The story begins in the 1950s, in a remote canal in Xochimilco, Mexico City. In this lake area, where the water reflects a landscape as beautiful as it is terrifying, something happened that marked the life of a man and became a terrifying legend.
Don Julián Santana Barrera was a lonely, devout peasant who lived on a small chinampa (a kind of artificial island) in the middle of the canals of Xochimilco. One day, while he was cultivating his land, he discovered the body of a girl floating in the canal. The girl had drowned, and although not much was known about who she was or where she had come from, the image remained engraved in Don Julián's memory.
Days after this discovery, Don Julian began to hear whispers and laughter from a little girl as night fell, even though he was completely alone on the island. He also reported seeing shadows moving through the trees, as if someone was watching him. In an attempt to appease this restless spirit, he began to hang old dolls in the trees and along his chinampa, hoping that the girl would find company and calm down.
However, the more dolls he hung, the more intense the manifestations seemed. The dolls began to fill with dust, with their bodies dirty and eyes glassy, some without arms or legs, with heads missing and tangled hair. They seemed to look at him through their empty or smiling sockets, as if they were hiding terrible secrets.
As time passed, Don Julian began to talk to the dolls, whom he called "my girls," convinced that they were talking to him and telling him stories from beyond the grave. Neighbors from other chinampas began to avoid the island and called him crazy. They said that Don Julian seemed increasingly strange, more disturbed. His relatives tried to take him back to the city, but he always refused; he was convinced that he had to stay on the island to calm the spirit of the girl, since he feared that if he left, the girl would avenge his abandonment.
Years later, in 2001, Don Julian was found dead in the same canal where he had found the girl's body. His nephew discovered him, floating in the water, in the exact same place where he had found the body decades before. The news spread quickly, and many people claimed that the girl had returned to take Don Julian with her. Since then, his chinampa became a tourist spot known as "The Island of the Dolls."
People who visit the island claim to have seen the dolls move, even when there is no wind. Others say they feel intense gazes and hear a girl's laughter amid the silence of the place. They have also reported hearing murmurs among the branches, and some claim that the dolls blink or change expressions at night. Although most go in search of the macabre experience, many tourists leave the island with a feeling of inexplicable fear and a tightness in their chest.
Today, the Island of the Dolls is practically in the same state in which Don Julian left it. The dolls, dirty and crumbling with time, hang from the trees and from the wooden walls of Don Julian's cabin. Some are hanging by their feet, others have eyes without lids, and their bodies sway as if they were watching and waiting for something. Some believe that Don Julian is still there, watching over the girl, while others think that the girl now possesses all those dolls, eternally trapped between the water and the world of the living.
Each doll tells its story, and the island has become a spooky monument, a reminder that sometimes places hold the echo of departed souls, and that some spirits may never find peace.
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