La Pascualita
2008-02-22 12:11PM / 標準BLOG
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There are many leyends in my city, This in one of the most famous in here, I dont going to say anything but I let you to know about it, so you can say to me what do you think 
She is the Pascualita.......


Riddle of "Corpse Bride" Draws Crowds
Tim Gaynor - Reuters

Chihuahua,
Mexico - Peering through the glass at a mannequin's veined hands,
sparkling eyes and eerie smile, the small crowd gathered outside a
store in northern Mexico tries to settle a macabre riddle beguiling
many.

Is
the tall, slender bridal figure in the window a richly detailed shop's
dummy or, as a local legend says, the decades-old embalmed corpse of
the former store owner's daughter?.

The
haunting figure known as 'La Pascualita,' or 'Little Pascuala' first
appeared 75 years ago in the window of the bridal gown store in the
city of Chihuahua.

Since
then, the striking realism of the dummy has spawned supernatural tales
and reports of a miracle, and even inspired a foot-stomping accordion
ballad played on local radio.

The
figure has drawn a stream of people from across the desert state of
Chihuahua over the past eight decades, and is now attracting curious
visitors from South America, the United States and Europe, the owners
of the La Popular store say.

As
cars and trucks rumble by the shop on a busy city street, the entranced
visitors smudge their noses up against the store window and try to
decide for themselves if it's a corpse.

"She
looks good for all the years that she's been here," Yolanda Robles, who
trekked to the shop out of curiosity from Phoenix, Arizona, said as she
studied the rosary-clutching figurine.

"There are just so many details, like her hair and the nails on her hand, that it just has to be true," she added.

Corpse Bride

Through
the years the story has bloomed into a tale with all the rich
characteristics of magic realist fiction. It all began on March 25,
1930, when the dummy was first placed in the store front window.

Dressed
in a spring-season bridal gown, the figure immediately gripped the
attention of passers by with its disquieting, wide-set glass eyes, real
hair and blushing skin tones. Pascualita is unique among other shop
mannequins in the sleepy backwater state capital.

Rapt
locals soon began to notice a striking resemblance to the shop's then
owner, Pascuala Esparza. A rumor quickly spread that the figure was not
a dummy, but her daughter who, it was said, died from the bite of a
Black Widow spider on her wedding day.

"She
started to receive abusive phone calls from angry citizens who accused
her of embalming her daughter," the store's present owner Mario
Gonzalez said in his office above the wood-paneled shop floor.

"She
decided to issue a formal denial through a public notary in the city,
but by then it was too late. Nobody believed her and the name
'Pascualita' stuck," he added.

The name of the daughter, if Esparza ever had one, became lost in time.

Down
the years, the tale has been embellished with claims of supernatural
happenings, including visits by a love-sick French magician who is said
to bring the dummy magically to life at night, and take her out on the
town.

Others
say that her gaze follows them around the store, or that she shifts
positions at night in the darkened shop window to the surprise of
passers by.

Spooked
by the tales, several jittery shop workers say they dread being the
last to leave the store in the evening, and some of them refuse to
change the dummy's outfits.

Indeed,
twice a week her outfits are changed, always using the more classic
bridal styles that Gonzalez and his staff consider more appropriate and
dignified. The changing is done - perhaps a bit theatrically - behind
curtains put up in the shop window to preserve the dummy's modesty.

"Every time I go near Pascualita my hands break out in a sweat," shopworker Sonia Burciaga said.

"Her hands are very realistic and she even has varicose veins on her legs. I believe she's a real person."

Miracles and Sugar Skulls

While
Pascualita is more of a curio than a religious draw in devoutly
Catholic Mexico, a few people have left votive candles outside the shop
and even attribute a miracle to her.

"One
woman was having a violent argument with her boyfriend close to the
store. As she turned to walk away from her lover, he pulled out a
pistol and shot her," Gonzalez said.

"As
she fell she looked up and saw the figure in the shop window and said,
'Save me Pascualita, save me!' And you know what? She survived," he
adds.

Other
tributes to the mannequin have included an altar of sugar skulls,
flowers and candles left by local school children each year on November
2 - Mexico's Day of the Dead - and a ballad by popular Tex-Mex combo
'Los Archies.'

Among
those to visit the bride have been popular television figures such as
Mario Kreutzberger, better known as 'Don Francisco', whose syndicated
show has stirred up interest in the figure throughout Latin America.

As
more visitors come to the shop each year, Gonzalez says he is thinking
of getting a visitors' book and even opening a small museum to
Pascualita.

But
asked to settle once and for all whether she is a dummy or a corpse, he
just smiles and shakes his head. "Is it true? A lot of people believe
it is, but I really couldn't say."
www.banderasnews.com/0512/nr-corpsebride.htm
Pascualita´s daugther portrait ...

She is still pretty............


The "Mannequin" look at those hands......


The apparel......


And the mother..... Doña Esperanza

...............................
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