by Liodany Arias Tamay
Beliefs rooted in popular culture mark the idiosyncrasy of the people of Las Tunas; stories told by word of mouth, generation after generation, about some phenomena or events that were topics of debate, curiosity, and even fear, among the inhabitants of the eastern city.
The locals tell somewhat fanciful stories, some include places or historical passages that define very identifying legends, while others prefer myths by narrating events purely created by the imagination without the basis of any real event.
Among the most famous legends among the children of this land, a very unique one stands out about the existence of a headless horseman who traveled through certain arteries of the city and, in his wake, caused deadly disasters such as traffic accidents or some other very unpleasant or sad news.
Presumably, the uncertainty that for years was caused by the belief of the decapitated character on his white horse, above all supported by certain languages that “claimed” to feel the horse’s footsteps and much more than that, asserted its presence during the early hours of the morning.
But the story has its roots in the passionate infatuation of an Aboriginal man towards a young Spanish woman, in the then chiefdom of Cueybá at the beginning of the Iberian colonization; When the girl’s father found out, he ordered the native to be hunted down and his head cut off, whose remains, according to what they say, were never found.
Headless Horseman
Since then the legend was born and they associated every catastrophe that occurred in the city with the ghost of the rider; so much so that many related it to the 1945 train accident where hundreds of people died and the famous hailstorm of 1963, recorded as one of the most intense atmospheric phenomena that has hit Cuba.
Such is its scope that the fantasy was recreated in 1983 in a work by the plastic artist Rogelio Ricardo Fuentes on the grounds of the Hotel Las Tunas and in the vicinity of Franciso Varona Boulevard in a mural by Alexis Roselló Labrada, a way of immortalizing the done and honor the local sentiment.
Other stories define the real and wonderful panorama of Las Tunas, chronicles of fictional beings, places, people or animals that were catapulted thanks to the popular imagination and that, although it seems somewhat illogical at times, still remain in the beliefs of the children of this land. .
Drowned Chicken Ghost
The ghost of the Ahogapollos River was born after the panic that a woman from the town felt when she saw a mysterious and extraordinary reddish light that appeared and disappeared slowly, at the confluence of the Hormiguero River with the Ahoga-Pollos, which rose and fell in such a way that the woman believed that the said light was going down and up from the sky.
The next day, she and her husband were in charge of spreading the story of the specter of a soul without sorrow to all the neighbors’ houses. Since then, the residents of the town locked themselves in their houses at dusk. Even today, there are people who claim to see strange lights crossing the river bridges.
These are some of the dogmas that form an intrinsic part of the spiritual and popular identity of the Balcón del Oriente Cubano. (Sources: ACN)
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