
woman was a witch. That was
a fact. No one can argue.

384
00:32:45.319 --> 00:32:50.359
That experience marked a before and after, not only in my life, but

385
00:32:50.519 --> 00:32:54.359
in all those who at that time
lived in the colony and also in those

386
00:32:54.519 --> 00:33:00.920
who still live in that colony.
Some judge us, but the situation in

387
00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:07.839
our colony deteriorated day by day.
Lost jobs and growing despair took hold of

388
00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:19.640
us. That' s why we
decided to act that way. Working for

389
00:33:19.799 --> 00:33:25.039
a witch. In my family we
have always had the belief that the events

390
00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:30.359
of our lives are out of our
control, almost as if they were determined

391
00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:37.599
by fate long before they occurred.
Not only did my great- grandfather face

392
00:33:37.640 --> 00:33:42.559
situations that seemed to be predestined,
but this pattern has been repeated generation after

393
00:33:42.559 --> 00:33:46.640
generation. The history of my family
is a series of challenges, adaptations and

394
00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:52.680
traditions that extend from my great-
grandfather to me. It all began with

395
00:33:52.680 --> 00:33:57.000
him, who had to leave school
and work in the countryside because of economic

396
00:33:57.039 --> 00:34:01.079
difficulties, following in the footsteps of
his father. Despite the obstacles, he

397
00:34:01.079 --> 00:34:07.000
became a well- known cattle breeder, but his effort to close a significant

398
00:34:07.039 --> 00:34:13.719
deal was interrupted by natural disasters that
ravaged his cattle, forcing him to start

399
00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:19.719
from scratch. My great- grandfather' s life changed dramatically when a drunk

400
00:34:19.760 --> 00:34:23.960
man killed his animals, which meant
a great loss in defense of his property,

401
00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:29.679
My great- grandfather made the drastic
decision to kill the aggressor, resulting

402
00:34:29.840 --> 00:34:36.360
in a search for compensation according to
local customs. This compensation included obtaining the

403
00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:40.960
blacksmith' s workshop from the deceased
and eventually marrying his youngest daughter, introducing

404
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:45.239
a new branch to our family.
Despite the challenges, my great- grandfather

405
00:34:45.320 --> 00:34:51.920
was able to adapt by turning his
land into a productive farm and keeping the

406
00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:55.119
blacksmith workshop under his guidance. His
children, including my grandfather, specialized in

407
00:34:55.199 --> 00:35:01.079
different facets of agriculture and blacksmithing.
The workshop inherited by my grandfather was the

408
00:35:01.159 --> 00:35:06.920
place where he met my grandmother over
time. He cared about who would follow

409
00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:10.920
the legacy of the workshop, as
he only had daughters. The solution came

410
00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:15.039
with a talented young man, son
of a friend, who not only maintained

411
00:35:15.119 --> 00:35:20.480
the prestige of the workshop, but
also raised it to new levels. This

412
00:35:20.559 --> 00:35:23.280
young man married the eldest daughter of
my grandparents, my mother and so I

413
00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:28.760
was born during high school I started
to help in my father' s workshop.

414
00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:32.119
Now that responsibility is mine, not
because I had no other options,

415
00:35:32.840 --> 00:35:37.400
but because, even having finished college, I decided to continue with the family

416
00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:40.920
tradition. Although I don' t
work directly on the forge. My studies

417
00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:47.039
allowed me to transform smithy into a
successful business. Now I' m running

418
00:35:47.039 --> 00:35:52.440
five employees. My role is focused
on business management and management. My family

419
00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:58.159
' s story challenges chance. It
all began with a tragedy that marked my

420
00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:04.000
great- grandfather' s loss of
almost all his animals, a devastating event

421
00:36:04.039 --> 00:36:07.920
that seemed to end his prosperity.
This led my great- grandfather to marry

422
00:36:07.960 --> 00:36:12.079
the daughter of the man responsible for
his misfortune from where my grandfather was born.

423
00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:15.519
My grandfather, heir to the workshop, faced the dilemma of not having

424
00:36:15.599 --> 00:36:21.559
a male heir for the trade.
The irony of fate caused him to look

425
00:36:21.639 --> 00:36:25.880
outside his family for someone capable of
leading the workshop. That someone not only

426
00:36:25.960 --> 00:36:31.320
brought prosperity, but also married my
mother. Therefore, in my family we

427
00:36:31.480 --> 00:36:37.320
believe that free will is an illusion
and that our steps are already written in

428
00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:42.119
destiny. To what I want to
come with all this is that the experience

429
00:36:42.239 --> 00:36:46.039
that I want to tell you,
which happened to me because I managed the

430
00:36:46.079 --> 00:36:51.599
smithy, was not chance, but
it was an experience that destiny already had

431
00:36:51.599 --> 00:36:55.320
chosen for me. In two thousand
nineteen I had the honor of meeting Doña

432
00:36:55.360 --> 00:37:00.719
Mercedes, a distinguished lady of advanced
age than that of a considerable fortune.

433
00:37:01.039 --> 00:37:07.360
Doña Mercedes was in every way an
enigma. Her way of speaking, her

434
00:37:07.440 --> 00:37:12.719
unique appearance and her conduct made her
stand out. In these times, seeing

435
00:37:12.719 --> 00:37:16.039
someone who has tattoos even in his
eyes may not surprise, but what is

436
00:37:16.079 --> 00:37:20.159
not normal, at least not in
my city, is that a person his

437
00:37:20.239 --> 00:37:23.960
age is so tattooed. She has
been the only woman already of senior age

438
00:37:24.079 --> 00:37:29.400
who wore a large amount of tattoos
and, above all, what she highlighted

439
00:37:29.599 --> 00:37:34.119
was the style of the tattoos she
wore. It is not common to see

440
00:37:34.159 --> 00:37:38.599
an older person covered in tattoos and
much less an elegant woman of money,

441
00:37:38.920 --> 00:37:45.400
tattoos on her dolls that looked like
eyes, looking deeply at the three triangles

442
00:37:45.480 --> 00:37:50.800
around her neck and a seven-
pointed star hidden near her ear, were

443
00:37:51.239 --> 00:37:55.159
just a few examples. His fingers
were decorated with rings, but not jewelry,

444
00:37:55.800 --> 00:38:02.239
but imitation tattoos. This form spread
rumors among the workers about an even

445
00:38:02.239 --> 00:38:07.639
more spectacular tattoo that covered his back
side by side, although I never had

446
00:38:07.679 --> 00:38:13.079
the opportunity to verify it personally.
But not only did his tattoos attract attention.

447
00:38:13.559 --> 00:38:17.880
The accessories he chose were equally unique
and reflected his taste for the symbolic.

448
00:38:19.519 --> 00:38:23.039
He wore bracelets with crosses of atypical
designs, a necklace with the shape

449
00:38:23.079 --> 00:38:28.639
of the triquette and earrings in the
form of small skulls. I know that

450
00:38:28.679 --> 00:38:32.360
many of these elements can be common
today, but considering their age and elegance,

451
00:38:32.480 --> 00:38:39.880
the appearance of Doña Mercedes really stood
out and generated curiosity. Doña Mercedes

452
00:38:39.880 --> 00:38:45.079
ran a unique home for the care
and training of young people. Ladies,

453
00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:52.079
this place similar to a boarding school, had spacious and well- kept facilities.

454
00:38:52.760 --> 00:38:57.519
The main building, with about four
hundred square meters distributed over three floors,

455
00:38:58.199 --> 00:39:04.239
was complemented by a large courtyard for
outdoor activities and special events. Admission

456
00:39:04.320 --> 00:39:09.280
to the home was selective, hosting
a small group of residents to ensure detailed

457
00:39:09.360 --> 00:39:16.199
and personalized attention. Although the number
of young people varied, it always remained

458
00:39:16.280 --> 00:39:22.719
between ten and fifteen, adjusting to
the availability and distribution of the seven rooms,

459
00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:28.559
one individual for maximum privacy, two
with bunk beds for two people each

460
00:39:28.599 --> 00:39:35.119
and four designed for three ladies,
efficiently combining the space. The boarding school

461
00:39:35.159 --> 00:39:39.360
was not functioning at full capacity constantly. The admission criterion focused at a rather

462
00:39:39.400 --> 00:39:45.559
specific time on the life of young
women, their first menstrual cycle, and

463
00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:51.159
they could stay until they were seventeen
years old. The financial contribution required by

464
00:39:51.239 --> 00:39:58.760
the parents was four thousand pesos per
month, covering basic needs such as clothing

465
00:39:58.760 --> 00:40:02.480
food, hygiene products and, above
all, an exceptional education. The teaching

466
00:40:02.559 --> 00:40:07.800
offered was far from conventional, including
basic sciences such as chemistry and biology,

467
00:40:08.440 --> 00:40:15.079
and extended to more specialized and esoteric
areas such as herbology, ancient history,

468
00:40:15.840 --> 00:40:21.360
theology, astrology, traditional medicine,
geology, and ancient languages, among other

469
00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:25.559
rare subjects. One of the first
tasks that Doña Mercedes entrusted me with was

470
00:40:25.639 --> 00:40:30.320
to redesign and replace the bars of
all the windows of the boarding school.

471
00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:37.920
Specifically for the small room window,
a design was needed that subtly incorporated a

472
00:40:37.039 --> 00:40:45.320
staff. It had to harmonize with
the general pattern of the fence without over

473
00:40:45.719 --> 00:40:49.559
- emphasizing at first sight. For
the windows of the rooms with bunk beds,

474
00:40:50.199 --> 00:40:55.159
a design was required that included interlaced
triangles, creating a complex geometric structure.

475
00:40:55.679 --> 00:41:00.440
As far as the remaining four rooms
were concerned, they were meant for

476
00:41:00.639 --> 00:41:05.800
three people each. It called for
a design of nine circles joined by lines

477
00:41:05.840 --> 00:41:10.840
extending in several directions, forming a
kind of abstract medium network for all the

478
00:41:10.880 --> 00:41:16.159
other windows of the building. The
design was to mix elements of a crescent

479
00:41:16.239 --> 00:41:21.239
moon and a sun. Never in
all my years of experience in designing window

480
00:41:21.320 --> 00:41:25.880
bars had I received a project with
such specific requirements and full of symbolism.

481
00:41:29.119 --> 00:41:34.559
Doña Mercedes was extremely satisfied with the
work done on her property, as the

482
00:41:34.599 --> 00:41:39.360
designs of the bars coincided perfectly with
her vision. The effectiveness of my team

483
00:41:39.440 --> 00:41:45.360
allowed the project, from manufacturing to
installation, to be completed in less than

484
00:41:45.400 --> 00:41:51.519
a week, as Doña Mercedes had
requested. The production of the about twenty

485
00:41:51.519 --> 00:41:55.440
bars took us three days, we
dedicated an extra day for painting and finally

486
00:41:55.480 --> 00:42:00.760
we installed everything in just one day
after the installation of the bars and with

487
00:42:00.800 --> 00:42:06.679
my supervision to ensure that the team
executed everything perfectly, Doña Mercedes invited us

488
00:42:06.719 --> 00:42:12.320
to eat. Its dining room was
impressive, with a large glass table that

489
00:42:12.400 --> 00:42:17.360
could accommodate up to sixteen people.
The elegance and breadth of the space reflected

490
00:42:17.400 --> 00:42:22.800
the care and attention to the details
that Doña Mercedes put into every aspect of

491
00:42:22.920 --> 00:42:27.559
the boarding school. It was at
that thank- you lunch that I first

492
00:42:27.639 --> 00:42:32.960
saw some of the young women living
there. Until that time we were totally

493
00:42:34.079 --> 00:42:38.960
focused on measuring and installing the bars
without encountering any of them. Despite our

494
00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:45.119
many visits to complete the work,
his absence had not been noticeable until that

495
00:42:45.159 --> 00:42:51.000
day. I can' t tell
you where they were during the installation,

496
00:42:51.360 --> 00:42:54.960
but clearly they had stayed away from
our areas of work. When we sat

497
00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.480
down to eat with Doña Mercedes,
some of the young women attended us.

498
00:43:00.199 --> 00:43:05.639
What immediately caught my attention was his
dress similar to a uniform, but with

499
00:43:05.719 --> 00:43:10.760
particularities that made it unique. They
all wore black heels and stockings with a

500
00:43:10.840 --> 00:43:15.840
black skirt of medium length, but
what really differentiated one young woman from another

501
00:43:16.320 --> 00:43:22.960
were the sweatshirts, which all wore
the same design, but in different colors,

502
00:43:22.159 --> 00:43:28.199
red, dark blue, a tone
between yellow and coffee and pure white.

503
00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:34.679
Five months after our initial collaboration,
Doña Mercedes returned to the workshop with

504
00:43:34.800 --> 00:43:38.880
another proposal. I wanted to change
the main gate of boarding school. The

505
00:43:38.920 --> 00:43:44.920
previous one was a common model of
those, with metal bars that let them

506
00:43:44.960 --> 00:43:47.920
see from one side to the other. The design that Doña Mercedes imagined for

507
00:43:49.079 --> 00:43:53.679
this new gate followed the unique and
detailed style of the projects that we had

508
00:43:53.800 --> 00:44:01.199
done before, although it did not
include easily identifiable elements the whole suggested an

509
00:44:01.360 --> 00:44:07.840
inspiration of the Middle East, harmonizing
perfectly with the designs that we had already

510
00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:12.360
installed on the grilles of the windows. One thing I forgot to mention at

511
00:44:12.400 --> 00:44:16.079
the beginning was that Doña Mercedes made
it clear that neither I nor my collaborators

512
00:44:16.119 --> 00:44:21.679
should take pictures of the completed works. This condition, while limiting our opportunity

513
00:44:21.719 --> 00:44:25.599
to document and exhibit the magnitude of
our work. The customer' s saying

514
00:44:25.679 --> 00:44:30.760
commands and is always right we have
it written in great detail on the outside

515
00:44:30.760 --> 00:44:35.239
front of the business. So,
therefore, it' s something that we

516
00:44:35.239 --> 00:44:39.880
stick to without exception, understanding the
importance of respecting our customers' preferences.

517
00:44:43.280 --> 00:44:46.960
After finishing the gate project, it
was a long time, more than a

518
00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:52.400
year without Doña Mercedes taking over another
project. However, this did not mark

519
00:44:52.440 --> 00:44:57.960
the end of our collaboration. On
a regular basis, every two or three

520
00:44:57.960 --> 00:45:02.400
weeks, she visited the Workshop for
Minor Works, such as repairing the lattice

521
00:45:02.519 --> 00:45:08.239
of a balcony or reinforcing the protections
of the stairs. Doña Mercedes was always

522
00:45:08.280 --> 00:45:13.800
extremely kind during the time I met
her. Although we were not friends in

523
00:45:13.800 --> 00:45:19.480
the most traditional sense, we had
a close and friendly relationship. She used

524
00:45:19.559 --> 00:45:23.000
to share stories of her life and
details about how she ran the boarding school.

525
00:45:24.159 --> 00:45:29.400
One day out of curiosity, I
asked him about who was in charge

526
00:45:29.440 --> 00:45:32.880
of teaching at his boarding school.
I was surprised to discover that she herself

527
00:45:32.920 --> 00:45:37.599
took the role of principal educator,
in addition to being the owner and administrator

528
00:45:37.599 --> 00:45:42.559
of the place. Not only did
Doña Mercedes manage boarding school, but she

529
00:45:42.679 --> 00:45:49.679
also gave classes to young residents,
teaching them from how to prepare food to

530
00:45:49.679 --> 00:45:55.719
various academic subjects. His dedication and
preparation were impressive, clearly showing his ability

531
00:45:57.039 --> 00:46:01.800
to lead such a particular educational environment. However, a doubt persisted in my

532
00:46:01.840 --> 00:46:08.159
mind related to boarding school security.
We live in times where the safety of

533
00:46:08.199 --> 00:46:15.039
women, especially young women, is
a constant concern. I wondered how it

534
00:46:15.119 --> 00:46:20.280
was possible for Doña Mercedes to guarantee
a safe environment for everyone, because I

535
00:46:20.360 --> 00:46:25.000
knew that the boarding school did not
have the presence of guards or security measures

536
00:46:25.039 --> 00:46:29.599
in the face of possible adverse situations. This doubt arose from concern for the

537
00:46:29.679 --> 00:46:35.800
well- being of young women living
in an exclusively female space. The idea

538
00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:39.480
that someone could try to enter the
place without permission was a significant risk.

539
00:46:40.800 --> 00:46:45.920
Doña Mercedes shared how she maintained security
at boarding school. Catching my attention,

540
00:46:46.519 --> 00:46:52.159
he spoke of two occasions when they
faced attempts at invasion by people with bad

541
00:46:52.239 --> 00:46:58.519
intentions. The first time was a
man and the second three individuals. In

542
00:46:58.559 --> 00:47:02.920
both cases, the aggressors were neutralized
in such a way that they ended up

543
00:47:02.960 --> 00:47:07.760
being sent directly to MORGUE. She
claimed that part of the education she provided

544
00:47:08.119 --> 00:47:14.760
included preparing young women for any threat. Given his advanced age, it was

545
00:47:14.840 --> 00:47:21.960
hard for me to believe that he
could teach physical self- defense techniques such

546
00:47:21.960 --> 00:47:24.480
as martial arts. When inquiring about
the method of defense he taught, Doña

547
00:47:24.559 --> 00:47:30.599
Mercedes' response was ambiguous, implying
that not only the physicist is a means

548
00:47:30.639 --> 00:47:37.400
of defense. This statement left me
reflecting on the skills and knowledge that I

549
00:47:37.480 --> 00:47:44.519
might be transmitting to young women,
although the absence of specific details made it

550
00:47:44.559 --> 00:47:49.400
difficult to determine exactly what it meant. At the beginning of February we received

551
00:47:49.480 --> 00:47:53.800
the visit of Doña Mercedes at the
Workshop, who entrusted us with a task

552
00:47:54.159 --> 00:47:59.480
of considerable magnitude to replace all the
doors, both the boarding school he ran

553
00:47:59.599 --> 00:48:05.079
and his own residence. Until that
time, he had assumed that Doña Mercedes

554
00:48:05.159 --> 00:48:09.599
lived within the same boarding school,
given her dedication and the close connection she

555
00:48:09.679 --> 00:48:13.679
seemed to have with the place.
However, I was surprised to discover that,

556
00:48:14.039 --> 00:48:16.920
although he spent much of his time
there, he did not actually sleep

557
00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:22.480
at boarding school, but returned home
every night. The project commissioned involved the

558
00:48:22.480 --> 00:48:29.360
manufacture and installation of a total of
twenty doors distributed between thirteen in boarding school

559
00:48:29.480 --> 00:48:34.320
and seven in the house of Doña
Mercedes. Each of these doors was to

560
00:48:34.400 --> 00:48:40.719
be designed in an exotic and unique
style painted according to precise and ready specifications,

561
00:48:42.199 --> 00:48:46.519
to be placed promptly on Thursday of
the first week of March. The

562
00:48:46.599 --> 00:48:52.199
accuracy at the date of delivery was
such that no advance or delay in the

563
00:48:52.280 --> 00:48:57.079
installation was allowed, a request that, although peculiar, I did not question.

564
00:48:57.920 --> 00:49:00.880
Given the volume and complexity of the
work, the team and I organized

565
00:49:00.960 --> 00:49:07.239
ourselves meticulously to meet the deadline.
The task we were entrusted with. This

566
00:49:07.280 --> 00:49:14.760
time it turned out to be much
more complex and enigmatic than any previous project

567
00:49:14.760 --> 00:49:20.800
we had done. The twenty doors
we had to make carried an unusually deep

568
00:49:20.920 --> 00:49:27.519
and mysterious symbolic burden. To accurately
describe every detail incorporated into the design would

569
00:49:27.719 --> 00:49:32.800
be an almost impossible feat. However, the symbols selected to adorn them were

570
00:49:32.800 --> 00:49:38.360
of a peculiar nature. Among the
symbols chosen was Horus' eye, accompanied

571
00:49:38.360 --> 00:49:45.199
by a pyramid. There was also
a staff, there was the star of

572
00:49:45.639 --> 00:49:49.800
the Jews and there was another symbol
that I had never seen before and I

573
00:49:49.800 --> 00:49:52.320
have never seen afterwards. I have
no idea how to describe them to you,

574
00:49:52.519 --> 00:49:57.199
but I assure you that symbol was
satanic. Each of these symbols was

575
00:49:57.559 --> 00:50:01.800
meticulously incorporated into the design of the
doors, creating a visual harmony so precise

576
00:50:01.880 --> 00:50:07.880
that it challenged the creativity even of
the most experienced in the field of design.

577
00:50:09.239 --> 00:50:15.039
By showing the draft to a close
friend who was an expert in design,

578
00:50:15.400 --> 00:50:17.519
his surprise was evident. He,
with years of experience and a critical

579
00:50:17.639 --> 00:50:23.360
eye for details. He confessed that
he would never have imagined such a perfect

580
00:50:23.440 --> 00:50:29.440
integration of such diverse elements. The
day specified by Doña Mercedes, the doors

581
00:50:29.440 --> 00:50:32.480
were installed. The next few months. After the completion of the doors,

582
00:50:32.920 --> 00:50:38.159
we continue to work for Doña Mercedes
on several minor projects. However, at

583
00:50:38.440 --> 00:50:44.400
the beginning of October, coinciding curiously
with the arrival of a new bishop in

584
00:50:44.440 --> 00:50:49.760
the city, Doña Mercedes appeared in
the workshop to tell me that she was

585
00:50:49.800 --> 00:50:53.360
going to close the boarding school.
The reasons behind this decision were not revealed

586
00:50:53.400 --> 00:50:59.679
and his face showed no intention of
going into details before leaving a envelope containing

587
00:50:59.760 --> 00:51:06.840
a generous amount of money, accompanied
by two sets of keys. The instructions

588
00:51:06.880 --> 00:51:10.239
were clear. He had to go
both to boarding school and to his house

589
00:51:10.360 --> 00:51:15.920
on October 25th to remove the twenty
doors. The most peculiar thing about his

590
00:51:15.039 --> 00:51:17.639
request was the fate he had to
give to the metal of the doors.

591
00:51:17.960 --> 00:51:23.320
I had to melt it and then
get rid of it in the way I

592
00:51:23.360 --> 00:51:27.840
thought it was appropriate, as long
as I didn' t reuse the metal

593
00:51:27.840 --> 00:51:30.239
to put together another job. The
money in the envelope was more than enough

594
00:51:30.400 --> 00:51:37.440
to follow his instructions without questioning his
motives. Despite the strange request, I

595
00:51:37.440 --> 00:51:40.960
complied with the request. However,
once the metal was melted, I could

596
00:51:42.039 --> 00:51:46.079
not get rid of it so easily. Instead of getting rid of the metal

597
00:51:46.119 --> 00:51:52.199
as I had suggested, I kept
it in a corner of the workshop where

598
00:51:52.199 --> 00:51:54.880
it has remained ever since. What
happened next added a new level of mystery

599
00:51:54.960 --> 00:52:00.679
to the already intriguing history of the
gates. My left- over obstacles began

600
00:52:00.719 --> 00:52:07.280
to report strange experiences related to molten
metal. According to them, as they

601
00:52:07.360 --> 00:52:12.599
passed near the place where it was
kept, they heard female voices whispering indecipherable

602
00:52:12.599 --> 00:52:25.320
words. People of Bruges called me
Alma and I grew up in a place

603
00:52:25.440 --> 00:52:30.159
that many would not believe that there
is a small town in Mexico so remote

604
00:52:30.239 --> 00:52:36.199
that the dirt road that connects it
with civilization seems to be erased with every

605
00:52:36.280 --> 00:52:42.719
rain, a place whose name I
cannot pronounce, a town whose location must

606
00:52:42.719 --> 00:52:47.639
remain hidden Here, between mountains and
fields things happen the people where I was

607
00:52:47.840 --> 00:52:52.599
raised in root, in stories and
legends that challenge the passage of time and

608
00:52:52.599 --> 00:52:58.400
modern understanding. My Aunt Mariana,
whose teachings and practices have become an integral

609
00:52:58.480 --> 00:53:02.800
part of my own conception of the
world. He often shared accounts of the

610
00:53:02.920 --> 00:53:07.480
origin of our people. According to
the stories I have heard in my family,

611
00:53:08.360 --> 00:53:12.519
our village was founded at a time
when the world was very different.

612
00:53:13.599 --> 00:53:17.519
It is said that when the Spanish
Catholics began their crusade of conquest and death,

613
00:53:19.119 --> 00:53:22.599
they could not set foot within the
people, because they found in our

614
00:53:22.719 --> 00:53:27.320
people an insurmountable barrier, not of
walls or weapons, but of fear.

615
00:53:27.800 --> 00:53:31.079
Everyone was afraid of the witches who
lived here. The witches of our people

616
00:53:31.280 --> 00:53:36.159
are the most dangerous in all of
Mexico. But it is neither by particularly

617
00:53:36.199 --> 00:53:40.719
powerful lineage nor by a practice of
witchcraft superior to that of other regions of

618
00:53:40.800 --> 00:53:45.920
Mexico. The true strength of our
people resided in the unique energy of Earth

619
00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:52.559
itself, an energy detected by our
ancestors, who, endowed with a deep

620
00:53:52.639 --> 00:53:59.559
sensitivity to spiritual currents, chose this
place as their settlement. This energy of

621
00:53:59.679 --> 00:54:04.400
is loved, as powerful and pure, was seen as the perfect environment to

622
00:54:04.440 --> 00:54:09.719
foster and develop the capabilities of those
inclined towards the occult arts. The earth

623
00:54:09.800 --> 00:54:15.639
beneath our feet is said to cover
the remains of a massacre. As I

624
00:54:15.679 --> 00:54:21.360
understand it, about a thousand years
ago, the Aztecs, in their expansion

625
00:54:21.360 --> 00:54:24.920
and dominion, massacred the inhabitants of
a rival people. Among the victims of

626
00:54:24.920 --> 00:54:30.760
this brutality were sorcerers of great power, whose blood shed without opportunity for defense

627
00:54:30.760 --> 00:54:37.280
or resistance, permeated the land with
a deep and lasting essence. The tragic

628
00:54:37.360 --> 00:54:42.760
and abrupt way of their deaths,
without the possibility of fighting or running away,

629
00:54:43.199 --> 00:54:46.119
sealed their energy on the ground,
creating an exo of power that would

630
00:54:46.239 --> 00:54:51.840
last through the centuries. This energy
absorbed by the earth has created a sea

631
00:54:51.880 --> 00:54:57.719
of cultivation for the witches of our
people to flourish with unprecedented potential. It

632
00:54:57.800 --> 00:55:01.159
is in this unique context that my
Aunt Mary, like the witches before her,

633
00:55:01.400 --> 00:55:07.079
has been able to explore and expand
her skills beyond the known limits elsewhere.

634
00:55:08.320 --> 00:55:14.760
My childhood unfolded on a stage that
for any stranger would seem to be

635
00:55:14.840 --> 00:55:19.639
extracted from a distant time, a
place where the grey sky and dense fog

636
00:55:19.719 --> 00:55:23.599
were as constant as the mystery that
enveloped every corner and every whisper of the

637
00:55:23.599 --> 00:55:30.639
wind. In this small town there
are more than ten witches, but not

638
00:55:30.679 --> 00:55:35.519
those tales that fly in brooms or
nonsense of those witches. Indeed, some

639
00:55:36.599 --> 00:55:40.559
two hundred and fifty years ago,
the founders of the people settled in these

640
00:55:40.559 --> 00:55:45.480
lands, guided by visions to learn
to live with the energy emanating from the

641
00:55:45.480 --> 00:55:51.280
earth. It was not an easy
task for those early inhabitants. The energy,

642
00:55:51.519 --> 00:55:54.480
though powerful and pure, was so
overwhelming that life in the early years

643
00:55:54.519 --> 00:56:00.360
was quite complicated. The witches were
the ones who had the greatest responsibility,

644
00:56:00.400 --> 00:56:06.119
for they were the ones who received
all that energy and it was not an

645
00:56:06.119 --> 00:56:08.800
option. If the witches did not
absorb the energy, the other people who

646
00:56:08.840 --> 00:56:15.559
were not witches would not have been
able to even last one night in the

647
00:56:15.679 --> 00:56:17.840
area for the first few years.
Several of them of the witches who at

648
00:56:17.880 --> 00:56:22.880
that time did not completely understand the
magnitude of the force they were dealing with,

649
00:56:23.480 --> 00:56:29.440
lost their lives consumed by the intensity
of an energy that they failed to

650
00:56:29.480 --> 00:56:34.280
contain within their bodies. What I' m going to say is perhaps not

651
00:56:34.320 --> 00:56:37.119
the best comparison I could do,
but just to give them an idea.

652
00:56:37.559 --> 00:56:43.360
Imagine that the fact that the first
witches tried to contain all the energy emanated

653
00:56:44.199 --> 00:56:47.400
from him even trying to make their
bodies like transistors was like being at the

654
00:56:47.440 --> 00:56:52.880
epicenter of an atomic bomb. That' s how bad the first witches in

655
00:56:52.960 --> 00:56:58.000
our town had. As the centuries
passed the new witches. Let' s

656
00:56:58.039 --> 00:57:02.000
say that by instinct they were already
learned, seeing how to keep the energy

657
00:57:02.039 --> 00:57:06.760
controlled inside their bodies. Currently,
in my family there is a witch,

658
00:57:07.199 --> 00:57:12.559
my Aunt Mariana and before her,
the family witch was Grandma Ruth. But

659
00:57:12.599 --> 00:57:16.400
not all families have a witch and
our family doesn' t have so many

660
00:57:16.400 --> 00:57:21.480
witches in their history. How it
was that my family had the right for

661
00:57:21.599 --> 00:57:27.400
the first time goes back to an
episode that happened in those turbulent times of

662
00:57:27.400 --> 00:57:31.440
the Revolution. One afternoon, a
man arrived in our village. His agitated

663
00:57:31.480 --> 00:57:37.400
breath and his fear- filled eyes
revealed that he was fleeing pursued by the

664
00:57:37.400 --> 00:57:45.400
Zapatista forces. This man desperate to
find a safe haven, sought the help

665
00:57:45.480 --> 00:57:50.679
of the witches of our people,
imploring protection against those who followed in the

666
00:57:50.800 --> 00:57:55.079
footsteps. However, in those times
of revolution, many of our witches sympathized

667
00:57:55.320 --> 00:58:00.760
with the Zapatista cause. Thus,
one after the waves refused to lend their

668
00:58:00.800 --> 00:58:07.840
help by holding firm their position and
ideals. Attention escalated until, in an

669
00:58:07.920 --> 00:58:12.280
act of despair and fury, the
man pulled out his weapon and murdered one

670
00:58:12.320 --> 00:58:17.119
of the witches. According to the
ancient traditions of our people, when a

671
00:58:17.239 --> 00:58:22.079
witch was killed, her family lost
the right to continue their lineage and the

672
00:58:22.159 --> 00:58:28.239
cloak of witchcraft had to pass to
another family the Why traditions are so The

673
00:58:28.760 --> 00:58:32.000
truth I do not know. Yes, I have asked, but no one

674
00:58:32.119 --> 00:58:37.880
has been able to tell me why
that has been the case since the founders

675
00:58:37.880 --> 00:58:42.880
arrived in these lands. Too many
centuries have passed to have the data among

676
00:58:42.920 --> 00:58:45.880
the other witches. They decided that
a woman in my family would be chosen

677
00:58:46.000 --> 00:58:50.599
to take the place of that witch. When she died, my great-

678
00:58:51.000 --> 00:58:54.639
grandmother took the place, then Grandma
Ruth and now the family witch is my

679
00:58:54.800 --> 00:59:00.840
Aunt Mariana. It is essential to
clarify a point that has often been misinterpreted

680
00:59:00.960 --> 00:59:06.199
beyond our limits. Neither my Aunt
Mariana nor any of the witches who have

681
00:59:06.239 --> 00:59:12.159
been part of my family were born
witches from the moment of our birth.

682
00:59:12.519 --> 00:59:17.280
Every woman in this village carries with
a unique predisposition a kind of witch gene

683
00:59:17.360 --> 00:59:23.960
for using a metaphor that, although
not scientifically precise, helps to understand the

684
00:59:24.000 --> 00:59:30.559
point I want to explain. This
predisposition does not automatically ensure our transformation into

685
00:59:30.559 --> 00:59:37.119
witches. Rather it gives us the
potential capacity to develop ourselves as such depending

686
00:59:37.199 --> 00:59:42.480
on certain circumstances, which would be
very difficult for me and I would have

687
00:59:42.480 --> 00:59:46.000
to extend a lot. Let'
s just let it all depend on the

688
00:59:46.000 --> 00:59:52.039
circumstances. Tradition dictates that there should
always be a specific number of witches within

689
00:59:52.119 --> 00:59:57.039
the village. This balance is sacred
and has remained unalterable over the years,

690
00:59:57.440 --> 01:00:00.840
although the reasons behind this rule,
as well as the explanation to the vast

691
01:00:00.880 --> 01:00:07.360
majority of our traditions, have been
lost with the passing of the centuries What

692
01:00:07.400 --> 01:00:10.280
is known is that, at the
time of the death of one witch,

693
01:00:10.519 --> 01:00:15.880
another must take its place that very
day of preference must be a witch who

694
01:00:15.960 --> 01:00:22.599
has blood ties to the newly deceased
witch. However, this succession is not

695
01:00:22.639 --> 01:00:29.239
exempt from certain specifications. There are
times when, despite the predisposition of the

696
01:00:29.280 --> 01:00:32.760
women of the deceased witch, no
woman in the family is ready to take

697
01:00:34.079 --> 01:00:38.599
on the mantle of witch. In
these circumstances we face a profound dilemma.

698
01:00:39.719 --> 01:00:45.599
The first option is for a family
man to temporarily take the place of the

699
01:00:45.679 --> 01:00:50.519
witch, assuming responsibility until he makes
the decision to appoint a witch, for

700
01:00:50.599 --> 01:00:53.360
which it may take up to a
year, because if the man took the

701
01:00:53.480 --> 01:01:00.159
position it is because no woman was
ready. The second option is that if

702
01:01:00.239 --> 01:01:02.920
there is not a family man who
can take the place of the witch either,

703
01:01:04.320 --> 01:01:07.400
just as it happens when a witch
is killed, the rest of the

704
01:01:07.440 --> 01:01:12.719
witches are the ones who choose another
family so that the right to witch changes

705
01:01:12.880 --> 01:01:16.800
place. I understand that listening to
it like that, from good to good,

706
01:01:17.159 --> 01:01:21.800
may sound a little messy, but
it' s actually pretty simple.

707
01:01:22.559 --> 01:01:25.800
I was born with the option of
becoming a witch, just like all the

708
01:01:25.840 --> 01:01:30.880
women in my family, but I
really don' t think I' ll

709
01:01:30.039 --> 01:01:35.599
ever become a witch at some point, because my sisters are more focused on

710
01:01:35.599 --> 01:01:40.000
that, and at this point the
family witch is my Aunt Mariana. She

711
01:01:40.039 --> 01:01:45.880
became a witch when Grandma Ruth passed
away. Although witches, in their essence,

712
01:01:45.800 --> 01:01:51.800
do not seek conflicts or have hostile
behaviors towards the people of the people,

713
01:01:52.039 --> 01:01:55.199
there is an invisible line that we
have all learned not to cross,

714
01:01:55.440 --> 01:02:00.000
in the sense of not disturbing them, of not provoking them. From a

715
01:02:00.639 --> 01:02:04.639
young age I was taught that even
having a witch in the family would not

716
01:02:04.719 --> 01:02:08.320
put me, safe from the consequences
of provoking them or disrespecting them. If

717
01:02:08.400 --> 01:02:13.960
someone in our family were to incur
the wrath of a witch, my Aunt

718
01:02:14.000 --> 01:02:17.280
Mariana would refrain from intervening, not
for lack of love or care, but

719
01:02:17.280 --> 01:02:23.119
because a witch' s duty to
impartiality is stronger than blood ties. This

720
01:02:23.199 --> 01:02:29.199
neutrality is essential to its practice and
its role within the people. Not because

721
01:02:29.280 --> 01:02:32.719
witches must be indifferent to their family, but because if witches take sides,

722
01:02:32.920 --> 01:02:37.599
a war would be unleashed between witches
and the people would burn in less than

723
01:02:37.599 --> 01:02:45.039
twenty- four hours. This unwritten
rule maintains peace and prevents conflicts that could

724
01:02:45.039 --> 01:02:52.559
trigger clashes between witches, which would
be disastrous for all. The history of

725
01:02:52.679 --> 01:02:59.000
our people is permeated by stories that
serve as warnings small discords that escalated into

726
01:02:59.000 --> 01:03:05.280
real storms, natural disasters, diseases
or tragedies, such as fires that in

727
01:03:05.360 --> 01:03:10.159
ancient times consumed homes. Although witches
rarely extended their discord towards the inhabitants of

728
01:03:10.239 --> 01:03:17.199
the village, rivalries between them could
be intense and sometimes dangerous. These disputes

729
01:03:17.199 --> 01:03:22.360
arose not from everyday misunderstandings or personal
enmity, but one of the most common

730
01:03:22.400 --> 01:03:30.480
sources of witch rivalry comes from competition
for customers. When a client moved for

731
01:03:30.599 --> 01:03:34.800
reasons that only he knows, decided
to switch from one witch to another,

732
01:03:35.719 --> 01:03:39.280
he was indirectly interpreted with an indication
that one witch was better than another.

733
01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:44.119
And, of course, no witch
likes her ability, her abilities and,

734
01:03:44.840 --> 01:03:47.880
above all, her power that that
of them has been called into question.

735
01:03:51.800 --> 01:03:57.320
The consequences of these rivalries could manifest
themselves in subtle ways, such as,

736
01:03:57.719 --> 01:04:00.199
for example, that one witch caused
the other to get damaged at home or

737
01:04:00.280 --> 01:04:06.400
interfere with one of her jobs.
But if a witch took a situation like

738
01:04:06.440 --> 01:04:13.280
that as something very personal. Tragedies
could occur the most common were fires.

739
01:04:14.079 --> 01:04:18.159
Even though our people could go unnoticed
by the casual traveler, they have unceasingly

740
01:04:18.199 --> 01:04:25.840
attracted a steady flow of foreigners.
These visitors seek something that only our people,

741
01:04:25.920 --> 01:04:30.679
with their peculiar congregation of witches,
can offer them. The variety of

742
01:04:30.719 --> 01:04:33.239
services requested from witches in our village
is so wide that, if I start

743
01:04:33.320 --> 01:04:39.480
talking about all the jobs, I
can stay here for hours. Some seek

744
01:04:39.519 --> 01:04:45.239
desperate cures for finding relief to evils
that science and modern medicine have been unable

745
01:04:45.280 --> 01:04:50.360
to mitigate. Others ask for moorings
that promise to tie their destinies to those

746
01:04:50.400 --> 01:04:56.239
of their loved ones. There are
also those who seek covenants of fortune that

747
01:04:56.320 --> 01:05:00.519
ensure success and, of course,
there are those who ask for precisions against

748
01:05:00.519 --> 01:05:04.960
curses. For us, the inhabitants
of the village, this constant going and

749
01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:11.400
coming from outsiders has become part of
us. Day by day, we have

750
01:05:11.440 --> 01:05:16.199
become accustomed to unknown faces, to
foreign accents. Aunt Mariana, in the

751
01:05:16.239 --> 01:05:19.320
shadow of her home, smelling of
herbs and wet soil, did all kinds

752
01:05:19.920 --> 01:05:27.199
of work. Among the works that
my aunt Mariana performed was one that,

753
01:05:27.280 --> 01:05:32.480
by its intimate and profound nature,
was especially requested by those whose hearts longed

754
01:05:32.519 --> 01:05:38.639
for an unbreakable union. The bottle
of eternal love. The bottle of eternal

755
01:05:38.679 --> 01:05:42.880
love was not a common object.
Each was created with a specific intention.

756
01:05:44.239 --> 01:05:48.239
The small but robust clay container was
designed to contain the very essence of the

757
01:05:48.320 --> 01:05:54.639
relationship. Nails and hair were deposited
inside the bottle from both the person who

758
01:05:55.079 --> 01:05:58.960
was applying for the job, as
well as the person for whom the job

759
01:05:59.000 --> 01:06:02.599
was directed. In case my aunt
had the impression that the job was going

760
01:06:02.679 --> 01:06:08.760
to require a force majeure, she
had to add an additional ingredient inside the

761
01:06:08.960 --> 01:06:14.280
bottle, a very particular fluid,
which I prefer not to mention. The

762
01:06:14.280 --> 01:06:18.320
cork that sealed. The bottle was
then anointed with three different oils, each

763
01:06:18.440 --> 01:06:25.079
with a specific purpose. To foster
love, passion, and faithfulness with the

764
01:06:25.760 --> 01:06:30.079
sealed vessel, a ritual was performed
in which the person who requested the work

765
01:06:30.199 --> 01:06:35.719
had to make a blood covenant.
The bottle of eternal love was buried in

766
01:06:35.760 --> 01:06:41.800
the old cemetery of the village.
I take this opportunity to comment that in

767
01:06:41.920 --> 01:06:45.440
the village we have two cemeteries,
the old and the new. For about

768
01:06:45.519 --> 01:06:48.440
forty- five years, no one
has been buried in the old cemetery,

769
01:06:48.800 --> 01:06:53.800
only in the new cemetery. This
was done because the fame of the witches

770
01:06:53.880 --> 01:06:59.519
here increased so much that the number
of jobs required to be closed under pantheon

771
01:06:59.559 --> 01:07:02.159
soil increased greatly, and so the
decision was made that the old cemetery would

772
01:07:02.199 --> 01:07:10.039
be used only for the witches'
jobs. My aunt, like all witches,

773
01:07:10.480 --> 01:07:14.679
also worked with Santa Muerte and since
Santa is jealous, because the kind

774
01:07:14.760 --> 01:07:18.119
of rituals my aunt performed involving Santa
Muerte, they had to have their own

775
01:07:18.199 --> 01:07:26.000
variant. For example, the ritual
variant of the eternal love bottle was completely

776
01:07:26.280 --> 01:07:31.519
different when it was made for a
worshiper of the Holy Death to perform this

777
01:07:31.559 --> 01:07:38.039
ritual. The central element was not
a bottle, but the personal garments of

778
01:07:38.079 --> 01:07:45.039
the people involved. The pledge of
the desired person was of vital importance the

779
01:07:45.159 --> 01:07:49.400
more use and contact with the body
the better, as it was considered to

780
01:07:49.519 --> 01:07:56.159
contain the purest essence of its being. A pledge from the applicant was placed

781
01:07:56.239 --> 01:08:00.840
next to it. These garments,
among the sons, were kept inside a

782
01:08:00.960 --> 01:08:08.800
bag made of specific fabrics and materials
selected for their ability to contain and amplify

783
01:08:08.880 --> 01:08:15.400
the spiritual energy invoked. The ritual
continued with the invocation of the Holy Death,

784
01:08:15.960 --> 01:08:20.239
asking for his blessing and assistance to
irrevocably unite the lives of the people

785
01:08:20.279 --> 01:08:27.840
represented by the garments. My Aunt
Mariana was also a teacher in the creation

786
01:08:27.920 --> 01:08:32.079
of talismans and amulets for those seeking
change. In his fortune, each object

787
01:08:32.159 --> 01:08:38.600
was carefully crafted and loaded with clear
intentions, often under the light of the

788
01:08:38.600 --> 01:08:44.439
new moon, to bring new opportunities
and prosperity. Although my aunt always advocated

789
01:08:44.479 --> 01:08:48.920
peaceful conflict resolution, when a client
was determined to seek revenge, work was

790
01:08:48.920 --> 01:08:55.680
done on full moon nights. My
Aunt Mariana carried out one of the most

791
01:08:55.800 --> 01:09:00.520
requested rituals by those who wished to
see fortune in their lives. This ritual

792
01:09:00.720 --> 01:09:09.039
designed to attract money with some ease, required meticulous preparation. The ritual components

793
01:09:09.199 --> 01:09:15.560
were simple, but powerful. A
blank sheet representing the new opportunities, green

794
01:09:15.800 --> 01:09:20.880
painting, symbolizing prosperity, several coins
of any denomination as a symbol of material

795
01:09:20.880 --> 01:09:27.000
wealth, a five hundred bill that
served as a focus to attract larger sums

796
01:09:27.000 --> 01:09:32.239
and three green candles that channeled the
energy of abundance. The heart of the

797
01:09:32.359 --> 01:09:36.520
ritual was carried out under the direct
light of the moon, taking advantage of

798
01:09:36.560 --> 01:09:43.239
its power to enhance magic. My
aunt started by placing the three identical green

799
01:09:43.279 --> 01:09:46.960
candles in shape and size, forming
a triangle on an altar prepared in the

800
01:09:47.640 --> 01:09:53.680
open air in the center of this
triangle carefully placed the coins and the five

801
01:09:53.680 --> 01:09:59.359
hundred bill, creating a symbolic link
between the applicant' s present means of

802
01:09:59.479 --> 01:10:03.399
fortune and the desired riches. Now
let me describe, with the requested precision,

803
01:10:04.159 --> 01:10:09.880
one of the most performed rituals by
my Aunt Mariana, who was destined

804
01:10:10.039 --> 01:10:15.159
to ward off the bad luck of
those who felt an invisible weight hindering their

805
01:10:15.159 --> 01:10:19.880
ways. This ritual, known for
its effectiveness and the uniqueness of its process,

806
01:10:20.319 --> 01:10:26.520
was especially appreciated in our people.
The first stage of the ritual involved

807
01:10:26.640 --> 01:10:30.960
the use of incense in grain,
a purifying element that served to cleanse the

808
01:10:31.000 --> 01:10:36.319
environment from negative energies and to invoke
protection during the process, with incense already

809
01:10:36.399 --> 01:10:42.880
lit by shedding its smoke. My
aunt proceeded to bathe three large nuts once

810
01:10:42.960 --> 01:10:48.000
the nuts had been adequately impregnated with
incense smoke. The next step was to

811
01:10:48.079 --> 01:10:54.680
paint each one with red nail polish. The last step of the ritual was

812
01:10:54.680 --> 01:10:59.880
to place the already painted nuts and
a rough leaf in a bag of cloth,

813
01:11:00.479 --> 01:11:02.640
and so I could continue to talk. But I think with this little

814
01:11:02.680 --> 01:11:08.720
information, it' s enough for
them to have a perspective, even moderately,

815
01:11:08.920 --> 01:11:13.239
on where I live and the things
that happen here. The narrative of

816
01:11:13.319 --> 01:11:16.640
our life in this village often seems
to challenge the common perception of modernity.

817
01:11:18.720 --> 01:11:23.760
Don' t even think we'
re living in the middle ages. We

818
01:11:23.800 --> 01:11:30.359
have Internet light, even in the
suburbs the bikes buzz like mosquitoes. There

819
01:11:30.439 --> 01:11:33.800
' s a gas station about 20
miles away. However, not everything in

820
01:11:33.840 --> 01:11:40.960
our people has embraced modernity completely.
An aspect where we are out of date

821
01:11:41.000 --> 01:11:44.960
in the lack of implementation of a
drainage system. While the water runs,

822
01:11:45.359 --> 01:11:49.560
it is because here relatively close there
are two great rivers. Everything I'

823
01:11:49.640 --> 01:11:55.479
ve shared in these twenty minutes has
not been intended to scare or impress anyone

824
01:11:55.600 --> 01:12:00.039
further away. Just what I'
ve been through is I' ve seen

825
01:12:00.079 --> 01:12:03.680
a lot of people talk too much, but all people think they know powerful

826
01:12:03.760 --> 01:12:06.960
witches and witches that are dangerous.
And I' m not saying no.

827
01:12:08.439 --> 01:12:12.399
What I' m saying is the
reality is that the strongest witches are in

828
01:12:12.439 --> 01:12:15.199
my village. This isn' t
because I say so. When the Spanish

829
01:12:15.239 --> 01:12:20.520
Catholics were killing witches, they razed
women from all over, not only from

830
01:12:20.600 --> 01:12:26.159
Mexico, but from many countries of
the continent, but here, from this

831
01:12:26.159 --> 01:12:30.079
people, they could not enter because
the witches here are truly dangerous. One

832
01:12:30.199 --> 01:12:34.399
last thing. I mention that neither
God could protect anyone from the power of

833
01:12:34.479 --> 01:12:39.279
witches. That' s true.
People have come here to pay for the

834
01:12:39.319 --> 01:12:44.680
death of nuns, priests and even
a couple of bishops through witchcraft. So

835
01:12:44.720 --> 01:12:47.680
what I' m saying is not
exaggerated. Not even those people, in

836
01:12:47.720 --> 01:12:51.960
God' s service, can survive
the attack of one of our witches.

837
01:12:56.000 --> 01:13:04.000
Stories written and adapted by Ramiro contreras