Season 1: Episode 3 Island of the Dolls

South of Mexico City lies Xochimilco, a lake consisting of multiple floating agricultural islands called chinampas. Chinampas have a long and dark history within Mexico. Originally created by the Aztecs for agricultural reasons, the chinampas eventually became a sanctuary for those Aztecs trying to escape the conquistadores. “During the time of Cortez many people fled here to Xochimilco and hid on the canals,” Gerardo Ibarra, co-founder of Ruta Origen, a sustainable travel company in Mexico, told The Post. “A lot of these people were women and children hiding from the conquistadores. And many women killed themselves rather than be caught and raped [by the Spanish]" (Froelich, 2021). Over time Mexico City was built along and atop multiple chinampas. Xochimilco is one of the oldest parts of Mexico City and a UNESCO heritage site.

Below is a diagram showing a chinampa construction.

The Story of Doll Island

The story of La Isla de las Muñecas begins in the 1950s with a man named Julian Santana Barrera. Barrera became a devoted Christian in a traditional Catholic community and began preaching his variation of Christianity to his community. His controversial preaching combined with his recent divorce from his wife lead to Barrera being ostracized by his community. To escape, Barrera moved onto a chinampa in Xochimilco. While on his chinampa he claims to have seen the body of a little girl floating face down in the canal waters. Barrera rushes to pull the girl from the water only to realize that he was too late to save her. He becomes sorrowful and distraught over his failure and buries the girl on his chinampa. Now if this story truly happened is debated. It is theorized that Don Julian made up this story, perhaps even subconsciously, in order to deal with the loneliness of being ostracized into living on a chinampa.

Soon paranormal experiences begin happening. A doll is found floating in the water where Barrera originally found the girl. Believing that the doll either was sent by the girl or once belonged to her, Barrera hung the doll in the trees to appease the girl's spirit. For some time the activity died down on the island. Once the activity started up again Barrera would go buy a new doll for the girl's spirit. This slowly devolved into an obsession for Barrera.

Barrera and his Dolls

Barrera began to fear the girl's spirit. He found that his crops kept dying and he began seeing the girl's ghost around the island. To appease the spirit, Barrera built a shrine to the little girl that he filled with the best dolls that he took care of. Throughout the island more and more dolls were nailed to or hung on trees. All to keep the spirit of the girl at bay. One theory is that the little girl is a form of an Aztec water spirit (think of sirens) calling Barrera to the water to drown him. Eventually, the little girl came for Don Julian Barrera and he was found in 2001 drowned in the same place the little girl died 50 years earlier. He was 86 years old.

As for paranormal activity, it is said that visitors on the island can hear the laughing of dolls and even see dolls moving or blinking. Some claim to see the spirit of a little girl or hear her laughter. Others are scared by more corporeal entities, such as the large spiders covering the island and crawling out of the doll carcasses.

Whether you believe in ghosts and possessed dolls or not, La Isla de las Muñecas (Island of the Dolls) is a terrifying small island in the ancient Xochimilco area. And remember, if you feel yourself being drawn to the water's edge...perhaps it is time to give the girl a new doll.

References

Buzzfeed Unsolved Network. (2016, October 26). 3 Horrifying Cases Of Ghosts And Demons [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx8JkGHaGUI

Froelich, P. (2021, October 30). Real story behind ‘haunted’ Island of the Dolls in Mexico. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2021/10/30/real-story-behind-haunted-island-of-the-dolls-in-mexico/

Stephanie Harlowe (2022, October 6). Harloween: The Most Disturbing Places On Earth [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ST6BhMhDU

Westmaas, R. (2019, October 31). The Island of the Dolls Has a Murky and Terrifying History. Discovery. https://www.discovery.com/exploration/the-island-of-the-dolls-has-a-murky-and-terrifying-history