La Guita Xica

Modern summaries date the appearance of La Guita Xica in Catalan legend to around 1890, while its older denomination La Mulassa connects to the term mulassas ('monstrous mules') in Catalan mythology. Sources trace an evolution in naming attested in local tradition and secondary summaries: older references to mulassa / mulassas → forms such as Mulaguita → abbreviated forms Guita and La Guita Xica by the twentieth century. The creature is embedded in the longer-lived ritual complex of the Patum de Berga (a Corpus Christi town rite described as coming from the 14th century) where it functions as an embodied festival figure rather than a biological animal.

Descriptions in the sources portray La Guita Xica as a hybrid of mule (equine) and draconic traits: a green-bodied, equine-like animal with a very long neck and fangs. The figure is most commonly encountered today as large constructed effigies used in public procession during the Patum de Berga; these festival representations are explicitly recorded as 'spitting fireworks.' The attestations treat it as a dragon-like being within Catalan legend and as a mule–dragon hybrid category (mulassa/mulaguita), rather than as a living animal beyond folkloric or effigy contexts.

Source material characterizes La Guita Xica primarily in social and performative terms. Historically it was described as threatening or demonic; twentieth-century sources state it has been revalued and is now regarded as a protective spirit that 'defends the people of Catalonia and the Eucharist's festivals of Patum de Berga.' In ritual enactment its effigial form is recorded as spitting fireworks during processions. The supplied sources do not ascribe further particular supernatural powers beyond threatening/protective status and the theatrical fire-spitting attribute in festival performance.