The Ghost of Clara García de Zúñiga

Did that painting just look at me? In this episode, Ayden shares the legend of the supposedly haunted portrait of Clara García de Zúñiga.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:20):
A girlfriends it's me Adrian or Aiden. Either way, I
am still your host and you are still listening to SUSTO,
the podcast of paranormal folklore from Latin American cultures. Welcome back.
Thank you so much for being here. Not only can
you be listening, but if you are a best girlfriend

(00:41):
on Patreon, then you are possibly watching. And if this
is your first time, welcome to the pod. Welcome to
the Circle of Trust. It is better that you enter
this sisterhood with trust in your heart or no, what's
the craft quote? I butchered it, but you know what
I mean. It is better that you fall in this
blade love, perfect trust. You're here, Thank you, and I
I'm also back really quick. Before anything else, a big

(01:03):
shout out and a big thank you once again to
Laney Hobbs from It's Haunted, What Now and True Crime
Cases with Laney for dropping into the feed last episode
so that I could kind of recuperate from my quick
vacation more like my sabbatical to go see Mother Monster.
As you can see, I'm wearing the shirt that I
made for the concert. If you're watching the video. Speaking

(01:23):
of the shirt that I made the video, I actually
made like a vlog out of it, or just like
a quick video. I don't know. I'm putting stuff up
on YouTube, so if you haven't seen, go check that out.
It's YouTube dot com slash at Soustal podcast. The last
video that I uploaded. A major shout out and thank
you to Nicole and Damien from Para Peculiar the podcast
for having Jeff and I over for Ouiji Board session

(01:46):
slash Paranormal Investigation. I did a vlog on that and
it was a really great experience, so make sure that
you go check it out. Also, thank you to Maud
and Ray for joining us that night. It was a
lot of fun. It was a great experience. But yeah,
you can. You can watch the vlog if you want
to hear all about that and see some some clips
and hear from Nicole in there as well. Again, that's
YouTube dot com slash at Sustal podcast. But anyway, some
quick updates before we jump into today's episode. One more

(02:09):
thank you to those of you who attended the Sustal
spell book Club meeting. We held that on the second
a couple of days ago. That was a Saturday. Yeah,
it was so fun. I hadn't done a book club
in a long time. The last time I did a
book club was actually myself, Jeff, and one of my
best friends, April. We all got together and we created

(02:31):
and hosted this book club and it was called Brunch
the Queer Comic book Club, and we would meet at
different spots in the valley and have brunch at these
restaurants and talk about the comic book that we read.
They were always centered around like queer stories. That was
a lot of fun. So this was it was really
cool to get into this. But this is very different
because it was over zoom, so different for me, and
I'm you know, I was. I got some positive feedback,

(02:52):
but as always I'm like, how can I do this better?
What can I change? What can improve on? So anyway,
just thank you for those of you who attended and
participated in the conversation. It was a lot of fun.
For the month of August, we have the book that
we are reading. It is The Witches of a Baso
by Luis Haramio. If you're just hearing about it now,
I know it's a couple of days after the month
has started. But it's not an extremely long book. It's like,

(03:13):
I think, like two hundred something pages, so listen. If
I could read Buffalo Hunter Hunter, which was like four
hundred pages in a month, we can get this one done.
So I'm excited about this book. I've I've heard lots
of good things about it for quite a while and
it's been on my list for a while. But hey,
it's part of the book club now, so I'm excited
to finally get to reading it. I've already started. It's
really fun. And if you haven't heard about the book club,

(03:34):
if you haven't seen the social media posts, that's at
Souso podcast on every platform I've been updating about it.
If you would like to join the book club, it
is open to any and everybody, so you do not
have to be a patron, you don't have to sign
up for anything. All you have to do is just,
I guess, basically follow on social media so that you
know what the updates are, you know what we're reading,
and then at the end of the month we will
have a discussion. But I will of course post the

(03:56):
meeting detail, so the date, the time, and the meeting link.
That's about it. But if you are interested in some
extra perks or participating a little bit more, what's the
word intentionally or in depth. I don't know. You can
sign up for Patreon and the middle and higher tiers.
Those patrons have access to voting on what we read,
so the book The Witches of Esposo patrons voted that

(04:19):
we were going to read that one this month, and
you also have access to the discord channel for the
book club, where we can talk about the reading throughout
the month. Of course, it's not necessary, you can wait
until that final discussion, but it's fun to kind of
check in and say, what page are you on? Oh
my god, I just got to this really sad part
or I can't believe this is happening. We try and
keep it spoiler free, but it's a fun, kind of

(04:39):
little extra thing to be a part of if you're interested. Again,
totally not necessary. The book club is open to any
and everybody. Just make sure to follow Sustal Podcast on
all social media platforms for updates about the book club.
And the last update I will give is I have
some events lined up already for October the tenth, the eleventh,
and the thirty first. Just keep an eye out on
social media. I'll be posting more details about those, but

(05:00):
I think so far it is going to be an
event at Haunt Happy Books in Lockhart, one of my
favorite places in this world. An event at the Austin
Public Library for Another Life storytelling, and an event on
Halloween Night, the thirty first hosted by night Now Will Podcast.
So of course I will post flyers and calendar updates
and everything on social media. And if you are hosting
an event, If you know someone who's hosting an event
and they need entertainment, storytelling, a panelist, a workshop, a moderator,

(05:26):
hit me up. I am your gooul. Send me an email,
send me a DM, leave it in a comment somewhere.
Or if you see an event that you think that
I would be interested in participating in, please send me
the details, tag me in it, whatever it is. Let's
get those connections going. Let's fill up the rest of October.
And I will say, if you are an organizer, I
would say jump in now. Try and lock down a
date with me, because unfortunately, there were people that I

(05:48):
wanted to work with last year that I wasn't able
to because Spooky season gets really busy, and thankfully, so
please reach out and let me know if you'd like
to work with me for Spooky season, we're about to
jump in to the story. As always, if you have
your own story that you would like to share on
a letter from the Beyond episode, you can do so
by visiting my website sustalpodcast dot com or my linktree
that's linktr dot ee slash Sustal and hitting that submit

(06:10):
a story, tell Me a Story button. And if you
have any sort of photo, video, audio recording that you
think goes along with it or qualifies, of course, please
dont that in and I will post it either on
the episode or on social media. And if you would
like to support the show, you already know the easiest
way to do so is by leaving positive ratings and reviews,
and I greatly appreciate it. And as always, share the
show with your gal friends, let them know what you're into.

(06:32):
How much of a creepy little weirdo you are for
listening to this stuff. But not really, We're not really
the weirdos, you know, We're just having a good spooky
time over here. Okay, now, with all of that out
of the way, let's go ahead and jump into today's episode,
which is the story of the Haunted painting and the
ghost of Klara Garcia the Zuniga. They brought Martine on

(07:12):
as an intern, an art student from the university, eager
to learn the quiet craft of art preservation. The night
hour suited him, while the city hummed with distant engines
and flickering screens. He worked in the archives of the
Juan Manuel Blaanness Museum. The villa turned museum, perched at

(07:35):
the edge of Brado Park in monte Video, seemed to
exist in a separate world, a world steeped in frescoes,
acrylic and silence. It was a beautiful old building, a
nineteenth century estate, draped in ivy and wrapped in memory.
The stone walls held the heat of summer days and

(07:57):
ex held it slowly through the night. Floors were soft
gray marble, whispering underfoot. High ceilings floated above him like
painted clouds, and chandeliers cast puddles of amber light on
the walls. During his first week, Martin assisted with cycling
artwork into and out of the archives. Paintings rotated regularly

(08:21):
through the public exhibitions, and it was his job to
help store those not currently on display. He gently wrapped
canvases in breathable cloth, labeled crates, and noted condition reports.
As he worked, he found it hard not to reflect
on how easily art and the lives behind it could

(08:41):
be tucked away, out of sight and forgotten. Martin spent
his night's gently cataloging old frames, brushing dust from derelict watercolors,
examining the aging of oils. There was a sacred stillness
in the work. He liked it the way the house
slept around him. But in his second week, things began

(09:05):
to shift. It started with the cold. He had just
finished shelving a folio of sketches in the north corridor,
the one lined with pastoral scenes and gauchos on horseback,
when he felt it, a sharp chill, sudden and unnatural,
like walking into the shadow of something that wasn't there.

(09:28):
The windows were closed, the air should have been warm,
but the cold slid through his sleeves like fingers. Later
that night, he heard music, Three soft piano notes, then silence,
then four more. The museum's piano sat in the music room,

(09:49):
an antique baby grand well maintained but never played. Martine
stepped into the hallway. The music faded. He entered the
room and it was empty. The lid was closed, a
fine layer of dust covering the keys, no footprints, no drafts.

(10:09):
He told himself, it was nothing, just the acoustics of
an old building. The next night, while taking a break
in the rear gardens, he glanced up. There in the
window above stood a figure, a pale dress, a silhouette
framed in moonlight, still as a painting. He blinked and

(10:31):
the figure was gone. He rushed inside up the narrow staircase,
his footsteps reverberating off of all the marble and stone.
At the end of the upper gallery, he paused a
portrait hung on the far wall, a young girl. The
painting showed only her upper half, delicate shoulders, in a

(10:52):
pink dress trimmed with lace. Her black, curly hair was
pinned neatly behind her head. Her face was uncanny, not
for any flaw in the technique, but because of how
many emotions it held, sadness, defiance, a flicker of knowing.
Her eyes, dark and wide, watched him, They followed him,

(11:16):
no matter where he stood in the room. The next morning,
Martin hesitated. Then, during a casual conversation with his supervisor,
he asked, has anyone ever noticed strange things in the museum.
The older man paused, as though weighing his words. You've
seen her yet, Martin did an answer. His supervisor told

(11:41):
him the story, the one every long time employee heard
but never printed in a brochure. Her name was Glaa
Garcia de Zuniga. She lived in the museum before it
ever housed art. The daughter of wealthy landowners, born in
eighteen forty five, Glada was a spirited child with a

(12:01):
mind too quick and a tongue too sharp for her time.
She read voraciously, wrote with fierce conviction, and questioned everything,
especially the roles society laid out for women. Her rebelliousness
alarmed her parents. She rejected suitors, argued philosophy with her tutors,

(12:22):
and roamed Montevideo without a chaperone. At fourteen, in a
desperate attempt to contain her, her parents married her off
to Jose Maria Zuvila, a thirty six year old notary.
She bore him three children, but the marriage was a cage.
Glatta ultimately separated from him, a scandal almost without precedent

(12:46):
in her social circles. She later entered a relationship with
the writer and lawyer at Nesto de las Guarea's and
bore five more children. She published essays that criticized patriarchal
laws and hypocrisies. She wore what she liked, spoke her mind,
and walked where she pleased. Eventually, her own relatives brought

(13:08):
legal action against her. In eighteen eighty five, they had
her declared mentally unfit to manage her life and estate. However,
it was not madness that concerned them, it was her independence.
In court, Gladda spoke eloquently in her defense, but the
judge dismissed her testimony. Control of her property and legacy

(13:32):
passed to her male relatives, including her estranged husband, Josse.
They confined her to the attic of the family home.
That attic would be where she lived out the rest
of her days. She died up there, not from illness,
but from isolation. The curator overheard the story being retold

(13:54):
and interrupted with a frown. Let's not indulge in ghost stories.
It's bad for the museum's reputation. That afternoon, the portrait
was quietly taken down. It was stored away in the archives.
Later that night, now alone, Martin returned to his work.

(14:14):
The atmosphere of his working space felt abnormal. The archives,
usually peaceful, were heavy with a quiet pressure. At midnight,
he heard the creaking of hinges, then the slam of
a door, then footsteps on the cold tile. He searched
the corridors. In the portrait gallery, several paintings were no

(14:38):
longer on the walls. Some lay gently against chairs, some
upside down. One rested face down on the floor, but unharmed.
Then Martin heard crying, soft, steady, a woman's sorrow baked
in the walls. He followed it back upstairs into the

(15:00):
room where Glada's portrait was taken down this afternoon. The
crying stopped. The painting was back, hung askew, but unmistakably
there the girl in the pink dress, the dark curls
pinned up, the quiet storm in her eyes. Mardine stepped closer,

(15:22):
and then he felt something, a pressure against his chest,
not pain, but firm, as if invisible hands pressed into him,
not to harm, but to move him back and away.
He took a step back, and the pressure faded. He
stared into Glada's eyes. He understood she didn't want to

(15:47):
be shelved away or pushed around. She didn't want her
story archived. She had spent a life resisting control of
her body, her words, her fate. She would not allow
it in death. She wouldn't let another man box her
into silence, even delicately beneath layers of bubble wrap and

(16:07):
canvas sheets. Martin left the museum before dawn. He never returned,
but sometimes in the high rooms of the villa late
at night, the air grows cold, the piano plays, and
paintings come to life. Welcome back, wel friends, thank you

(16:52):
so much for listening to that story. We're gonna go
ahead and jump into the sources this painting and this museum.
It's a real pain it's a real place. I even
went on Google Maps and I did the street view
you can do. I don't know, maybe they do this
for all museums. I didn't know this, but you can
do a street view or like a like an in
person view of museums. So I did like a walkthrough

(17:14):
of this museum last night. The painting is there, she's
up right now, I will say. I saw it, and
I was so excited, and then I was like, oh,
I'm a little scared, but it's a picture of a painting.
It's I'm fine. So again, this is the portrait of
Clara Garcia the Zuniga. And this first source that we
have here is from the website. It's the Blanis dot
monte Video dot gub dot y and this is a

(17:37):
post about her. Also, I probably should have done my
due diligence, and I can do it now, but I've
already recorded the story. So I'm not sure if it
is Blanis or Blaines B L A n E. S.
But I'm gonna go with Blandis because why not, you know,
for the culture. But this first source, it says Blanis
or blains began painting at a very young age, and

(17:58):
his earliest work included landscapes and portraits. Before establishing himself
as a professional artist, he painted numerous portraits of Monte
Video's high society members who hired him to represent them.
At that time, owning portraits was a way to distinguish
oneself in society. Also, before I forget, I don't think
I've said it yet. So this story of course takes

(18:19):
place in monte Video. Uru why and immediately that first
paragraph it makes me think of these kids in their
damn phones. You know, when people criticize others for like
being obsessed with their image, or like constantly taking selfies
or videos of each other. I wonder how much of
that is influence fired or translated from this kind of

(18:40):
old idea that like owning a portrait of yourself, it
distinguishes yourself, so like you know, you have to take
these pictures of yourself. Sorry, I was just listening to
an episode of The Cutting Room Floor, which is one
of my favorite podcasts ever. It is so good. I
just started listening recently. There's a bunch of clips on TikTok,
so if you want to look it up at the
Cutting Room Floor, I would highly suggest checking that out

(19:01):
there before you because she's on Patreon only. So and hey,
I get it because I feel like when I listen
to her, I get smarter, I get like, I don't know,
I get such good takes from her. Anyway. So the
last episode that I just listened to is she had
I forgot this person's name. I'm so sorry, not that
either of them are listening, but she had on this
like fashion industry photographer, and I think like just a

(19:23):
photo journalist in general, not even specific to the fashion industry.
But they were talking about photography and photographs, especially in
like photographing people, and I don't know the way that
they were talking about it. I was like, wow, this
all makes complete sense. And it's obviously photography is it's
its own thing that gets studied, right, It's it's art,
it's journalism. I don't know, I'm going in tangent here anyway.

(19:43):
All that to say, I'm like, I'm still that that
episode is fresh in my mind thinking about this and
the idea of portraiture and what that means and like
what it signifies to other people. But anyway, this continues.
The portrait dates from this early period of Blannis's career.
It was painted around eighteen fifty, when Kladagarcia the Zuniga
was about ten years old and the painter was twenty five. Again,

(20:05):
her family was wealthy. They were landowners, so they commissioned
this paint to her portrait. It says the painting was commissioned,
of course, by the Garcia the Zuniga family. The treatment
of Glada's portrait displays pictorial characteristics from a period prior
to Blaine's academic training in Florence, Italy, so he was
a formally trained painter. But this painting specifically of Clada.

(20:27):
It's more representative of his work before his training. I'm
not sure they don't. I didn't see anything about when
he got that training, So I'm like, is it that
he did the painting before he did his academic training
in Italy or is it after and he intentionally chose
to do it in this style. Not sure what that
has to do with the haunting, but we'll see this,
says Kladagarcia. The Zuniga was the heiress to a considerable fortune,

(20:50):
and between eighteen seventy two and eighteen ninety two she
was the owner of the country house that is now
the Blindness Museum. So it's interesting that her family commissioned
this artist. She, you know, was from a wealthy family.
She was rich. She ended up inheriting this house in
the fortune, and then the house became the museum for
or named after the artist that did her portrait. Why

(21:11):
wouldn't it be named after her or her family? I
don't know. Interesting, this says. She married by arrangement from
her parents. So her parents, of course, as mentioned in
the story, arranged her marriage the thirty six year old
notary Zuviriya at the age of fourteen gross. Obviously I
was about to say by today's standards, but I feel
like by any standards. But obviously the mindset was very
different then. So but now it's like, oh, that's icky.

(21:33):
But this says from this marriage she had three children.
So three children with Zuviria, this man who her parents
arranged the marriage with, and after separating from him, she
enjoyed a very liberal love life, is what it says here,
by the moral standards of the time. So she was
probably like showing ankle and wrists and being like you
who blink blink blink wink wink wink, and everybody was like,

(21:56):
how dare she whore? But sorry, but this continues. She
had five children with Alberto Garcia Lagos and her son
who is the writer and they say dandy Roberto de
las Carreras with Ernesto de las Carreras. So she had
five children, one of them of whomst was a son
who went on to be a notable writer. But all

(22:17):
those five kids, including the son that they pointed out here,
for whatever reason, she had them with Ernesto de las Carreras,
who allegedly was her lawyer, I think. But this says
in eighteen eighty five, a medical and legal tribunal accused
her of suffering from mental disorders, which prevented her from
further disposing of her property. This is in eighteen eighty five.
She was born. She was ten years old in eighteen

(22:39):
fifty five, so eighteen fifty five to eighteen eighty five
that's thirty years. She was about forty years when this happened,
so she was young and they were like done, You're over.
This finishes up here by saying one of the achievements
of this portrait by Blanis is that the eyes look
straight ahead. As in many paintings, these gazes appear to
follow us thanks to an optical illusion. So I've definitely

(23:01):
seen these paintings everywhere. I feel like they've taken it
up a notch now. And you go to like Spirit
Halloween or any store during spooky season, and it's kind
of like a shadow box effect where there's a layer
with just the eyes painted, and then there's a layer
in front of that with the rest of the painting,
so that when you move, it looks like those the
eyes are actually physically moving, but a really cool optical illusion. Essentially,

(23:21):
it says the effect is achieved by creating a forward
facing vanishing point and painting the pupils in the center
of the iris. The image is static, but the brain
detects this effect and creates an optical illusion as if
it were the movement of the portrait's eyes. The same
thing happens in photography and film when the subject or
actor looks at the camera. Since the eyes in the
portrait are painted looking straight ahead with a forward facing

(23:43):
vanishing point, the illusion is created that the gaze quote
of the painting always meets the observer's gaze, no matter
where they are. Nothing could be further from the presence
of Gladasol or her ghosts. So essential this is saying
it's just an optical illusion. The painting is not haunted.
This also makes me think of what do they call
it in movie? Is like the cube? I think very
famously like in The Shining, when it's like the head

(24:03):
tilted down the eyes up, it's supposed to look like
really creepy. That kind of like effect creates I think,
a sort of feeling in people when they see it
that makes them a little uneasy. The next source we
have here is from a cultashworld dot com, and this
is about the Blanness Museum in monte Video. This says,
the haunted mystique of Blannis Museum and the painting of

(24:24):
Clarita nestled Montevideo uru way. The Blanness Museum located on
Juan Manuel Blannis Street, so it's on that street. Maybe
that's why it's the museum is named after him, is
because it's on the street named after him. I still
think it should be named after her and her family.
I don't know. I wonder how the people in Urdua
I feel about that, or in monte Video feel about that.
This says the museum is a destination that marries art
and the uncanny. Known for its rich cultural history and

(24:46):
extensive collection of artwork, the museum also bears a reputation
for being one of the most haunted places in the city.
Central to its supernatural lore is the enigmatic painting of Clarita,
a masterpiece that has captivated an un settled to visitors
for decades. Legends surrounding Kladita, combined with mysterious phenomena reported
within the museum's halls, have cemented its place as a

(25:08):
nexus of art and the paranormal. As always, though I
feel like with something like this, you know, it's a
piece of history. It is a very old painting. It
has a lot of history behind it has a lot
of lore behind it. And so that's just generally kind
of the belief around here on Susto, right, is that
when there's history with something, when something is old, it's
collected more energy than something that is newer. Right, Especially

(25:31):
with her story, which is terrible, It's like she was
an outspoken woman. She said, no, I don't want to
be trapped in this marriage that I didn't agree to
when I was a child with this person that there
was talks in some of these articles as well about abuse.
So she don't want to be with this person. She
just wanted to live her life. And even to this day,
you know, someone like this would be frowned upon. Women

(25:51):
are to be seen and not heard, and to be
subservient and traditional and only in the home. And if
that is what specific women want or specific people want,
that is up to them as individuals. It should not
be an idea that is placed on an entire gender, right, right,
I know you get it. Anyway, this continues. At the
heart of the museum's haunted reputation is the famous painting

(26:12):
of Claudita. The portrait, an exquisite example of nineteenth century realism,
depicts a young girl whose delicate, yet haunting gaze seems
to pierce through time. Legend has it that the painting's
eyes follow visitors as they move around the room, creating
an eerie sense of being watched. This phenomenon, though often
dismissed as a trick of perspective, has left many uneasy,

(26:34):
with some claiming to feel a deeper, almost sentient presence
emanating from the artwork. You see. That is one thing.
It's one thing to see something and be like, oh,
that it looks creepy. It's doing a weird thing, versus
to be like, that looks creepy and it feels creepy.
I don't know if that makes sense, because I definitely
see the difference. I've seen things that are like, Oh,
that's a little weird or that's a cool kind of

(26:54):
like illusion or effect that it's doing, and then to
see something else and be like, no, this is giving
me a feeling. It reminds me of when I went
to again to Nicole in Damien's house to record an
episode for a pair of peculiar, which if you haven't
listened to go check it out. They showed me this painting,
and I think I talked about it already, either on
TikTok or on YouTube somewhere or on here, But they

(27:15):
showed me this painting that was given to them by
someone because this person didn't want it anymore. When they
first showed it to me, oh, I was like, Oh,
this is an interesting painting and I like looking into
the eyes of it because it was a portrait of
a person. Like I physically stepped back when they kind
of like unrolled it and showed me because I felt uneasy.
It gave me a feeling, and I was like, oh,

(27:36):
I don't like this, But you know, that could have
been any of the other probably hundreds of haunted items
in their museum that was doing that to me. But anyway,
that's what I'm thinking of reading this now. This continues,
Gladita's story adds another layer of mystery. According to local lore,
the girl depicted in the painting met an untimely and
tragic end, leading to speculations that her spirit lingers within

(27:58):
the museum. The painting, some say, acts as a vessel
for her restless soul, creating a link between the physical
world and the supernatural, which again that's another one of
the what do we call them? We need to have
a name for these things, like the Sustal tenants or
like the Sustal Commandments or the rules of Sustal. Like
if it was traumatic, it's haunted. I don't know, but

(28:19):
you know, her story was traumatic and it was really sad,
and there's a lot of energy behind the way that
she passed like tragically, kind of like forced to remain
isolated and like away from living her life. Like she
was such a free spirit, is that's what I see
when I read about her. She was a free spirit
and she was truly just like caged and trapped. So
maybe you know, there is a link to this painting

(28:41):
of in her girlhood, she probably had more freedom because
she was like, oh, she's a kid, you know, like whatever, Like, yeah,
we don't want her to behave like that, but she's
a child. There's some wiggle room, some leniency, right. But
then when she was fourteen, that's kind of when things
went downhill. They married her off and she was just
she spent the rest of her life after fourteen fighting,
So maybe there is the link to this representation of her,

(29:02):
because she was ten when this portrait was painted, so
she's maybe seeing this and remembering, like what I mean,
in honesty for all of us, Hey, what a great
time it was to be ten years old when we
weren't paying bills or having responsibilities or dealing with this
government anyway. Sorry. This continues to talk about some paranormal
activity in the museum, and it says the Blandnest Museum

(29:25):
has become a hot spot for paranormal enthusiasts social field trip.
Are we ready, it says, many of whom report unexplainable occurrences,
particularly when the painting of Gladita is moved. So that
is something that we included in the story. And by
the way, rendo of applause to Jeffrey Doyle, if you
liked it, give it a big old thumbs up comment,
five stars, whatever you'd like. And this continues. Staff and

(29:48):
visitors alike have described an unsettling energy in the museum
during such times, so whenever they're moving the painting around,
they're like, that's when she pops off. With reports of
cold spots, flickering lights, and even the sound of faint whispers.
Echoing through the halls. I feel like a museum is
a really good space to haunt, right, I never really

(30:08):
have thought about like haunted museum art, natural history, science museums.
I think purely for the acoustics, the museum is a
great space to haunt. This says some staff members recount
objects in explicably shifting positions or falling without any apparent cause.
Others have reported shadowy figures darting across the room, or
seen fleeting reflections of a girl in mirrors or glass

(30:32):
cases near the painting, so she's hanging around there. The
most striking stories involve feelings of being touched or pushed
when standing too close to cleud eat those painting, as
though an unseen force is warning people to keep their distance.
Which also, you know, that's just those are just the
rules of any museum. Don't touch the paintings, please, you
know that little wire at the bottom. I can have
a store for y'all. One time I went to the

(30:55):
was it the MoMA or the met No, it was
the Met, the Metropolitan Museum in New u York. I
went when I was like twenty twenty one for my birthday.
A shout out ned I Saun Richard for helping me
get over there for my birthday, for taking me. We
went to the Met Museum, and it was my first
time in New York and I didn't realize I didn't
know what a New York block was, you know. So
I was tie ured because I'm from the valley where

(31:18):
we live in pockets and communities. We really it's not
really walkable, and even then, like a New York block
is very different from whatever. So we were at the
Met Museum and I was like tired. It was a
long day. And we went into this room and it
was this huge room and like in the center of
it there were these Egyptian artifacts and things were like
you know, they had little wire they were in cases,

(31:40):
and I was like, oh, like so cool whatever. But
I was exhausted. So we walked in and this whole
room was not I don't want to say Egyptian themed.
I feel like that kind of doesn't put enough. It's
not a theme. It was very immersive, is what I'll say.
Everything everything looked like it was like the like carvings
on the walls and this and that. So I go
and I'm leaning against the wall where there is no
sign there's no wire nothing. I thought in my twenty

(32:03):
year old mind, I was like, oh, it's decoration. They
like decked out the walls to like make it look
you know, cool whatever. So I'm exhausted, so I'm just
like leaning against this wall kind of looking at everything,
and then I start hearing sir, sir. Finally I turn around.
I was like, like, they're talking to me, and they're like, sir,
please get off of the artwork, Please get off of

(32:24):
the artifacts. Huh what I was like, Oh oop, sorry,
like immediately got up. I didn't know there was no wire,
no sign nothing. I was like, oh, it's just a wall,
like they made it look Egyptian to fit all of
the exhibits in here. And apparently there's signs up in
that room now, So sorry everybody at the met but
you had to put a sign up because of my

(32:44):
tired ass. So this continues. Visitors who lingered near the
painting often describe a sense of being scrutinized, as if
the girl in the portrait is aware of their presence.
I thought, this is an interesting choice of words. This
is a translated from Spanish to English, so I'm wondering
about the word scrutinized. Is it directly translated? Does it
mean something else? I'm like, is she out here judging

(33:06):
us while or watching her painting? I mean, hey, go
for a girl. If I was a ghost, I'd probably
be making stank face all the time at people. I
have a hard time not doing it now. But anyway,
it says as if the girl in the portrait is
aware of their presence. On rare occasions, individuals have claimed
to see the girl's expression change with subtle shifts in
her smile or the glint in her eyes, adding to
the painting's mystique. Which is interesting because it's a painting, right,

(33:29):
so I feel like the reflection in the eyes it
shouldn't move. That's painted on. But people are saying that
they see the glint in the eyes shift, or she's
got a little smirk, or she like her face changes,
she's trying not to laugh at people. Creepy. We're getting
close to the end of this. One talks about cultural
and historical significance of the museum and it says, beyond
its haunted reputation, the Blondness Museum is a cornerstone of

(33:50):
monte Villeo's cultural heritage, named after the renowned Uruguayan painter
Juan Manuel Blani is again. I guess I don't know.
I guess he just turned out like it said, he's renowned,
and they were like, he's so important, let's give him
this museum. But I wonder, like, I don't know. I'm
just very curious about what the process was for it
to be that house. Specifically, I'm like, I'm unable to

(34:11):
let go of that thread for whatever reason. But this continues.
It houses some of the country's most important artistic works,
attracting visitors from all over the world. However, the painting
of Claudita has given the museum an additional layer of notoriety,
making it it must visit for those intrigued by the supernatural. Well,
I want to visit it. I must visit it. On it, Okay,
I need spooky sugar daddies. If you're out there, please

(34:34):
hit me up and send me on a Send me
and Jeff. There's two of us. Okay, send me and
Jeff on this spooky world tour to visit all of
these places. We need a soustal field trip. This continues.
The blending of art and paranormal intrigue has turned the
museum into more than a cultural institution. It is a
living legend. Local legends and ghost stories draw in visitors

(34:56):
who might otherwise overlook such historical sites. This duel I
entity as both a cultural hub and as a haunted
site adds to the museum's charm, making it a unique attraction.
You know, I feel like Sustal and this go hand
in hand. We talk about history and culture, but we
also talk about the paranormal and the scary stuff. So
I feel like we need a Soustal museum or put

(35:17):
me in an exhibit. So I don't know this. This
is just me having a big head about it, inflating
my own ego. But I don't know. Hey, more manifesting.
This finishes up here. It wraps up with explanations and speculations,
and it says the museum's haunted reputation has sparked both
skepticism and belief. Rational explanations for the painting's alleged phenomena
often center on psychological factors, such as the power of suggestion,

(35:40):
optical illusions, or the eerie atmosphere created by the dimly
lit museum and its historical artifacts. What did I say
earlier museums seem like prime haunting spaces. I feel like
I don't hear enough, and that might be just a
meat issue about haunted museums or museums being haunted. This continues. Still,
these stories do a little to explain the consistent report
of unexplained noises, temperature fluctuations, and shadowy apparitions. Which also,

(36:05):
I feel like museums are typically already cold, right, the
air itself, the temperature like they're cold, So I feel
like it would be harder to get a cold spot,
be like, WHOA, where'd that come from? Right? I don't know.
The museums I've been in, they're usually cold. But this
finishes up here. Believers argue that Gladita's spirit, if truly
tied to the painting, might be expressing a need for

(36:26):
acknowledgment or resolution. They suggest that her tragic story and
the intense emotion captured in the portrait create an energy
that lingers within the museum. That's what I said, affecting
those who come into contact with it. I really want
to go to this museum. Spooky sugar daddies, please get
me a plane ticket. I want to go here, and
I want to talk to her painting and be like, hey, girl,

(36:46):
your story is out there. People are listening to it.
The ghoul friends over at Susto We've got your back.
Your parents are shitty for doing that to you. Your
husband Jose was a weirdo. Kladiita's my girl. Sorry, She's
not sorry. Actually she is going for sure in the
even though she's not a cryptid, she's a spirit, but
she's going under that cryptid femmes file of these of
these ghosts that I adore. So the next door is

(37:08):
I'm not going to read too much about it. I
do just want to kind of plug it because it
looks so cute and I need to find this so
I can buy it. This is just titled Ghostly Friendship
The Ghost of Blannest Museum by Lao Moraiti, And this
is about a book. It's a kid's book about the
ghost of the Blandness Museum. It's just kind of talking
about the book, and it's a little sad at one point.
It's just it's a cute, spooky kids book, and you

(37:29):
know how I feel about those. I'm going to of
course put a picture up here for the video because
the cover is adorable and it shows the piano and
a man singing or playing the piano with this ghostly
woman that I'm assuming is Ladita, and yes, and her.
There's there's a little I'll put the picture up here
too so you can see it. But there's a page
that shows him talking either to or in front of
this painting, which looks like it's like the cartoon version

(37:52):
or the like a kid's drawing version of of the portrait. Yeah,
I'm definitely gonna buy this for sure, because it's adorable
and I love spooky kids books. I don't know why.
I think it's so sweet. The next source that we
have here is from basseo bor dot net. It's the
I want to say this is a blog but written
by Andrea Krappman, is what I'm picking up from looking
at this. There's a title here I think it says

(38:13):
Socio Digital Researcher in Communication and Anthropology. And this is
says Glada Garcia de Zuniga the woman hidden behind a painting,
and it says this painting of a girl with a
combative gaze. I love that a combative gaze. That's a
good way to put to put it for sure. Is
located in the Guinta de Rafo in the Brado neighborhood

(38:33):
of monte Video. Today it is housed in the Juan
Manuel Blanis Museum of Fine Arts. Of course, it talks
about who he was and again that she owned the
estate from eighteen seventy two to eighteen eighty five. Both
painter and subject went down in history in different ways.
Absolutely they did. It seems like he became revered and
like uplifted and people loved him, whereas her she was

(38:54):
just constantly shocking people because she was simply living her life. Right.
It says also here that their destiny's crossed on occasions
that he painted her. This one says he painted her
when she was six years old, and the other source
says ten. So we'll just say somewhere between the ages
of six and ten is when this was painted. It
was one of the first academic portraits that he created
before training in his discipline in Italy. Okay, so that

(39:16):
answers our question from earlier that this painting was done
before his formal training. Yep. This says she was born
on April fifteenth, eighteen forty five. This also says that
she spent her childhood in Aargenthina, and then her family
moved to Uruay at the age of nine due to
political differences between her father and the governor of entre Rios,
which is where they lived I believe was entre Rios Argentina.

(39:37):
For Glada, in addition to experiencing the stress of moving,
her parents, since she was a quote very free spirited girl,
decided to marry her off when she was fourteen. As
we read already, so I'll read here, I'm gonna probably
say some things that I said before, but it goes
into that. It covers the abuse that we mentioned earlier,
and it says time passed. In the moment arrived, nothing
changed her father and mother's minds. Glada married Jose Maria

(39:59):
Zuvidi Yeah thirty six, an aristocrat from the Rio de
la Plata region, at fourteen. It worked out as most
such arrangements do, I mean, but did it really? Who
did work out for? Despite this, she continued to rebel
against the macho culture based on the Victorian tendencies of
the time. In monte Video. At that time, upperclass women
could only inhabit two spaces, the home or the church.

(40:20):
For Gladita, neither were comfortable peaceful or violence free spaces,
so she inhabited the spaces she wanted, going against the
tide of prejudice and the increasing abuse. I will think
it is very interesting. I'm not sure how intentional this was,
but it comes off as very intentional. Is they said?
You know, as mentioned, the only places for a woman
at that time were the home or the church, and

(40:41):
neither of those were comfortable, peaceful or violence free spaces.
Which I think is something that people shy away from
too much, is that the church is not a violence
free space period. I'm just going to end that there
before I you know how I can get this, says
jose Maria Zubdia. Her husband abused Gladita for a long time,
almost all of her adolescent sense, from the moment they married.
In the early years of their marriage, they had two

(41:03):
daughters and a son. Who knows how much harassment and
severe abuse she must have endured that she ran away
with her children. She settled in the Villa de las Duranas,
which is now the Blannis Museum, her family's summer retreat.
For a long time she felt free, so she separated
from her husband. The abuse of Jose Maria Zuvidia, and
she fled to what was her family's home, which is

(41:27):
now the museum right it says for a long time
she felt free. She began to enjoy her outings to
cafes and social gatherings, decided how she wanted to raise
her children, enjoyed her body, and maintained social and romantic
relationships with whomever she pleased. However, she also began to
be harassed by her husband, the moral institutions, and the
criticism of high society, to which she belonged by birth.

(41:47):
During this period, Clada had lovers and more children. One
of the most famous lovers with whom she lived for
a time was at Neesto de las Garreras, which we
talked about him earlier. The result of this relationship was
a son. This said that she had five Okay, So
then I wonder, now, maybe if I misinterpreted that earlier
it said that she had five children. I thought that
she had five children with Ernesto, but I'm thinking maybe

(42:10):
they were not all from a nutzl. But notably she
had a son once on with Ednesto, and then the
other four children from I don't know who. But anyway,
this continues the result of this relationship was a son,
the celebrated writer Roberto de las Garreas. Despite everything, her
life was a nightmare. Her husband filed countless legal disputes
against her, so again, Jose, because they were separated but

(42:30):
maybe not legally divorced yet, so he filed countless legal
disputes against her. Later, she was stripped of her childcare right,
so she had her custody taken away, and she was
accused of being immoral and dishonest for wearing brightly colored
dresses with low necklines and wearing her hair loose. Literally
what I said earlier. She showed an ankle, she showed
a wrist, and they were like, that's it. This woman
is a monster. It continues having which is ridiculous, But

(42:53):
this continues. Having obtained a court ruling in her favor
obtaining a divorce, her ex husband continued to plot strategies
to cont knew his harassment. So even after he took
her children away and he gained full custody of the
kids and probably smearing her name all over town, we
can only assume, and even after the divorce, he was like,
that's not enough. I'm going to continue to harass her. Finally,

(43:14):
the sexist society, her husband, the clergy, and even her
family declared her insane. They built a loft in Villa
Duranas and imprisoned her there for many years until her death.
The truth is that after this ruse, those who declared
her insane remained the executors of her vast fortune. How
very convenient, right, They're like, ooh, we got to lock

(43:35):
her up, she's lost her mind. We'll just go ahead
and take care of all her money and her property
for her, though, don't We got it over here, right,
This continues glad A story, however, is a story of
a woman demanding freedom and equality in a discriminatory and
sexist society. Not only the importance of her words documented
in the files of her complaints, but also her strength
and consistency in speaking out against the systemic sexist harassment

(43:57):
to which she was subjected for a lifetime. Again, that's
tragedy in not only her passing, but the majority of
her life, everything that she had to fight through, as
did I'm sure many women back then. Okay, I have
a couple more things before we finish up, but we're
going to take a quick break. Welcome back, well, friends, okay.

(44:28):
So the next source that we have here is from
lasiou Da dre Vista dot com and it says the
forgotten history of Glada Garcia the Zuniga. And so this
is I think a timeline of her life, and so
I want to go through it so we can get
more of like a clear idea. I know we've mentioned
things here and there, but I want to do a
clear timeline of this. This says for many Uruayans, Glada
Garcia the Zuniga is the ghost who at night moves

(44:49):
the paintings on display at the Blannis Museum, located in
the stately Elbrado neighborhood of monte Video. However, Glada is
from Entre Rios, born in Guaalaguaychu. And in this brief
article we will tell you part of this legend that
has become an urban myth in the eastern capital. So
this says early life. Clerica was born on April fifteenth,
eighteen forty five, as we know, in Campos Floridos. One

(45:11):
of her father, Mateo Garcia de Zunigas, ranches in Gualguachu
toi Rosalia de Elia al Saga. I remind you that
Justo jose de Urkisa was also related to the Alzagas
on his mother's side. He was an Argentinian general and
politician who served as President of the Argentine Confederation from
eighteen fifty four to eighteen sixty. Cladita was some sort

(45:34):
of relative to an Argentinian president. This continues. Who were
the Garcia the Zunigas. Alonso Mateo de Zuniga, who lived
from sixteen ninety to seventeen sixty born in Seville, was
the one who started the family dynasty in the Rio
de la Plata. They were large ranchers with properties in
the Banda Oriental, Buenos Aidas and Entrerios. In entre Rios,

(45:55):
the brevisterro Do tor Pedro Garcia de Zuniga hired Joseph
the Urgisa recommended by the Alzagas to manage the one
hundred seventy six thousand hectares he owned. That's a lot
of land and the first Urgisa from Entridios was born
in the La Centella settlement. Glada's father, Mateo, was the
son of Esteban Justo and grandson of Alonso. He inherited

(46:16):
his father's land of again, all of this land one
hundred seventy six thousand hectares in Guallewaichu and became governor
of the province for a brief period of six months
in eighteen twenty seven. This continues about Gladita's childhood. Gladita
was happy as a child. She used to run cross country,
climb trees, and bathe in streams, enjoying a freedom that
would soon be taken away from her. So yeah, she

(46:37):
was an extremely free spirited kid, as kids should be
just allowed to live their lives. And this says Matteo
was a recognized supporter of Don Juan Manuel de Rosas.
He owned more than two hundred armed peons who represented
a danger to the rebel Urgisa. Colonel Dumont, who owed
favors to Mateo, warned him of the possibility that Urguisa
might decide to eliminate him. After Rosa's defeat, he decided

(47:00):
to completely change his surroundings and moved with his family
to Montevideo. Essentially, now we know that the reason they
moved to monte Villeo from Argentina was because they were
in some sort of political danger. At the age of nine,
Glada's life was torn away from the places where she
had enjoyed complete freedom. But the girl was very restless
and refused to accept the canons of the time, so

(47:22):
she became a major problem for the conservative society of
the nineteenth century. Honestly, she really said, no justice, no peace.
If I'm not happy, you're not happy, why do you
do this to me? Then this goes on to talk
about her marriage. This says Glada's unhappy marriage led her
own mother to consult with Jacinto Vera, the priest who
would later be named Vicar of monte Video and whose
name refers to a neighborhood in the Uruguayan capital. A

(47:44):
priest with a more conservative outlook in the church, he
advised her so advised her mom to place her under
the protection of Saint Anthony and marry her off as
soon as possible. At the age of ten, Glada already
had a husband designated for her, and so when she
turned fourteen, she was forced to marry Jose Maria Zuvidia,
twenty two years older than her. So they married her
off when she was fourteen, But when she was ten,

(48:07):
they had already decided who this guy was and probably
made the arrangement with him already which is that's disgusting.
Oh my god. Okay, So this says she was a
transgressive woman because once marriage, she refused to be a
luxury quote slave who blindly obeyed her husband. So she said, listen,
they gave me away to you, but I'm not going
to be subservient. I'm not what this isn't what you

(48:29):
think it is, and good for her. This continues. Although
her divorce from her husband was finalized in eighteen seventy eight,
she had numerous lovers, one of whom was her lawyer,
Alberto Garcia Lagos. That's where I got the lawyer thing from.
So yeah. One of her lovers was also her lawyer,
Alberto Garcia Lagos, with whom she apparently had several children.
So I think that's where the other four children came from.

(48:50):
And this says that by that point, when she was
with Ernesto de las Carreras and they had their son, Roberto,
the writer that she was already the owner of the
Summer House, which is now the Blacknest Museum. Right. So
this says in eighteen seventy two, upon the death of
her father, Glada became the sole heir and an immensely
wealthy woman, but that day also marked the beginning of

(49:10):
the ordeal that would accompany her until the end of
her days. So essentially, when she inherited this property and
all this money, that's when the problem started for her
right because of the people around her. This says, her
husband immediately claimed possession of his wife, so suddenly he
was now like, okay, no, she's my wife again, even
though they had been separated and she was doing her
own thing. Who had escaped with her children and bought

(49:32):
the Villa de la s Duranas. This continues in one
of her many court statements, and as she was being
reprimanded for her dissipated lifestyle, she told the judge, without flinching,
that she made love. Quote however, I please, and I
do it because I am free, very young, and completely
separated from my husband. I love that for her, This
says it was an unequal fight, though that in the
end her husband got his way. He had the church,

(49:54):
the courts, conservative politicians, and society itself on his side.
The final result was that Clas was mentally insane. According
to them. They built a loft right in her home
where they locked her away. Of course, the main goal
was to seize her fortune since a quote mad woman
was incapable of managing it. Glada, however, did not die
in monte Video. Oh okay, so this changes everything that

(50:16):
I thought earlier, says she I forgot about this part.
She didn't die in monte Video. It says that her
daughter Rosa managed to transport to Buenos Aidis, where she
died on September ninth, eighteen ninety six. The Roberto de
las Garreras, in his book Amre Libre left some words
that could be the best epitaph for Glada. Quote. No Victor,
be it Caesar, Napoleon, or Alexander has been able to

(50:38):
boast of having tied women to his chariot. Wow. So
it seems like her kids loved her so much so
that they weren't going to let her just rot in
this makeshift prison. Right, and her son wrote lovely words
about her. And the last thing that I have for
you is, like I mentioned earlier, I feel like we
should hear more about museums being haunted or these haunting museums.

(50:59):
And so I was looking looking at haunted paintings and
I found this article on Cowlingandwilcox dot com and it
says stories behind the most haunted paintings. And this is
just kind of a listical. I'll be putting pictures up
here in the video, but you can also find these,
of course, very easy. So this first one, it's The
Hands Resist Him. It's a painting and I'll describe it
to you, but the pictures up here for audio only listeners.

(51:22):
So it looks like there's two children standing in front
of this maybe glass pane door. There's a little boy
and this looks like a little girl. She kind of
looks like a doll, like there's a hinge on her
elbow and her eyes are completely blacked out. But the
door behind them, there's a glass pane door. It's dark,
but you can see hands up against it. I don't know.
It's called The Hands Resistem. It says The Hands Resist

(51:43):
Him is a notoriously haunted painting completed by Bill Stoneham
in nineteen seventy two, depicting a young boy and girl
standing in front of a shop window. Though the artist
had no bad intentions, the painting has been blamed for
the death of a gallery owner and the first critic
to ever review the painting. This is also my first
time actually going through these. I just saw this listic

(52:05):
on I was like, I want to leave this as
a surprise for myself too. So this is my honest
reaction to these. It says the painting gained a reputation
and it was sold on eBay with claims that it
was cursed, accompanied by a webcam video of the small
boy climbing out of the painting. The little girl's hands
could be seen to be holding a gun, and people
claim she's forcing the boy out of the painting to

(52:26):
cause havoc in the real world. It's also been said
to cause strange things to happen when being viewed from
fainting blackout's children screaming, and technology malfunctioning. I swear to God,
if any of this stops recording, maybe it's only like
the actual painting itself. I need to see what is
his video? This video of him climbing out of the painting. Ooh,
I need to find that. It looks like she's holding

(52:48):
something in this painting. Also this picture of this painting,
but it looks like a can or a tube or something.
It doesn't look like a gun. But that's creepy. Okay.
The next one is called the stagecraft or the hanging man.
So oh, I see it. So it looks kind of
like an old timey wooden wagon with those big wooden wheels,
and there's like a red part of the carriage, and
there's like the structure for like the fabric that goes

(53:10):
draped on top of them, you know I'm talking about,
But it's not there, but off to the side and
kind of behind it, it looks like a person is hanging,
but they're kind of blended into the trees. And this
says this eerie painting is an adaptation of a photograph
which was taken by commercial photographer James Kidd. The photo
was taken of the wooden cart and the figure of
a headless man was only found after the picture was developed,

(53:33):
with no evidence of it being taverned with The artist.
Laura p was drawn to the photograph and she felt
she had to paint it. Her oil painting of the
photograph was hung in her house, causing inexplicable events. She
claims that it has been responsible for a mysterious leak,
objects being knocked over, broken items, and even mysterious knocks
on doors. Laura has had many offers to buy the painting, however,

(53:54):
fears what will happen in the homes of buyers? So interesting,
So not even like the photo is the curse thing.
It's the painting of the photo for whatever reason that's
causing it's absorbed the energy I don't know, and there's
like all this paranal activity around it. No, thank you,
I won't be having any of these paintings in my house.
This next one is the Crying Boy, and it's just
it's a picture of a little boy or painting of

(54:16):
little boy crying. But it's kind of like close up,
so like from like his shoulders up. He's kind of
looking over his shoulder, not directly like forward like letty
get this painting, but kind of like off to the side.
And this says the crying Boy has been blamed for
countless house fires. What Bruno Amadillo completed the painting as
part of a series of Crying Orphans and published it
under the name Giovanni Bragoline. That's such a strange subject

(54:40):
matter to cover. I wonder why, like, what was the
decision behind that? It says he made many prints of
the painting to sell to tourists following the Second World War.
That makes sense. Following its distribution, the painting has been
found untouched and many burned down homes. Okay, found untouched.
In many cases, a story began to develop about the
boy and the painting. Very importan words, it says, a

(55:00):
story began to develop, so just made up things about
this painting. It says his parents allegedly died in a fire,
and the orphaned boy cursed every home into which he
was taken in. Despite no truth being found in this story,
many people refuse to have the painting in their homes. Yeah,
I'd be like, I don't care what the story is.
You're telling me every house this painting has been and
has burned down. Creepy. So this next one says the

(55:23):
dead mother, And it looks like there is it's a
painting of a little girl. I'm assuming a little girl.
She's wearing like black boots or stockings, a little dress,
and she has she's facing four and she has her
hands covered covering her ears. And behind her there's a
bed and it looks like there's a woman, like a
pale woman too, laying in it because she has color

(55:44):
on her. But this person behind her in the bed
is all pale like white, and it kind of looks
like I'm trying to compare it to something. It's like
it looks like it was painted with like, I don't know,
maybe like chalks, or it reminds me a little bit
of is it kind of is it it's kind of
like Picasso a little bit or I don't know. I listen,
I am not an artist by any means. I don't
know what I'm referencing that. If you see this, let

(56:07):
me know if I was anywhere close. But anyway, this
says the Dead Mother Edvard Munch, the famous painter known
for the Scream. Okay, yes, that's what I was trying
to think. It reminds me of that the scream. Interesting.
I guess this kind of hands on the head thing
is apparent throughout his paintings because the scream is the
only one I've ever seen from this person that I
know of. It says is responsible for the dead Mother.
The painting shows a young girl with her hands at

(56:28):
the sides of her face in shock or despair, with
her dying mother lying in bed behind her. Much's childhood
saw the death of his mother and two siblings to tuberculosis,
which appears to be the inspiration of the painting. Many
people claim that they feel an easy around the painting,
with her eyes following them like Cladita, and the sounds
of rustling bed sheets echoing near the painting. Ooh, spooky. Yeah,

(56:52):
because she is this little girl is looking forward like
Clyadita is. But there's not a lot of detail in this,
so it's kind of hard. I mean, okay, I made
a mistake. I leaned in and if you lean in
really closely, you can see like two tiny pupils in
this painting, which there's not a lot of detail. It's
just so it's kind of these like like almost pale
blue eyes with just pupils dead in the center. Creepy.

(57:15):
I don't like that this last one. There's not a
picture here for it, not that I see. Let me
see if I can find it really quick. But this
is the oh I see it interesting. Oh, this is
the portrait of Samantha Houston. And this says let me
see what it says here for us before I start
reading something else. It says, the seemingly sweet painting of
a little girl has a dark story behind it. So

(57:36):
she's just this little this little white girl again kind
of Victorian I may be wrong, but like this long
white dress. She's got cute little brown shoes on blue stalking.
She's holding a bouquet of roses, and she's stating in
front of curtains on a wooden floor, and she's holding
a letter in the other hand, and she's kind of
like chinned down but looking up at the painter, almost
like if you were the painter, but looking up above you,

(57:58):
not directly at you. She's got length kind of like
strawberry blonde hair, and like a blue sash around her waist,
and she's smiling. She got little roe's cheeks. A cute
little girl. But this says the subject. Samantha is said
to be the four year old daughter of a senator
in Texas. That's why I went ooh in au Earlier,
Samantha's father brought his daughter when he stayed at the
Driscool Hotel in Austin in eighteen eighty seven. Y'all, I

(58:21):
promise I did not plan this. This is my first
time seeing this at all. And I'm in Austin right
now and the drist goal is right there, it says,
oh oops, where she unfortunately fell down the stairs when
playing with her ball since then. Her ghost is said
to haunt the drist Schol where she died. Her painting,
completed by Richard King, was hung in the hotel where
she died, and has focused the spirit's alleged activity. A

(58:44):
bouncing ball can often be seen in the hotel lobby.
Door handles beside the painting rattle, and her expression seems
to distort as guests view the painting. Guests have also
reported feeling nauseous or a falling feeling around the artwork. Interesting, wow, wow, wow,
love that we went through this whole list and it
ended on you guessed it a creepy portrait of a

(59:05):
little girl, kind of like Laditha's. But the thing is,
these portraits are not They don't look creepy. They're just
these portraits of these young women, but there are creepy
stories behind them. Welcome back, girl friends. Thank you so

(59:30):
much for joining me for today's episode, and again thank
you for your patients two weeks ago when the last
episode was supposed to go up. Just to run through
those reminders from earlier again in case you missed them.
This month's book club book is The Witches of Elpaso
by Luis Herameio again, patrons get to vote on the
books that we read. Patrons also have access to the

(59:50):
book Club discord channel, and that is for the mid
and higher tiers, so you can check that out. But
you do not need to be a patron or be
a part of those tiers to participate in the book club.
This is open to any and everybody. Just make sure
that you follow on social media that's at Sustal Podcast
on every platform so that you can keep up with
the meeting details and updates on the book club. But

(01:00:10):
again this month we are reading The Witches of Apasto
by Luis Hatamio and we'll meet at the end of
the month. As always, If you would like to hear
your own story on a Letters from the Beyond episode,
you can do so by visiting the website sustalpodcast dot
com or my link tree that's linkdr dot ee slash
Sustal and hit that submit a story tell Me a
Story button and you can send in the story. You
can also send it in photo, video, audio recordings, anything

(01:00:31):
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(01:00:52):
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(01:01:12):
support with your money dollars, you can do so by
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(01:01:36):
Desire a Carla Ricardo, Vanessa, Marisa Nieves, Manormal, Iris, Mare Floor,
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Your support makes me want to paint beautiful, haunted portraits
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(01:02:15):
St