The term “urban legend” was coined by folklorist Richard Dorson in 1968 to refer to a story that was believed to be true but that, in reality, had never happened. Sometimes, the basis of the urban legend is true, but as it is transmitted orally, new elements are added, generally bizarre, the result of popular superstition and fantasy.
Most urban legends have no homeland; first, because it is rarely known where exactly they originated and, second, they have different versions around the world. Despite this, it is true that some have their beginning in a more or less specific place, in addition to spreading throughout a certain geographical area. In this article we will review several of the best-known urban legends of Spain
Popular Spanish rumor mill has, as is usual in this type of folklore, a good dose of scary stories, but there are also many rather comical urban legends that have surely made us smile at some point. We are going to briefly narrate some of the best-known Spanish urban legends.
1. The girl on the curve
We couldn’t start this compilation of Spanish urban legends any other way; This is probably the most popular story in recent decades which, in addition, has versions adapted to almost all parts of the globe.
The basic elements of this legend are three: a traveler who drives his vehicle at night, a dangerous road and a girl who appears suddenly. In the Spanish case, there are several locations for this legend: the best known is the Costas del Garraf, in Catalonia (probably because it is a very narrow stretch of road where many accidents occur), but the story has also been located in Mallorca and on the Carretera de l’Arrabassada, in Barcelona.
Legend has it that a man is driving down a dangerous road one stormy night. Suddenly, he sees a girl dressed in white standing on the shoulder, all soaked by the rain. Stranged by the young woman’s presence, the driver stops the car and invites her to get in.
She sits in the passenger seat and barely answers the questions that the man, astonished, insists on asking her. At one point during the trip, when they are about to face a very sharp curve, the girl tells the man to be careful, as it is a very dangerous section. He thanks her for her interest, to which she responds: “It is my obligation to let you know, this is where I killed myself 25 years ago.” After having spoken these words, the young woman in white disappears without a trace.
2. The trunks of Brazil
This legend spread a few years ago, with so much “success” that Many of the people who had the “Brazilian trunk” plant in their homes got rid of them, out of fear
The legend had the following: a girl gave a log from Brazil to her mother (or her aunt or her grandmother) for her birthday (according to other versions, for her saint). The woman was very pleased with the present, and she proudly displayed the beautiful plant to anyone who wanted to see it.
One day, he observed that the trunk was moving, and that strange noises emerged from inside the plant. Alarmed, she called the police, who ordered her to get rid of it, since what was moving inside the trunk were the babies of a spider native to Brazil that used to lay its eggs in this type of plant, and whose babies, In just a few hours, they grew to the size of a fist. We can think that the farms where Brazilian logs were grown did not do much business that year…
3. The cemetery bet
This time, the protagonist is a very shy young woman (or a boy; again, it all depends on the version). The town is not mentioned in the legend, so it can be located in any cemetery in Spain.
One Halloween night, her classmates challenged the young woman to demonstrate her “bravery” by entering the cemetery at night To record that she had, indeed, been in the cemetery, he had to leave a note on the last tomb in the compound, which included the phrase “I was here.” Even though the idea terrified her, the girl agreed, because she did not want to look bad in front of her friends.
So, that night, the young woman jumped over the wall and entered the cemetery. She walked with a quick step, scared to death, through the graves, until she finally reached the last tombstone in the compound. With a trembling hand she pierced the page with a thumbtack to record her feat. But, when she was about to run away, her skirt got caught on something strange…
The next day, the girl still had not returned home.
Strange and a little scared, her companions went to the cemetery to look for her. And what was her surprise when she discovered the young woman’s corpse on the grave… her skirt had gotten stuck to the thumbtack, and she, believing that it was something supernatural that was grabbing her, had died of pure fear.
4. The grateful terrorist
This urban legend has many locations, almost as many as terrorist attacks have been committed. However, the basis of the story is always the same: a woman gives alms to a man she begs for on the street, and he, grateful for her gesture, tells her that, Since she has been kind, he will repay her by warning her not to go to place X on day Y The place and day vary depending on the version; sometimes it is a shopping center; others, public transportation…
5. The girl and the dog
This chilling legend circulated in Spain for several years in the early 2000s. As usually happens in this type of stories, the plot has variables, but the protagonists are always a dog and its owner, who could be an adult, a child or a little girl.
One of the most commented versions was that of a girl who always slept with her dog next to the bed. The dog would settle on the floor and, when the girl felt afraid, he would affectionately lick the arm that she extended to him.
One night, the girl heard noises and scratches, and assumed it was the dog doing its thing. She extended her arm and, upon noticing the animal’s tongue, she relaxed and fell asleep. The next day, when she woke up, Horrified, she found the dog’s bloody corpse and a sentence on the wall that said: “So, who licked you last night?”
In other versions, the girl cannot sleep because of the pattering of the rain. The dog, as always, licks her to calm her down. But when she gets up the next day and goes to the bathroom, she is horrified to discover that what she thought were raindrops was actually the dog’s blood dripping down, because someone had killed it and hung it from the bathtub. …
6. Breasts that explode
This legend is the daughter of a time when breast implants were beginning to become all the rage. The story is always the same, although the protagonist varies depending on the country: in Spain it was the turn of the presenter and actress Ana Obregón, but in Italy the role fell to Brigitte Nielsen and, in the United States, to Pamela Anderson. The story is that one of them got on a plane and, when it was flying at a considerable altitude, one of her breasts exploded due to the pressure.
7. The dog, the jam and Ricky Martin
Dogs are common in urban legends, but not always related to terrifying themes. Very famous is the urban legend that circulated in 1999 in Spain about the singer Ricky Martin and a fan of his; The story was so powerful that the television program involved in the hoax had to publicly deny it, and even the police and the minor’s Prosecutor’s Office investigated the matter that, in reality, never happened.
But what did the legend say that caused such a stir? The plot revolves around the television show Surprise, surprise!, which was broadcast in those years in Spain and enjoyed enormous audience success. Every day, surprises were prepared in which famous people visited their fans.
Well then; in this supposed broadcast of the program, The singer Ricky Martin would have been hiding in the closet of a girl’s room to greet her as soon as she arrived And yes, the teenager arrived; But before the singer could do anything, the young woman lay down on her bed, spread jam on her private parts… and called her dog to lick it. In some versions, instead of jam it is chocolate or foie gras. It seems that this legend came from the United States, but in Spain it penetrated so deeply that even today there are people who claim to have seen the scene on television…
8. The ghost of the Maternal and Child Hospital of Granada
Perhaps it is one of the few urban legends with an exact location: the Maternal and Child Hospital in the city of Granada. They say that, in 1985, a woman asked at reception about her mother, who had undergone surgery for a tumor The receptionist, solicitous, gave him a pass and told him which room she was in.
After a few minutes, the young woman reappeared and asked to speak to the doctor. The receptionist sent her to the anesthetist, but a short time later the young woman appeared at the reception again, insisting that she had not been treated. Intrigued, the receptionist called the anesthetist, who confirmed that the girl was above her, with her.
Very confused, the anesthetist made the young woman she was treating wait in the waiting room and locked the door. For her part, the receptionist once again sent the young woman who was with her to the anesthetist’s office. She never arrived. When the two opened the door to the waiting room to unravel the mystery, the other was not inside either.
Up to this point, the story is already quite disturbing. But there is still more. The next day, the anesthetist visited the woman who had undergone surgery and, in a good mood, told her that her daughter had played a good joke on them. And what was her surprise when she found out… that the young woman had died in a traffic accident two years before.
9. The ghosts of the Madrid metro
Spanish urban legends related to the metro are quite common in large cities. It happens, for example, with the Barcelona Rocafort metro station, where they say that, at night, when it is already closed, people move and noises are heard. Another well-known case is that of the Madrid metro, the scene of this not very well-known urban legend.
A young woman boarded the last train of the day. There was no one in the car except her and, in front of her, a woman who was staring at her, accompanied by two men. The girl felt a little afraid, but she tried to calm down. At her next stop a man got on and sat next to her. Suddenly, He whispered in her ear not to look at the woman and to get off immediately with him at the next stop The girl did so, and when she asked him why she had asked him that, the man confessed to being her medium, and that the three people who sat before her were all dead.
10. The haberdashery on Pelai Street (Barcelona)
This urban legend is quite old; It dates back to the 1970s and supposedly happened in Barcelona. It seems that, on Pelai Street (near Plaza Cataluña), there was a famous haberdashery, where it was rumored that clients disappeared. Urban legend held that in the changing rooms there was a mechanism that meant that, when they went in to try on lingerie, the entire cubicle rotated and the woman was trapped. It seems that, later, they were destined for the harem of an Arab sheikh…
The rumor was so insistent that even the police had to intervene. Finally, it was discovered that it was just a hoax, probably launched by competing stores…
