The Creepy Island of Dolls, Xochimilco, Mexico

Jan 25

There is a place south of Mexico City, Mexico, an abandoned island said to be haunted by the spirits of young girls, but that’s not the only terrifying aspect of the island.

All around, hanging from trees, bushes, and huts you’ll find them inhabited by decrepit deteriorated lifeless dolls. Dolls that may hold the spirits of those same young girls.

And at night, they may come to life.

Today we’re looking at the Island of Dolls, known in Mexico as la Isla de las Muñecas.

Don Julian Santana Barrera

In 1951 a man by the name of Don Julian Santana Barrera was the only inhabitant of a small island situated along the canals of Xochimilco, near Mexico City. Why he first chose to make this his home is shrouded in mystery.

Some say he needed to get away from the pressures of life and abandoned his wife and child to live on the island. Others say he became a religious fanatic and was driven away from his home in order to escape persecution from those not willing to listen.

Nonetheless, Barrera ended up on this small island where he was able to sustain himself by farming the local produce that grew on the island.

The First Doll

Shortly after, legend has it that while wandering around the island, there floating on the canals, Barrera came upon a body of a young girl who had drowned in the lake. The next day a doll, possibly belonging to the girl, was also found by Barrera floating in the lake in the exact spot where he had found the body.

Believing this to be a sign of an evil spirit, Barrera hung the doll on a nearby tree as a way to honor or appease the soul of the young girl.

Some claim the finding of the young girl's body caused a break in Barrera’s psyche as he blamed himself for not being able to save the girl.

However, it wasn’t long after that Barrera began to feel haunted by something, perhaps that same evil spirit or the spirit of the girl. He would claim to hear footsteps at night as he attempted to sleep in his isolated cabin. Other times he claimed to hear the sounds of a woman screaming late at night from far away despite being the only person on the island and miles from any civilization.

He began to believe he needed more dolls to stop the haunting and to help the young girl’s spirit move on.

Isla de la Munecas Comes to Life

For the next fifty years, Barrera traveled around the island collecting other dolls that wandered down the canal. As the story grew others would bring him dolls or trade him for the produce he grew on the island.

Every doll and piece of doll he found or obtained, Barrera would take back to the island and hang their lifeless corpse from any tree or bush. Adding to the creepiness, he would accept all dolls; broken, tattered, decapitated, or even missing limbs. All of these dolls were placed around the island and have weathered through time.

Unfortunately, the dolls didn’t seem to appease the spirits and according to legend only invited more.

As the accounts of spirits grew other stories began to spread from those who visited the island. Tales of children’s voices whispering, dolls moving and blinking on their own, and sounds of laughter emanating from the dolls grew, creating a haunted island legend.

In a twist of dark fate, in 2001, Barrera was found by his nephew floating dead in the river, in the exact spot where fifty years earlier Barrera had found the body of the young girl.

After Barrera

Since then the story of la Isla de las Munecas has become a tourist attraction. Where tourists can visit the island and see the fifteen hundred dolls Barrera hanging throughout the small island, the hut he built for himself also adorned with dolls, and finally a small shrine he created for the original doll he found.

Many paranormal investigators have made the three-hour trip to spend the night and claimed to have caught proof of spirits roaming the haunted island.

Claims of dolls moving or laughing having been caught on camera while no batteries were found in them, along with voices sounding like young girls caught on tape are a common occurrence.

Oh, and one more twist to this haunting story, Barrera’s own family claims the body of the young girl he found in the canals was never there.

They claimed he imagined the whole thing.