Inside the Xochimilco Canals there is a chinampa – a small plot built on a lake where vegetables and flowers are grown – who’s call “The Island of the Dolls”, there are several legends about its history, we tell you one of them
Don Julián Santana Barrera owned that chinampa, one day he found the body of a little girl tangled among the lilies, tried to save her but had no luck and the girl died; from then on, Don Julian began to feel tormented by the girl’s spirit
A few days later he found a doll which he thought it was of the girl he had found, decided to take it out and place it in a tree with the firm belief that the spirit of the girl would have peace; for a few days everything was quiet, but again the spirit of the girl began to torment him, so Don Julian decided to look for another doll to take her to her chinampa and thus reassure her, how He saw that it worked every time when Don Julian came out of his chinampa to sell his products he searched among the garbage or herbs a ruined dolls, to take them with him and hang them in the chinampa and thus protect himself from the bad spirits that were surrounding him, as he felt that every doll that he hung was possessed by a childish spirit. Little by little Don Julian became a hermit and the locals said that he was the possessed because he speak with a doll that was his favorite, some call it “La Moneca” others “Agustinita”
In 2001 Don Julián died of a heart attack and fell into the lake in the same place where he had found the girl’s body
Currently the Isla de las Muñecas is a tourist attraction of the Xochimilco Canals, and if you dare to go down you can visit the house of Don Julián and see “La Moneca or Agustinita” and ask for some wishes; but you’ll have to be careful what you ask, remember that dolls love to play
