Haunting Story-Have you heard of the story of El Catrin?

Some of you may be familiar with El Catrin from the famous bingo game called “lotería.” It’s the lotería card that has a man in a penguin style tuxedo and has a cigar with him. Is it ringing a bell? Let me insert a picture so you can visualize what I am referring to.

I think that most people think about this Catrin when they hear it but don’t really know its origin. So according to some myths and folktales that I have been told by my parents, who are from Mexico, el Catrin is actually the entity that takes people once they have died. Well, I guess not actual people but their souls? We can discuss this topic another time! Do we have souls and when we die, what happens to them?

While I collected all of these scary stories from Mexico, I had the opportunity to sit down and have a chat with one of my uncles from my mom’s side who told me about the time he saw El Catrin.

My uncle started the story by prefacing that he was about 7 years old when this happened to him. It was a summer during 1970 and he was having dinner with his mom and they were the only ones in the house. His dad and his siblings were out running errands since they were older and were going to come back after dinner. While he sat and ate his dinner, his mom got up to pick up the phone so he sat by himself in the dining room table. He explained that he could see his front yard from where he sat on the table and he liked to look at his orange tree that was moving peacefully with the wind. As he sat and ate, he looked up once more and saw a man standing outside that looked just like the man from the lotería card pictured above. He stood outside by his orange tree and smoked a cigar while he smiled at my uncle. My uncle said that he began to scream for his mom and that since his mom was always someone that would confront anyone, she went outside. Once outside, she screamed at the top of her lungs and told whoever was trying to bother her family that she would call the cops. No one came out of hiding and no one ever appeared in the front yard again.

This is what others think that El Catrin looks like. Who knows? I don’t want to know what he actually looks like. Lol, I’m good! I am already mentally ill as it is and I don’t want more traumatic events. It’s okay to laugh, I’m doing better! My depression and anxiety aren’t stronger than me! Anyway, before I continue on my tangent, what did you guys think of this quick scary story? I have a few others from the same uncle so you’ll eventually read those too!

Like always, thanks so much for reading my posts! Love you!