Voices from beyond: the mule woman of San Pedro del Río

One of the main characteristics that define the people who live in small rural towns, besides their nobility and humanity, are their beliefs in curses, ghosts and apparitions.

Today I come to tell you a true story, from which a myth arose. The facts that I am going to narrate are true. What I will tell you happened in San Pedro del Rio, a small town located in the Venezuelan Andes.

In the mid-1970s, in the town of San pedro del Rio, there lived a family that was the object of public scorn. The reason why this family was denigrate was because the mother committed incest with one of her sons for a long time and from that relationship a baby was born.

At the time of the pregnancy, the woman was approximately 4o years old and her son was a teenager of 16. It is speculated that te woman´s marital relationship with the boy began when he was a child, and the woman was even accused of being a pederast.

The suspicion of incest arose when the woman became pregnant, having been a widow for many years, and because she had never been known to have an affair with another man. Some people in the community claimed that on several occasions the woman and her teenage son were seen in a strange attitude, as if they were husband and wife. When questioned about the father of the child she was carrying in her womb, the woman did not know how to answer. The townspeople, appealing to morals and good customs, pressured her to the point that she had to admit that the father of her child was her other son.

For the community it was an aberration and an unacceptable immorality that a mother would give birth to a child of her own child (the baby would be the son of her grandmother and the son and brother of her brother and brother and nephew of her uncles). A total confusion, enraged they attacked the family to the point that the police authority had to intervene to prevent a lynching.

After a few months the waters calmed down, the child was born as result of the incest. A few days after the baby was born, the woman´s eldest daughter, then 18 years old, took the baby in her arms and dropped him, claiming it was an accident. Unfortunately the baby died from the shock of the fall. The town gossips claimed that the girl dropped the child on purpose so that he would die, because she rejected him and because she was ashamed of the immorality her mother had committed by getting involved with her brother. There was no cause for homicide, the authorities assessed the situation as an accident.

As result of these events, it was commented among the inhabitants of the village that the woman was cursed for her sin, and from that moment on, when she was still alive, she began to wander the streets of the village and the surrounding area at dawn, transformed into a mule. Many claim to have seen her, even today, when many years have passed since the events took place and even though this woman is already dead. Now they say that her cursed soul wanders aimlessly.

Those who claim to have seen her describe her as a black mule with te face f a woman. Some early mornings a heard is heard passing through the streets of the town, many have looked out from their homes to see her pass and say that fire sprouts from her hooves.

The curse for sin, condemned the mule woman to wander aimlessly and without peace, for all eternity.

This is how a myth was born from a real fact. My mother is a native of the town of San Pedro del Rio and since I was a child I heard that story. I know the woman daughter of the mule who dropped the baby a few days old, today she is an elderly lady, I am a friend of one of her sons, once she showed me a picture of her mother and I could not help but feel chills.

During the years I lived in San Pedro del Rio, I experienced paranormal moments that I will tell you about in other articles, but they were never related to the mule woman.

It is inconceivable that a mother would have intimate relations with her underage son and it is even more inconceivable that a child would be born from this unnatural union.

This kind of behavior should not be justified, however the baby was not to blame for the mistakes of his parents and deserved to live. But I can´t imagine the cruel life that would have befallen him, to be branded as the child of the mule woman and judged as the product of an immoral and reprehensible act, of an incestuous act. The best thing is what happens. I wish that the pure soul of the innocent is resting in peace, while the mule woman continues to wander the Venezuelan Andes.

It is likely that this specter wants to visit your tonight, to watch over your sleep from a corner of your room when you are resting peacefully in your soft bed.

The end...

I invite you to read my other articles:

https://read.cash/@Bustashow2022/until-when-cd28e47a

https://read.cash/@Bustashow2022/the-value-of-friendship-992407e9