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The Island of the Dolls also known as La Isla de las Munecas is a chinampa located in the channels of Xochimilco, south of the center of Mexico City, Mexico. The former owner, Don Julian Santana Barrera began collecting and hanging dolls all over. Many local legends surround the island and the dolls, and some believe that it's haunted.
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I’m taking you on an adventure. Picture this. You’re in Xochimilco (So-chee-mill-co) which is a borough South of Mexico City. Xochimilco is a combination of the Nahuatl (Na-watt-el) words Xochitl (So-Cheel) and milli which means “where the flowers grow.” You’re about to get on a boat. You see over a hundred, brightly colored, hand-painted boats called trajineras (tra-hin-yer-as) that are pushed through the water with a wooden pole. Every boat has a name that is painted across it. It’s suggested that you choose a boat that has your name or a special meaning to you. You also have to make sure that this boat will bring you to the correct destination. For our story, you will be traveling about 2 hours along the canals of Xochimilco.
The scenery is beautiful, and the weather is perfect. The sun is shining down on you, and you can’t help but smile. The island is surrounded by chinampas which are floating gardens. It’s a series of wooden, rectangular boxes that are floating on the surface of the water and it’s made of logs and plywood. Trees are planted in the corner of each one to secure it in place and they are filled with squash, beans, peppers, and corn. You see people tending to their gardens from their boats. After awhile, you realized you were so excited about your trip, that you forgot to pack any food or drinks. You don’t have to worry though. There are Floating Garden markets which are also referred to as floating bars. The boats will pull up next to yours and you can order food, drinks, trinkets, jewelry, ponchos, or sombreros.
You order a mango, but not just any mango. This is a work of art. The man slices it quickly and methodically. It looks like a flower with chili powder and lime sprinkled over the petals. You also order a drink with Tequilla, unless you’re sober, then you get a nice mocktail. Birds are chirping, there’s a light breeze swirling around you, and you pass another trajinera with a Mariachi band. Could it get any better? You’re getting close to the two hour mark, you’re almost at your destination. Suddenly, you notice something strange. Silence. Where did the birds go? Why don’t you hear anymore wildlife? Did the energy just change? Is somebody watching you? You nervously chuckle. That has to be your imagination, right? Then you see it.
You know, everyone’s afraid of something. Heights, small spaces, spiders, gingers.....but this? It must be a nightmare. You see a doll, dangling from a tree, with a rope around its neck. When you boarded the boat, you asked to go to La Isla de las Munecas (La iss-la de las moon-yecas) The Island of the Dolls. Your boat comes to a stop and there are hundreds, no thousands of mutilated and deformed dolls and doll parts, hanging from trees, and fences of the chinampa. Why? Who would do this? Well, we’re going to discuss the legend of the Island of the Dolls, but keep in mind, there are many variations of the story.
It all began with a man named Don Julian Santana Barrera. Don Julian was born on October 22nd, 1921 in La Ascuncion (A-soon-see-own), which is one of the oldest districts in the Xochimilco area. He sold produce in the center of La Asuncion (A-soon-see-own), and he was a quiet man, who was deeply religious. At one point in his life, his produce wasn’t selling very well, so he started begging on the streets and the locals would often hear him praying or preaching. This didn’t go well for him because at that time, it was seen as a form of blasphemy. Only anointed priests were allowed to preach the gospel in Mexico and the people were predominantly Roman Catholic. He no longer felt welcome in his hometown and the community began to shun him.
In the 1950’s, Don Julian felt that he needed to make a change. He was going to leave everything he had ever known to move to a chinampa in the canals of Xochimilco. The reason he decided to live in solitude has varied. It could be due to him being shunned by his community, or it could be issues between him and his wife, she may have cheated. He either had a wife and children, a wife and one child, or just a wife. Don Julian told his nephew Anastasio Santana that he was planning to move. He said, “I’m going to my chinampa, I’m already bothering the commercial houses asking for a peso for my pulqe (Pul-kay), so suffer here, I will suffer better there.” Pulqe (pul-kay) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the agave plant. Don Julian had quite a hankering for Pulqe.
He didn’t pack up any luggage when he left, he just brought a boat. He was going to create a life in solitude and the location would be two hours from the nearest dock. He didn’t have any neighbors, but his nephew sporadically visited him. He would deliver items that his uncle needed, and he would take vegetation to trade at the Xochimilco markets. This was the only human interaction that Don Julian had for over a decade. If someone truly wanted to visit him, they would need to find a trajinera, pay a fee, and travel two hours there and two hours back. He had a one room home on his chinampa, and he spent his days gardening.
One day, as he working outside, he heard a noise. Someone was shrieking and this would be extremely alarming and unusual, because he didn’t have any neighbors. The closest person was miles away. He headed towards the sound, and he saw a young girl in the canal. She wore a white, lace dress, and a straw hat. The girl was drowning and some versions of the legend, say that Don Julian froze. He didn’t know what to do and the little girl drowned before he could help her. In another version, he jumped into action, got in the water and tried to help her, but he couldn’t. Sometimes you hear that there were three young girls playing in the water and one of them got carried away in the current and drowned, or the girl was by herself in the water. No matter what version of the story you hear, the young girl drowned next to his island.
The articles say that the young girl’s body disappeared in the canal, Don Julian buried her, or her family was contacted, and her body was taken by authorities. Her family either lived near the island and moved away immediately after her death, or she was visiting a friend’s house and that’s why the girl wasn’t known to locals. Don Julian was completely traumatized by this event, and he began experiencing nightmares about children that were drowning. They would reach out to him, begging to be rescued. He would wake up screaming and prayed that this torture would end soon.
One day, he was working on the island, and he saw something floating in the water. This was in the exact spot where the young girl had drowned. A doll was in the canal, and it was very dirty, but it was wearing a white lace dress and a straw hat, just like the young girl who drowned. He stared into the doll’s eyes, and he heard a small voice ask, why didn’t you save me? He was filled with emotions, and he began crying. He felt so guilty for not being able to save the girl, but he was also angry. Why was this happening to him? He threw the doll back into the canal and went back to his gardening.
That night, he saw the drowned girl in his dreams, and she asked why he had thrown her doll back into the water. He woke up screaming and saw the girl’s face. The next morning, the doll was sitting on the shore, and he heard a voice asking why didn’t you save me? It all became clear in that moment. Don Julian realized he needed to appease the young girl’s spirit. He scooped up the doll and hung her on the side of his house. He slept peacefully that night and he took that as proof that the doll belonged to the young girl. Perhaps she had drowned while playing with it in the canal? She might refrain from haunting him if she had something to play with.
He sat in front of the fire that night and he heard something in the water. Something was slowly coming out of the canal. It was the young girl. She asked him to come play and he ran inside his home and shut the door. Maybe one doll wasn’t good enough to appease her spirit. If she had more, maybe she would leave him alone. He ventured out to Xochimilco the next day and he grabbed every doll he could. He sifted through the trash to find dolls, found some in the streets, and he bought a few. When he arrived home, he hung the dolls all around the island. He felt that this would occupy her time, but it also occupied his.
He began collecting dolls and he never stopped for the rest of his life. It didn’t matter what condition the dolls were in, or if they were even whole dolls. If it was just a doll body part, it would be hung on the island. Dolls could show up there, but they could never leave. He assumed that would make the girl’s spirit angry. He was obsessed with finding new dolls and locals would often see him digging through trash and he would fish for them in the canals. Unfortunately, the canals in Xochimilco became a dumping ground for trash, so they were very polluted.
Over the years, the locals began noticing that Don Julian was spending a lot of time, searching for dolls. When the trajineras traveled far enough down the canals, they could see the dolls hung everywhere, staring at them as they went by. Locals and tourists began taking boat rides to see the island and Don Julian allowed them on his chinampa if they brought a doll with them and paid a small fee. He would show them around and tell stories of the girl that drowned, and he said he could see the spirits of other victims who had drowned in the canal as well.
On April 17th, 2001, Don Julian’s body was discovered in the exact spot where the girl had drowned 50 years earlier. Some people say it was a heart attack, but others say he drowned. Just that afternoon, he had told his nephew, Anastasio Santana, that the mermaids in the canals were trying to take him. He said that a Sirena (See-ray-na) or mermaid had been attempting to carry him away into the canal and this had been going on for a while. The Xochimilco Public ministry recorded the death as cardiac arrest before he fell into the water, but many people believe the mermaid took him or something scared him, and he had a heart attack. A small cross was placed in the area that both Don Julian and the little girl died.
Anastasio took over the island for his uncle and kept everything the same until his death on February 13th, 2019. You can still visit La Isla de las Munecas to this day. The number of dolls on the island grows with each group of visitors. There is only one doll that Don Julian named. Augustinita (August-oon-ita) washed ashore on August 28th, which is the day dedicated to the Catholic St. Augustine (Aug-us-tin). Augustinita sits in a shrine and there is a bowl below her feet. People can leave offerings and she may grant you blessings. If you choose to take a doll from the island, instead of leaving one, there could be dire consequences. Maybe you’ll be a little bit haunted, or perhaps, you’ll be drawn into the waters, just like Don Julian was. And that is the story of La Isla de las Munecas, The Island of the Dolls..
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Mexico City and Xochimilco sit in the Valley of Mexico and the whole region around Mexico City is surrounded by a massive body of water. Over the centuries, most of the water dried up, but not in Xochimilco. This area is well known for the brightly colored gondola style boats called trajineras (tra-hin-yer-as) that are pushed through the water with a wooden pole. Xochimilco is a borough south of Mexico City. La Isla de las Munecas is a Chinampa of the Laguna de Tequilla located in the channels of Xochimilco, south of the center of Mexico City.
A chinampa is a rectangular area of fertile land used to grow crops on the lake beds in the Valley of Mexico. The Aztecs were the first to develop the chinampas on a large scale and they are sometimes referred to as “floating gardens.” Chinampas are artificial islands that were created by interweaving reeds with stakes beneath the lake’s surface to create underwater fences. Soil and aquatic vegetation would be piled into these fences until the top layer of soil was visible on the water’s surface. Trees are planted in the corners of the structure to hold the island in place and the chinampas tend to get passed down through families for many generations.
The Island of the Dolls began when Don Julian found a girl that drowned in the water, but some of his family members have claimed that this isn’t true. They say this little girl never existed and they attribute this tale to mental illness. That could explain why we have never figured out the child’s identity, but his niece says the girl did exist and her family was so grief stricken that they immediately left the island after her death and never returned. She says there is paranormal activity on the island, both from the dolls and the spirits hanging around the place. When it comes to him collecting dolls and hanging them all around the island, people wonder the following:
-Was he mentally ill? Was this all just in his head?
-Did he feel guilty because he could have saved the young girl, but didn’t? Did he freeze and let her drown?
-Was the little girl truly haunting the island?
In 1991, according to the Cultural centre of Spain in Mexico, ecological rescue was undertaken to preserve Xochimilco. The water lilies had taken over and were drowning out other vegetation and they had made the canals impassable. The plan was to clean this all up and allow more access to the Xochimilco canals. People were able to freely move through the canals for the first time in a long time and they were very surprised to see Don Julian’s chinampa decorated with so many dolls. Word began to spread and soon, locals and tourists began showing up, paying a few coins to catch a glimpse.
Don Julian surprisingly welcomed everyone to his island and allowed tourists to wander around his home to see the dolls. He had been run out of his previous home because people couldn’t accept his different ways of thinking, but he showed kindness and welcomed them to his new home. People that met Don Julian would describe him as eccentric, but friendly, and he always had a smile.
This wouldn’t be a true haunting without watching an episode of Ghost Adventures. Zak Bagans visited the island and he took an interesting approach. He decided to use a doll of his own, to see if he could get the dolls on the island to respond. He brought Harold the doll with him. He went to a local psychic, and she said that Harold didn’t enjoy being locked in a suitcase and he wanted out. She also said there was a demon inside Harold, and they would be in danger if he went to the island with him. Harold did not want to go to the doll island, he wanted to go back to the US, but Zak didn’t listen to this. The psychic said she had been communicating with Don Julian and he told her the canals were filled with the bodies of soldiers who had been killed in the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910. The spirits haunted the canals, and those spirits were responsible for the girl’s death.
Don Julian had told some of his friends that the mermaids in the water were after him, but there are other people in Xochimilco that believe in the mermaids and have also claimed to see them. Don Julian believed that the mermaids were coming to take him. On the day that he died, he had been picking pumpkins with his nephew, Anastasio Santana. Don Julian was face down in the water and when Anastasio found him, he saw a big fish next to him. He said this is a fish that wouldn’t be common in the canals and as soon as he spotted it, the fish just disappeared. He believes that the fish took the spirit of Don Julian.
The psychic that Zac Baggans visited said that when she spoke to Don Julian, he said that the fish his nephew saw was real. It’s a big snake that lives on the bottom of the lake and it takes the body of a mermaid. It wraps around people’s legs, and it can drown you. The fish snake is what killed the little girl. In the episode, Don Julian didn’t explicitly say he was also taken by the fish snake, but I believe that’s what they were eluding to.
On Ghost Hunters, there’s a local man who said that he was going through the canal one day and he heard a sound, it was like a drum. As he paddled his boat closer to the noise, it got louder. He instantly felt very stressed, and his heart was pounding. He thought he was having a heart attack. Afterwards, he was not able to communicate or understand anything that people were saying to him. He was like that for 5 whole days and his family had to take him to a Shaman for an exorcism. In one moment of the ceremony, the bad energy passed through him and when into the Shaman and he was healed.
The island is full of decapitated heads, severed limbs, and dolls with blank eyes. The dolls are mutilated, deformed, and some are burnt due to being on the island for more than 70 years. None of the dolls were fixed. They are hung on the island as-is. The mangled bodies of the dolls and Barbies are hanging from trees and fences, surrounding a small cabin. The locals say that sometimes, the dolls move their eyes and their heads, which is a sign that the young girl’s spirit is coming back to life. When the tourists began flocking to the island, they would bring their own dolls to honor Don Julian and the little girl. Visitors say that they have seen ghosts, and they can hear shadows talking. It’s widely believed that the island is cursed.
The island of dolls is one acre and there are three huts, surrounded by decaying dolls, large spiders, and feral cats. Not all boats or trajineras will travel to the island. Some will refuse due to the weird energy, and they claim that the dolls have tried to lure them there or that they try to possess them. Craig Glenday, Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief said, “It’s of course impossible to prove if the dolls themselves are haunted. We’re not saying ghosts are necessarily real and that they’re possessing these plastic bodies, but as claimed haunted dolls, this certainly is the largest collection we’ve ever seen.”
In one version of the story, Don Julian saw three little girls swimming on the banks of the river, but in another, it was just one girl and she got carried away by the current. He dove in the water, but he couldn’t save her in time, and she drowned. He was overcome with grief and blamed himself for her death. The next day, when he saw the doll floating nearby, he hung it on a tree and there are three theories:
Some people say that Don Julian heard footsteps and he heard crying and wailing near his home at night, and he didn’t have any neighbors. He was on an island all alone. The closest people would be miles away. His family said he collected the dolls “as if moved by an unseen force.” It left many people to wonder if he himself was possessed by the spirit of the young girl. Don Julian said the island was very active at night and he would hear the little girl saying, “I want my doll.” When his crops would fail, he believed the spirits were angry, and he would place more dolls around the island to appease the girl’s spirit. Locals also mentioned that the dolls would come to life at night, and they were animated by the spirits of the dead. Don Julian’s nephew, Anastasio says there are a few dolls on the island that move their entire bodies and one of the dolls cries, but she doesn’t have any batteries.
He collected more than 1,000 dolls from the trash in the main city, the waters, and some were gifted by neighbors and visitors. Everywhere you look, dolls are dangling from trees, nailed to buildings and fences, or even strung up on clothes lines. Dolls are pinned or staked to the tree trunks. There are heads, torsos, and limbs, in varying states of deterioration, just rotting and speckled with mold. Barbie and Ken dolls, baby dolls, in all sizes and colors, a few teddy bears, and some Disney characters are on the island. Some have clothing, some are naked, some are bald, and others have tangled and dirty hair. Eyes are closed, some stare at you, and others, have no eyes at all. When Don Julian first found the girl, he said the water was, “so clear you could see the bottom.” That changed over time and the canals eventually became very polluted and that’s when he was able to fish the dolls right out of the water. The oldest doll on the island is the one that floated up after he found the girl and the doll was wearing a straw hat.
Don Julian was religious and superstitious. When he found the doll, he hung it from a tree, but noticed that the doll would move on her own to different trees. He could hear a young child saying, “I want my doll.” If you visit the island, there is a small museum with various articles from local newspapers. Yes, there are dolls hanging everywhere, and the shrine Don Julian made for the only doll on the island with a name is there. Augustinita (ah-goo-stin-eeta) was found on August 28th, the day of St. Augustine (Aug-us-tin). Augustinita has an aqua colored, floral, lace dress. She has short brown hair in a bob cut, glasses, and a headband of pink and aqua flowers. She sits in a small shrine with a plate beneath her feet where you can leave her offerings. It is believed that she can perform miracles and she is blessed with the power to answer prayers.
Ghost hunter Luke Cenga (say-n-ga) has warned that some of the dolls that people brought to the island were from various witchcraft and occult rituals, so in his opinion, the island isn’t safe for tourists. He says, “People wanted to use the dolls to connect with the dark side and make something evil happen. Therefore, the presence of evil forces on the island can actually hurt the tourists. It’s not advised to go to the place, as there’s a significant risk of taking negative energy along. We ghost hunters must be careful about that as well. When a person’s mind is weakened, a negative energy will affect them more easily.”
He explained that the best way to protect is yourself, is to not go. But, if you do venture to the island, he would advise that you don’t provoke the “other side.” He says, “Crosses won’t do much in this place, but a cleansing ritual, which we also do, is appropriate. This can partially protect from negative energies, but even that doesn’t guarantee protection. It is also essential that the tourist doesn’t play with the other side on the spot and doesn’t try to provoke anything.”
Luke feels that the biggest danger is that when you call something from the other side, you must also call it off, and many people don’t do that. He said, “Basically, you wake something up from a deep sleep. You bring it through the portal, and that something wants to come back at the same time. If you don’t break the contact, it may stick to you. And as revenge for not leaving it in peace, it may hurt you. Manifestations of paranormal forces aren’t exclusively negative. Some ghosts remain in this world to pass on a message or protect a person. This can be distinguished by what we record on the spot. It can be a manifestation of demonic energy, but also something positive. When white orbs appear on the camera, it is mostly positive energy. On the contrary, black indicates the dark side.”
Many horror films feature the same creepy object, dolls. People can have a very intense, and some might say, irrational fear of them. This fear, is called pediophobia (pee-dee-oh-phobia). It’s a specific type of phobia which means you have a fear to something that poses no actual threat. If you have this, you could could consider exposure therapy. Perhaps your therapist will show you a photograph of a doll, you’ll work up to watching short videos about dolls, and if things go well, they may bring an actual doll in.
The exact fear of dolls isn’t completely understood. Could it be triggered by a traumatic event? Maybe you watched Chuckie, Annabelle or M3gan? Maybe your older sibling scared you with a doll? Whatever your reasons are, it might not be as irrational as people want you to believe.
Locals say that the dolls can move their heads and arms and they can open their eyes as well. Visitors have reported that they can hear the dolls whispering to each other and if your boat travels too close to the island, the dolls will lure you there. In 2001, Don Julian died of a heart attack in the same spot he found the body of the young girl many years earlier. Rogelio (Ro-hell-io) Sanchez Sanatana is the current “guardian of the dolls” and he says that all the trouble on the island started after his uncle’s body was found. He said, “The spirit of the girl was living in sorrow. In the mornings Don Julian started seeing ghosts and one day woke up and found all his crops had died. He tried many things to improve his crops, but he couldn’t because the spirit damaged it. He became more and more scared.”
After he died, Rogelio (Ro-hell-io) said, “The spirit of the girl came to him and dragged him into the water. He and his wife could never have children, so my uncle Anastacio took over.” After Anastacio’s death in 2019, Rogelio took over. His wife and three children chose to stay on their own island 20 minutes away. He said that sometimes he sees, “some shadows in the night with the moonlight”. Visitors say they have seen the dolls eyes moving and they hear the dolls talking. After Rogelio (Ro-hell-io) dies, he says, “The ownership, I leave to the dead.”
Theories about the dolls:
The Mexican Revolution was long and bloody. It began in 1910 and ended dictatorship in Mexico. For a decade, the alliances constantly shifted, and many people fled to Xochimilco and hid on the canals. Unfortunately, many people had to end their own lives because it was better than being caught. People are still afraid of the Xochimilco canals because they can feel the bad energy. During the Mexican Revolution, the zapatista (zap-a-tee-sta) rebels set Xochimilco on fire and left a trail of bodies behind. They would dump the bodies in the canals. During the cleaning of the canal, many skulls were found.
Many people have tried to understand Don Julian’s reasoning for collecting all the dolls. Was it mental illness, they wonder? What if he was just a lonely man? He lived in solitude for 50 years. Probably feeling misunderstood. The doll collecting may seem crazy to some, but it brought visitors to his island. His life was dedicated to creating the island of the dolls and it will always remain a mystery. Did the young girl that allegedly drowned even exist? Who knows? Even his family protects the story and fuels the legend because it became such a popular tourist destination.
Since La Isla De Las Munecas is so well known, there are a few fake replicas of the island that have popped up over the years. Visitors are allowed to go to the real island if you can find it, and they can leave their dolls behind, but beware, if you take one, there could be dire consequences. Be sure to offer Augustinita a gift, or you could meet the same fate as Don Julian Santana Barrera.
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