Federico Stories

Did you ever want to enjoy listening while you drive or run the best Salvadoran folklore? What if now you can! Audible and Amazon is bringing you the best of the Salvadoran folklore: Get your copy! Volume 1 Volume 2 Preview:

In 1655, some mighty pirates living on Meanguera Island attacked a ship and stole a sealed wooden box whose contents. The pirates didn’t care about its destination since they were only looking for gold and silver. They forced the sailors to walk the plank and let them die around 50 miles from the shores of La Paz in El Salvador. However, God didn’t forget what had happened and sent a powerful wind that almost destroy the pirate ship. From one moment to another, the mysterious box fell into the sea and the pirates couldn’t recover it. In 1682, some merchants around the shores of La Paz discovered the mysterious box. They couldn’t open it and asked a man on the shores to lend them one of his donkeys. They walked next to the donkey for several days until they reached San Miguel on November 21 st . As soon as they had arrived in San Miguel, the donkey felt exhausted in the main square in front of the old parish church. Immediately, the box opened and after removing several wraps, they foun...

Long ago, three fishermen woke up and decided to hunt some fish on the shores of El Espino Beach. Everyone was happy and seemed like it would be a good day. After a while, one of them started to yell, “Come here! I found a portrait.” The other two men came to see it and were shocked by the portrait. They were sure it was the Virgin Mary. All of them kneeled on the sand and thanked her for her visit. Especially because they were humble men. The men picked up the portrait carefully and brought it to the closes Catholic Church where the local priest deduced that it was the Virgin of Candelaria. The priest spoke with some local people, and everyone agreed to bring the portrait to a tiny old hermitage in the Old Town. Also, they agreed to create a statue that resembled her to her perfection (figure 1). From that day, the Virgin of Candelaria became their Patron and yearly Pilgrimage Festivities are organized on February 1 st and 2 nd as a memory of her visit. Figure 1. The Virgin of C...

Have you ever wondered how to share the magic of Salvadoran Fairytales and Legends with your children, but you don't know how? What if you could do it all at once in English and Spanish? 🤔 Today, I'm bringing you a Virtual Book that you can share with your beloved ones and show them the magic of El Salvador 🪄. You can explore a piece of the Salvadoran traditions, landscapes, locations, and four beautiful stories: Tangaloa, "The Guardian of the Sea," Cipitio, Tenancin, and the Dwarf. Feel free to share them with your beloved ones. And if you read more and enjoy quality time with your children, feel free to read the extended editions: Timeless Stories of El Salvador

The  2 nd  volume  of 31 of the most memorable legends and fairy tales from El Salvador is ready for all of YOU,  Timeless Stories of El Salvador V2, Epiphany ! It is available in eBook, paperback, and hardcover formats from: Amazon Barnes and Noble Lulu It is time you enjoy the best stories of the Salvadoran nights with your friends, family, and the world 🌎.  Share some small bites of the Thumb of the Americas with everyone you know. Be part of the change that you want to see. The 2 nd  volume includes: Sir Francis Drake, The First Pirate of The Pacific The Death of The Sorcerer of La Nahuaterique The Mulus The Almighty Tlaloc The Mysterious Woman of The Toad River Lake Ilopango The Bewitched Wagon The Dwarf The Bandari Witch The Weeping Woman The Virgin of Izalco The Headless Horseman Tenancin, Cipitio’s girlfriend Prince Atonal The Pirate Treasures of Meanguera Island The Black Horse Tangaloa “The Guardian of The Sea” The Cocoa Lake Coatepeque Snak...

A long time ago, a statue of San Sebastián was brought from Morroñoso Hill in Morazán. It was a nice statue, and the citizens decided to make a tiny chapel for him. The next morning, the citizens visited the tiny chapel, but they were shocked because the statue was not there. The statue had moved by itself to another place where there were some rocks. No one understood how this had happened, but they brought back the statue to the tiny chapel. However, again, the next morning, the statue had moved back to the rocks. And the same phenomenon repeated for several weeks. No one had any idea what was happening or who was moving the statue. Some people believe a joker was playing with the statue. After several weeks, some priests agreed that this was a clear sign that Saint Sebastian wanted to stay in that rocky place. There was no joker behind. Therefore, they decided to build a new temple there. The people were glad, and the statue never moved again. Nowadays, the statue and the church ar...

The 1 st volume of 31 of the most unique legends and fairy tales from El Salvador is ready for all of YOU, Timeless Stories of El Salvador ! It is available in eBook, paperback, and hardcover formats from: Amazon Barnes and Noble Apple Books Google Play Books Kobo Lulu It is about time you enjoy the best stories of the Salvadoran nights with your friends, family, and the world 🌎.  Share some small bites of the Thumb of the Americas with everyone you know. Be part of the change that you want to see. The 1 st  volume includes: The good and the bad Cadejo The Siguanaba Cipitio The Headless Priest The Black Knight The Guirola Family The Partideño The Squeaky Wagon The Owls The Lady of the Rings The Cuyancua The Fair Judge of the Night The Managuas Chasca “The virgin of the water” The Fleshless Woman The Enchanted Ulupa Lagoon Our Lady Saint Anne The Midnight Yeller The Lempa River Devil’s Door Comizahual “The white woman” Izalco Volcano The Moon’s Cave The Amate Tree The P...

Many years ago, in Culuco, Nahualism was widespread. This was an ancient art that allowed people to shapeshift into animals. Its local sorcerers were experts on it. However, one day, they committed a serious offense against the Catholic Church. One that really enraged it. In those days, the inhabitants of Culuco were terrified by almost every animal. No one was sure if an animal was an animal, or it was one of the sorcerers! Some assured, they could transform into any animal you could imagine, dogs, cats, cows, etc. Their powers were unmeasurable. At any moment, any animal could revert back to its human form and frighten them to death. Many people often fainted and lost their belongings after these experiences. However, one Thursday during the winter solstice of 1855, an important priest decided to go there and organize a special mass. He organized it in a beautiful church inside the cave (figure 1). He started his mass, but strangely no parishioners arrived. He was shocked bec...

Some elders from Dolores say that many moons ago, some people found a Virgin of Dolores’s statue (figure 1) in the Plains of San Cristóbal next to the banks of the Sisicua River. Where they found it, the people called this town, Puebla Nueva of Titihuapa or La Puebla Nueva. They considered this statue, a miracle, and a message from God. That’s why they built a small temple to honor her presence. Figure 1. The Virgin of Dolores.  ¹ Years later, the priest of the town those days requested the inhabitants to move the statue from La Puebla because he said that the Virgin didn’t like where she was.  This suggestion motivated the town to move the statue from the banks of the river to the place it occupies from 1781 to today,  Our Lady of Sorrows Parish . However, there is a second version and the most accepted one, especially by the Catholic Church. Some people accidentally found a statue of the Virgin of Dolores. They discovered it not so far from the current lo...

Long ago, when the Spaniards arrived in El Salvador, they went to a place called “Ucelucla,” which in indigenous language means “The Place of Tigers.” The inhabitants say the Spaniards founded a town there and built a church so that the villagers could congregate. The people who lived here were incredibly happy and positive; however, the gossip says that one day during a mass, the church suddenly sank completely into the earth. Many people inquired why this had happened. Some believe the cause of the disaster was the church was very close to the sea. Due to this, the land of this place was very loose, and as the church weighed heavily, the land had ceded to, and the structure was sinking. After they lost their church, the people decided to move since many attacks started by pirates from Meanguera Island who ruined everything in their path and stole all their treasures. Somehow the loss of their church created much fear in their lives. They believe the church gave them some protecti...

Everything started in 1822 in the church of Panchimalco, which was already built and was headed by a priest named Francisco, a native of Valladolid, Spain. He was a member of the order of Saint Francis of Assisi. Two years later, Mr. Rosendo Renderos came from Valencia with his daughter Maria de la Paz. He had many servants and a lot of money to buy lands in El Salvador. The Valencian was a widower. However, he had Maria de la Paz, his daughter, a young graceful whose unusual beauty impressed the natives, who said that he had “the same eyes and the same face as the virgin of the church of Panchimalco.” The Renderos family lived for a while in the same convent, until Mr. Rosendo found what he was looking forward to not so far from San Salvador more or less 10 km. He bought some land surrounded by hills near the convent of Panchimalco. His intention was to plant orange trees with the Valencian seeds he had brought. The servants and patron set to work preparing the land to sow t...

For almost a century, the Izalco Volcano erupted continuously. There was a constant fear that it would erupt and descend on the skirts wrecking the villages around it. The parish priest of the church of Dolores in 1935, Salvador Castillo, gathered a group of parishioners and undertook with the image of the Immaculate Conception aloft. They organized a procession around. Suddenly, the volcano calmed down, and the lava and smoke did not come out anymore. This moment was considered a miracle of an unprecedented scale by everyone, and on that day, December 10th, 1935, they placed a statue of the Virgin (figure 1) right where the lava altered its course and stopped. Plus, yearly on the same day, many Izalqueños travel a long way, in the morning to the skirts of the silent Izalco Volcano. Later, they join a mass in honor of their Holy Mother for multiple reasons, including faith, and gratefulness to the Virgin for stopping the lava, among others. All these actions continue, even though...

It was during the times of the Spanish conquest when a group of eight Indians was on a pilgrimage to a town called Sihuatehuacan. These faithful people were carrying a religious statue (figure 1), which was heavy and massive these days. That day the night came earlier than they expected, which forced them to spend the night in an unknown place called Santa Ana in the middle of their journey. Figure 1. Our Lady Saint Anne. ¹ The next day, as soon as the sun rose, the men who carried the statue of the Virgin decided to continue on their way. Otherwise, they would not arrive on time at the church where they had to place it. However, when they tried to lift her off the ground, they realized that there was no human power to move her. They started to ask for help, but no one was able to help them. Suddenly, an old lady suggested to them to erect a chapel there because it was a divine sign of Our Lady Saint Anne that she wanted to stay there. Nowadays, you can find the statu...

What I’m going to tell you, a man told me years ago. The same story was shared with him by someone else too. He told me that his grandfather, already deceased, had heard it from his grandparents. This is an old legend to cut a long story short. They said that this happened in those days when still many Indians lived in America and the first Spanish Conquistadors were arriving at these lands with more and more Spaniards. According to what old legends said, almost all these Spaniards came because they were not doing very well in their country, and they thought they would have a better life in these lands. That’s how Marcos Villegas came to El Salvador, who later renamed himself as Mr. Marcos Villegas de la Buena Nueva. If I remember correctly, he was born in a small town lost in the mountains of Spain. They said because he was unrude, he learned how to read and write thanks to the charity and patience of Priest Mateo Nuñez, a little priest who often visited that place...

Juana was a proud mother of five children in La Palma , a well-known city in the northern part of El Salvador nearby Honduras, and she had a perfect life. She had a beautiful house near the Chiquito River and a good job. Furthermore, she was a practicing Catholic like most of her family and neighbors in those days. Plus, her husband was handsome and intelligent. She had everything that she wanted. However, one night when she was returning from the church, and was frightened because her house was on fire, their neighbors were trying to put out the fire, but everything was in vain, and she lost all that she had. For many months, she tried to overcome her misfortune, but nothing helped her. She became mad and obsessed with her lost kids. Some of her friends interned her in a psychiatric hospital, but one night she escaped and committed suicide in a ravine not so far from her old house. The city was in complete sadness when they discovered it. They lost the most smiling and humble...

It was a warm night of winter in San Pedro Perulapán, and I was coming very late, drunk and tired on Friday at midnight. I could barely remember where I was, or where I was going, I just fell down on the pavement and slept. A couple of hours later, some bells were ringing, and I woke up. I looked around; I was in a church that I didn’t recognize. It looked antique like the Colonial times. I merely took my hat off and sat on the closest empty chair. The priest was reciting in a language that I didn’t comprehend well. My grandma always said that 100 years ago, the churches celebrated the masses in Latin, but I wasn’t sure if it was that mythical language because I had never heard it before. The church seemed empty, and I tried going closer to the altar because I couldn’t see it. I felt the potent incense, and the smoke was considerably deep. The roof was completely dark from all the candles over the years. Plus, the saints on the walls, their faces seemed washed out or opaque. I ...