Latin American Folklore

Read folktales, myths, legends and other stories from South America.

• The Armadillo's Song
  The Armadillo yearns to sing like the frogs and the crickets and the birds. But is he willing to pay the price to learn? (Bolivia)

 

• Chupacabra Rampage
  It stands three to four feet tall, has a flexible row of spines down its back, eyes that glow red and long, sharp fangs... some even say it has wings. This is how eyewitnesses have described the strange, unworldly creature known as El Chupacabra - Spanish for "the goat sucker." (Chile)

   

• Gaucho Gil
  In Argentina, it's increasingly common for people to direct their prayers to the spirit of a 19th century "gaucho." (Argentina)

   

• The legend of Kaieteur Falls
  In the hill country of the Potaro there once dwelt an old man. And by reason of his age his eyes were very dim, and moreover he suffered much from the insects called chegoes which burrowed into his feet. And it came to pass that as he grew more and more feeble, all his neighbors both great and small wished that he would die, for he had become a burden to them... (Guyana)

   

• The Lord of Huanca
  After the Spanish Conquest, the imperial Incan city of Cusco lost its political and economic supremacy. Forced labor and white man's dominance over the Indian populace was cruel and humiliating. The natives lived in the worst of conditions. At this time a new religion began to come forth, many converts were made, and Christian cults arose in the whole of Peru. So it was that one of the most famous cults was born to Christianity, The Lord of Huanca. (Peru)

   

• Saci Pererê
  Saci Pererê is a very playful character in Brazilian mythology. The color of his skin is black and he has only one leg... (Brazil) Spanish version

   

• Treasure in the Llanganatis
  In 1532 a Spaniard named Francisco Pizarro led 183 cold and hungry soldiers up the spine of the Andes into the heart of the most advanced and militarized society in South America, the Inca Empire... (Ecuador)

   

• Yerba Mate, and the legend of the Guarani
  There is an old Guarani Native American legend that relates the origins of the Guarani in the Forests of Paraguay. According to the legend, the ancestors of the Guarani at one time in the distant past crossed a great and spacious ocean from a far land to settle in the Americas... (Paraguay)

   

• The Young Cowherd
  Once upon a time, there was a very cruel man named Benito Arawku, who lived in the village of Qasapampa, high in the Peruvian Andes. He held in his power a poor young boy who spent his life herding this evil man's cows from field to field around his small hut near the hills. Mr. Arawku made his living by selling milk to the villagers, and he made a very good living this way... (Peru) Spanish version