Somewhere in the Skies - Halloween Series | Susto: Preserving Culture via the Paranormal

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Starting point is 00:00:29 Terms apply. This is somewhere in the skies with Brian's bread. Hey, goal friends. My name is Adrian or Aiden. Either way, I am the host of a podcast called Susto. If you haven't heard of the word or concept of Susto, it's a Spanish word for fright. And some people believe that when someone experiences a big scare or something traumatic, the soul separates itself from the body. If the trauma is severe enough, the soul can even fragment. Now, depending on which culture or even community you're speaking to, there are different remedies for Susto. For myself, growing up on the Texas Mexico border, it was a spoonful of sugar either by itself or dissolved in a glass of water.

Starting point is 00:01:47 Some people even use different types of bread to remedy this. Again, if the trauma is severe enough, spiritual guidance and intervention may be needed with the help of a curandere or a brouca. I wanted to preface my presentation with this to give you a little bit more of an understanding of my show and why I called it Susto. My podcast is called Susto because it's centered on paranormal folklore from Latin American and Hispanic cultures. These are stories that I heard growing up. Again, I'm from a region of Texas called the Rio Grande Valley. I grew up on the Texas-Mexico from that region and from northern Mexico. These stories were so prevalent in my life, they were even read to us in elementary school. I have here a copy of this book called Stories That Must Not Die, and this book is full of folklore. This book also has my mother's name there in that corner. This is the copy from my own elementary classroom, just to show you how steeped in my upbringing these stories. were. It has stories of La Yorona, of La Lachusa, of the girl who dance with the devil, the handsome stranger, and many more. So these stories weren't met to purely scare the life out of a group of

Starting point is 00:02:49 children. They actually were presented to us in English and Spanish, and at the end of each story, there were a set of questions, also both in English and Spanish. So, in a way, they were teaching us comprehension by way of folklore and sometimes horror. In producing Sustle independently, for the last five years, I have made connections to other cultures within the Latin American and Hispanic. Bannic diaspora. Connections I didn't think existed, whether it's a similar crypted creature, spirit, or monster with a different story, or a similar story with a completely different cryptic creature, monster, or spirit. Today, I will be sharing one of the most impactful stories that I think I've been able to share, and that is the story of the Tlauilpucci. Enjoy.

Starting point is 00:03:30 December 8th, 1960, an unseasonably cold night in San Pedro Sholodla, a rural, primarily Nahuatl-speaking community beneath the Malinzzi volcano in the Mexican state of Dlaschala. Filemon and Francisco, a couple in their 30s, were working late, carting wool and making yarn. Like most households in the community, they supported themselves with their weaving. They lived in one room of Filemon's parents extended household with their four children, two boys and a girl between five and 14 years old, and a seven-month-old daughter, Christina. Around midnight, Philemon's older brother returned from Mexico City, where he had gone to deliver an order of sarapes. The three of them had coffee and chatted, then all retired for the evening.

Starting point is 00:04:19 Philamon, exhausted, fell asleep immediately, but Francesca gave baby Christina one last feeding. Then, she put her back in her crib before going to bed herself. A few hours later, Francisco awoke and saw a glowing light moving around outside. her bedroom window. She tried to get up to investigate, but her body felt heavy and unresponsive, and she soon fell back asleep. A little later, she half woke again. A strange mist filled the room, and out of it materialized a large bird-like creature. Again, she tried to get up, but the mist overcame her, and that's all she remembered. As the sun rose, Filemon woke up and noticed that the door the room was partially open. Then, he saw baby Christina lying not in her crib, but on the floor,

Starting point is 00:05:14 a few feet away. He got up to investigate while Francisco was still fast asleep. It took several minutes for Philamon to wake Francisco from her deep slumber with the terrible news. Baby Christina was dead. The skin around her chest and neck was bruised, and she was pale. That same morning, six other families were shaken out of trance-like sleeps to a similar discovery, a still, tiny body, seven dead babies. It was a Tlauilbucci epidemic. The blood-sucking shapeshifter, Tlawilpucci, looks like an ordinary person and lives in any ordinary family, but they must consume human blood at least once a month to survive. They hunt in the form of an animal, usually a turkey or vulture, and in Tlaskol.

Starting point is 00:06:05 and lore, Tlau'aulpuchis prefer the blood of infants, and they strike most often in cold or wet weather. They hunt whenever they are hungry, but prefer the dead of night. They fly from village to village in their bird form, or as a hovering ball of light. It is said, you can tell if an animal is a Tlau Lpucci by its glowing aura and the faint smell of blood. After Tlau L'Lbucci picks a victim, they wait outside for a good opportunity to sneak into the home. Some people say that to enter the house, the Tlau'Alpucci must first fly over the roof in the shape of a cross, from north to south and east to west. Others say they can sneak in as a paralyzing mist that knocks out everyone in the room.

Starting point is 00:06:52 Once inside, the Tlauilpucci turns back into a bird and sucks their victim's blood with their long, needle-like tongue. When they escape, they leave the victim's body by the door. The position of the body, along with the body, along with the victim's blood, bruises around the victim's chest, upper back, or neck are the signs of a Tlau'lpucci attack. You can try to protect yourself and your baby from the Tlau'lpucci in many ways, by leaving a sharp object under the crib such as a knife, scissors, needles, or pins, making a cross out of safety pins on your garments, or putting a mirror or a soiled diaper near the bed. But none of these are foolproof.

Starting point is 00:07:31 You can't tell who the T'Lawalpucci in your midst might be. Sometimes, they don't know themselves, until they hit puberty and begin to crave blood. Tlau'ulbuchis can be any gender, and according to Tashkalin lore, the stronger, meaner, more bloodthirsty ones are typically women. A Tlau Lvibuqi can't kill their own family unless that family member tries to give their identity away. And in turn, a family member who is responsible for the death of Athlawabuchi will turn into one themselves, leaving families to live with a dark secret. In the stress and terror of a rash of deaths, people will accuse their own neighbors of being a Tlau Bucci. In rare instances, that person is stoned or clubbed to death. Fortunately, this wasn't the case in San Pedro Sholotla. Normally, when a child dies in Rue of

Starting point is 00:08:24 Lashkala, their funeral procession is filled with music. Mourners sing and make noise on the way to the cemetery, perhaps as a way to comfort the spirit of the child on their first, and final journey without their parents. But the funeral of Atlauaguchi victim is a silent affair. No priest recites prayers over the casket. No one speaks a word until the Padrinos commend the baby's soul to God as they erect a cross over their grave. It is a tradition for the Padrinos to visit the grave after eight days,

Starting point is 00:08:56 also known as the Octava de Grus. But this doesn't happen for Atlauibucci victim. After the wake, all the child's clothes and possessions are burned. They have no Octava de Cruz. No flowers are ever placed on their graves, nor are they remembered on the family altar on Dia de los Mertos. They are rarely spoken of again, as if the child never existed. A tragedy the family tries to wish away. Welcome back, Will friends. I hope you enjoyed that story, and I want to get into it a little bit with you. So there are many reasons why I think that story is very impactful.

Starting point is 00:09:34 One of the first reasons is that it's similar to the story of La La Chusa. If you haven't heard of a Lachusa, a Lachusa is an owl. But some people, typically in Mexican culture, people believe that a Lachusa is a witch who can transform into an owl. So you never know if you're out in the wild which bird is just a bird and which one is a witch with the power to shape shift. They use this story like many of these other stories as a way to discipline children and keep us in line. I was definitely warned that if I was out late, if I was up to no good, if I was getting in trouble, especially after dark, that a lechusa would sweep down and she would either tossle my hair with her talons, she would scratch me up, or she would even try to take me away and do whatever transforming bird-like which is due with children. So already there's this connection to the fear of birds. In some Mesoamerican cultures, people believed that owls were omens of death because they were messes.

Starting point is 00:10:32 of the underworld. So some people could assume that that fear has lasted for generations of these large bird creatures, especially because owls are typically larger in comparison to other birds. Another reason I think that the story I just told is very impactful is because it's rooted in real events. This book, Bloodsucking Witchcraft by John M. Roberts and Hugo G. Nuntini, is an epistemological study of anthropomorphic supernaturalism in rural Plashkala. Say that five times fast. So essentially what happened is these anthropologists or sociologists, if you will, were already in the region of San Pedro Sholotla in the state of Tlashkala. They were doing research that wasn't directly related to Tlau'alpucci's. However, the event of the seven infant deaths happened while

Starting point is 00:11:19 they were there. So their study shifted to focus on the way that this community processed trauma by way of supernaturalism and the paranormal. In Susto, if you listen, I talk about trauma a lot. I truly believe that the paranormal is inherently about trauma. When you think about hauntings, a lot of the time, it's disgruntled spirits. They're disgruntled by something that happened to them while they were alive, something that they didn't get to complete the way that they passed. So my belief, personally, is that the paranormal is inherently about trauma and how it's processed. This study is no different. Now, this doesn't involve a spirit or a haunting, if you will, but it evolves a monster, a creature.

Starting point is 00:12:01 There are a few things that I tabbed in this book that I wanted to go through with you all. I'm going to read a bit from this chapter. This says, at 8 o'clock in the morning, on Friday, 9th December, 1960, Don Juliane de Colotzin came to see Nutini in the cabesera of the Municipio of San Diego Tlokan, where he had been working since late September of that year.

Starting point is 00:12:22 Don Julian was a resident of San Pedro Sholola, one of the main dependent communities of the municipio, located about two and a half miles from the Kavisera. Nuthini had met Don Julian during the summer of 1959 while he was conducting an ethnographic survey of the Tashkal and Puebla Valley. In a great state of excitement, Don Julian proceeded to tell Nutini that in the adjoining parages of Mestitlan, Chico Mostok, and Aslan, seven infants had been sucked by the Tlauilpucci that night, and that all of them had appeared dead early that morning.

Starting point is 00:12:55 Being a resident to Chico Mostok himself, Don Julian, described in detail the state of fear, apprehension, and even hysteria that had quickly spread throughout the population of the paraches in less than an hour after two infants had been found dead in nearby households. By seven o'clock, the paraches were in a state of great agitation, and Don Julian decided to come and tell Nuthini about it, for he had asked Don Julian to report to him any infants sucked by the Tlau'll Pucci or anything connected with it. In fact, in late November, Don Julian had led Nuthini to the examination of a sucked infant. They left immediately for Shalotla and arrived shortly before 9 o'clock.

Starting point is 00:13:33 One more reason that I think this story is extremely impactful is because it is so well documented. They did a full study of these families down to their sleeping habits and patterns, the layouts of the households, the events leading up to the deaths and the events afterward. I think it's also important to note that this community was so extremely affected by this event because again, this is the 1960s in an extremely rural area of Mexico. And this community was already small. They actually broke down the numbers here. So seven infants at that time was 2% of their population,

Starting point is 00:14:08 and seven infants was 50% of all infants in the community. So it's safe to assume that they were in a state of shock and panic after this happened. Thankfully, it didn't delve into more violence or deaths. Another excerpt from the book says, the people's response was the most extraordinary manifestation of the collective thought of a large group of people that Nutini has ever witnessed, and which he never again experienced in the subsequent 27 years of fieldwork in rural Slashkala. It was as if the latent ideological underpining of the people's supernatural belief system seldom manifested or expressed in the normal course of affairs was somehow unleashed verbally, not only to relieve tension, but as a conscious effort to understand and cope with the terrible events that had befallen that intimate group of people. During the course of the following five days, Nuthini was to learn more about the supernatural

Starting point is 00:15:01 belief system of a sector of Rueh-Tlaschala and about its motivation to ritual and ceremonial action than in many subsequent years of fieldwork. I think this one sentence is really, really important, and I want to read it again to you. It says, it was as if the latent ideological underpinning of the people's supernatural belief system, which was seldom manifested or expressed in the normal course of affairs. So typically they didn't really talk about their belief in the supernatural in regular daily life, was somehow unleashed verbally not only to relieve tension, but as a conscious effort to understand and to cope with the terrible events that had be fallen, that intimate group of people. Again, this small community was using this supernatural creature,

Starting point is 00:15:43 this monster to explain what was happening to them. Again, I think it's really important how well documented this event was. I'm going to show here there are even tables as to the physical presentation of the victims after the attacks. Ultimately, they were unable to conclusively say what the cause of death was in a majority of these infants. Some of them, it was attributed to asphyxiation. Some people have come to understand that the sleeping habits of the people in this area may have been accidentally responsible for the deaths of these infants. Traditionally, mothers would sleep with infants in their arms and or bundled up, which I think is something that many people who have children now understand that you were

Starting point is 00:16:29 advised against bundling up an infant in their crib. Ultimately, what I think is extremely interesting from this event is, again, how people process trauma, how people process bad things happening to them by way of the parents. paranormal and the supernatural. I think many of the stories that I've told on Susto have kind of delved into this idea of how do we explain something that is happening to us by way of monsters, spirits, creatures. Because sometimes when you cannot pinpoint a why or a how, you kind of have to shift that to preserve your own sanity. I hope that you enjoyed my story and my presentation today. And if you did, please feel free to listen to Susto anywhere podcasts are available.

Starting point is 00:17:19 You can learn more about Susto by visiting my website, www.com, and you can also follow me across all social media platforms at At Susto Podcast. Once more, thank you for joining us. And until next time, not there, Sustiz. The Somewhere in the Sky's podcast is part of the Lionsgate Sound Network. Please take a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever possible. Thank you for listening.

Somewhere in the Skies - Halloween Series | Susto: Preserving Culture via the Paranormal

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