What were some things that scared you, or were used to scare you as a child? Stories, fictional or real people, places and items?
For me it was La Lechuza
An old witch that could transform into an owl, but her human face would stay unchanged. She would swoop down and carry away children and people wandering out of their homes in the night.
If you heard a child crying in the darkness it was most certainly her trying to lure you out of your home and the only way to make her go away was to offend her by screaming out vulgarities which, now looking at it as an adult is hilarious.
"Fuck on off bird hag, and fuck your mum too!"
Ofc there was la llorona, but that's a well known legend.
We lived in a smaller hacienda in the countryside and we were forbidden to go to the town after it rained because my grandfather told us that the dead came out after the rain because their earth beds had softened.
The reality, I learned much later, was that the small hillside on the way to the town was a dumping ground for unwanted infants which probably contributed to all the legends of witches and the luring calls. During the harder rain seasons the still, bloated bodies would wash out into the roads.
