El Sombrerón

In Guatemalan retellings (the best-documented example names the story of a girl called Susana), El Sombrerón appears as a nocturnal figure who targets young women with long hair and large eyes; the narrative functions as a cautionary tale regulating female youth. In the Susana account her parents cut her hair and took it to the church so a priest could bless it with holy water and pray; after that, the harassment ceased. Variants and studies of the figure appear in Mexican oral tradition and in Colombian and Venezuelan archival collections, but sources indicate regional variation rather than a single uniform origin.

Sources most often describe El Sombrerón wearing a large black hat, black clothing or dress, a thick shiny belt, and boots that make a lot of noise when he walks. He is associated with a silver guitar and with a procession of a group of mules carrying coal. Accounts differ on stature: some describe a tall man, while at least one retelling represents him as a short character who carries a guitar.

He courts and harasses young women—following them, braiding their hair and serenading them with his silver guitar; he also braids the tails and manes of horses and, when horses are unavailable, dogs' hair. When he afflicts a woman the legend reports she becomes unable to sleep and refuses food because plates are said to be filled with soil (an element of the tale explaining loss of appetite). He travels neighborhoods at dusk, tying his mules to the house pole of the woman he favors and singing and dancing outside.