Federico Stories

Long ago, a young man called Serapio used to live next to a borehole in Santa Elena, Honduras. He was the richest man there and possessed uncountable goods that graved everyone’s attention. Everyone said that one day he appeared with a table, the next one with a bed, later with a new mattress, and many more things every day. Who knew what the next thing on his list would be! Serapio was a very peculiar person. Every night he came to the town with his black mule (figure 1), and they did some unusual business with chosen people. Only a few people were aware of what these businesses were, but as soon as they concluded, they vanished, and, suddenly, they were in El Salvador. No one could understand how it was possible to move from Honduras to El Salvador in less than 5 minutes! Figure 1. The young and the black mule.   ¹ Over the years, everyone was more and more concerned; his wealth and goods were unmeasurable! Hence, a couple of them investigated his trick and they d...

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...

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...

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 ...