The Story of Huiña-Huilli
There is a house by the Chambo River. A house with a sunken roof, shattered windows, and roots creeping up its filthy walls. A man named Juan lives in this house. When girls walk by him he watches them with dark eyes and a sly smile. He calls after them, making them hurry on their way. Sometimes he approaches them, after which they shake with fear. In the nearby village, parents warn their daughters not to walk by the river alone. They tell their daughters to be wary of the dangerous man who resides there.
On this particular night, a chilly fog lies heavy over the village and the river. Juan is on his way home from the dive bar. He uses an old lantern to light the dark path. Suddenly, a young girl emerges from the fog. He observes her as she shyly passes him by, her eyes fixed on the ground in front of her. A long braid runs down her back. Juan watches as the braid sways back and forth, and decides to follow her. The girl, noticing his nearing steps, starts running. Juan takes off after her, but although he is fast, the girl is faster. As he is struggling behind her the lantern slips from his hand, falls to the ground and goes out. A moment later the girl is swallowed by the fog.
Accepting his defeat, Juan begins his walk back home, this time without a light to guide him. He walks slowly, careful not to trip in the darkness. After a while, a baby’s cry pierces through the dark. He follows the sound of desperate weeping. The sound gets closer and closer. He walks slowly until the sound seems to be right by his feet. Juan leans down and picks up a small bundle, which stops screaming the second it reaches his bosom. He looks down at the baby in his arms, which is wrapped up in a blanket, covering its face. He moves the blanket, but instead of revealing a baby’s sweet face, he is met with the face of a horrible creature. Before he has time to react, the creature bites his finger. Shocked, he drops it to the ground.
Why? Is all he can let out, his voice shaking.
-You are a bad man, says the creature before him. And for that I am going to kill you.
Upon hearing these words Juan faints.
In the morning, Juan wakes up with his body against the cold, damp grass. The fog has cleared and he spots his house ahead. The memory of the creature from the night before comes back to him.
-It must have been Huiña-Huilli…. it must have been. Juan mumbles to himself.
He had forgotten about Huiña-Huilli. He had forgotten the story that his grandparents used to tell his sisters. They used to warn his sisters of a spirit who punishes people that behave badly. Huiña-Huilli can appear at midday or at midnight. It can take the form of a baby or mimic its crying. It can bring bad energy upon its targets and make them sick, so sick that they might die. Huiña-Huilli teaches people to be good, and it makes those who do not learn the lesson disappear.
When Juan stands up to walk back home, he feels lighter than he has in a long time. He walks back home with ease in his steps, an ease that he has not felt since he was a young boy. This feeling lingers in his body for days, months, years.
Now the house by the Chambo River is still a bit unkept, sure, but the man who lives there is a good man. He does not bother anyone, when girls walk past him he might give them a polite smile, but he would never dare to frighten them. Juan will never forget the story of Huiña-Huilli again.
Project description
I was first introduced to the legend of Huiña-Huilli in the storybook “Voces del tiempo: Guaranda en sus leyendas” by Liset Lantigua and Guido Chaves. I was browsing the book for an indigenous legend to base my storytelling project on, in an effort to strengthen local identity and ancestral knowledge for the next generation. The book tells the story of a notorious cheat, a selfish man named Pedro, who scams people for money. One night, on his way home from playing cards, he hears a baby crying, and he searches for it in the dark. Pedro finds it and picks it up, however what he thought was a baby turns out to be the creature Huiña-Huilli.
It grips his skin with its claws, and tells him that it is going to kill him for being selfish and never helping others. Pedro loses consciousness, and from the moment he wakes up he changes his ways, from then on he starts being a good and honest person. To gather more information on the legend, a translator and I asked people from the region what they knew about Huiña-Huilli. I was told many different versions of the legend, all of which were quite different from the one in the storybook. Most of them had learned about the legend from their grandparents, who would tell stories about a creature who punishes girls that misbehave. According to these retellings, Huiña-Huilli presents itself to women who get pregnant at too young an age, and women who carry out abortions. The demon scares and bites them. Some claim that girls should not walk by a river alone because they might wake up impregnated by the demon. The translator and I believe this particular myth to be a cautionary tale about rape. A group of women talked about the problem of domestic violence, they said that although the man commits the violence, the woman bears responsibility, it is her responsibility to be a good wife, to cook and to clean. After hearing these various retellings I came up with the concept for my story. I wanted my version of Huiña-Huilli to offer a different perspective, a version which holds men responsible, and which teaches boys the importance of behaving well, and furthermore, what that entails. The topic felt especially relevant as gender-based violence is a big issue in Ecuador. Here, 65% of women have experienced some form of violence during their life, meaning two out of three women. The figure is 71.8% among Afro-descendent women and 64% among indigenous women. According to national authorities, a woman is killed every 26 hours, usually at the hands of family members or intimate partners. Moreover, 1 out of 4 women in Ecuador have experienced sexual violence, which includes sexual harassment or abuse, groping, pornographic material, rape and any sexual act that is involuntary or that has been carried out by means of manipulation. The story that I have written has two main purposes. Firstly, like the other storytelling project, it is meant to celebrate and protect indigenous legends and myths. Secondly, the story is meant to bring awareness to the issue of gender-based violence in Ecuador. Moreover, I hope that it can serve as a preventive measure, teaching children to recognize inappropriate and harmful behaviour.
/Carla Ramsay, Sweden
