La Tlanchana & Other Mexican Mermaid Legends

Legends of fresh-water mermaids date back thousands of years in Mexico.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Welcome to Mexico Unexplained, where we will explore the magic,
the mysteries, and the miracles of Mexico. This series presents
information based partly on theory and conjecture. The podcaster's purpose
is to suggest some possible explanation, but not necessarily the
only ones to the subjects we will examine. Here is
your host, Robert Viitto.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Welcome and mobim beneathos to episode number forty seven of
Mexico Unexplained, where we examined the magic, the mysteries and
the miracles of Mexico. I'm your host, Robert Biddo. In
August of twenty fourteen, early visitors to Pahapan Beach in
the Mexican state of Veracruz stumbled upon a strange scene.

(01:20):
Tangled among strands of seaweed was what appeared to be
a dead humanoid. The top half looked like a human
female with long hair and translucent skin. The bottom half
was scaly and ended in a large flipper. Before authorities
arrived to take away what people immediately identified as the

(01:41):
remains of a real mermaid, the curious snapped photos of
the creature, and by the end of the day these
pictures had been liked, shared, and commented on by millions
of people in every part of the Internet's social media sphere.
Days went by and speculated turned to certainty. Yes, this

(02:03):
was exactly what it appeared to be, a mermaid. However,
it was not a flesh and bone creature. It was
made of silicone. The silicone Vera Cruz Mermaid turned out
to be a prop from the movie Pirates of the
Caribbean on Stranger Tides starring Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom,

(02:25):
which had been filming nearby back in twenty eleven. Some
alleged that the mermaid prop was released as a promotional
stunt for the next Pirates of the Caribbean installment, but
of the many mermaid models that were made for this movie,
the Vera Cruz Mermaid was simply the one that got away.

(02:48):
Mexico has its history of mermaid legends, but never coming
from the seacoasts. The heart of Mexican mermaid territory is
the lake region of the alte Plano Island region of
central Mexico, spanning from Puebla all the way to Guadalajara,
with special emphasis on the small lakes and other water

(03:09):
sources found in the state of Mexico, just west of
Mexico City. Stories about half woman, half aquatic serpent creatures
date back thousands of years. The Tlanchana is the most
famous of these mermaid creatures, and she hails specifically from
the small lakes and rivers around the modern day towns

(03:31):
of Metepec, Toluca, and Lerma. There is a sculpture of
the Tlanchana in the central square of Metepec, and she
is the subject of an annual arts and culture fair
in that town. Please see our website Mexico Unexplained dot
com for photos of the Tlanchana sculpture of Metepec and
for other Tlanchana crafts. The freshwater mermaid stories are said

(03:57):
to go back a few thousand years and work first
noted among the Otomi people, an indigenous group which predated
the Aztec Empire in central Mexico around one thousand a d.
The Otomis were the primary cultural force in the Lake
region of central Mexico and were comprised of several groups

(04:17):
with somewhat related dialects and similar belief systems. At the
time of the Aztec arrival, The primary Otomi city was
called Shalto Khan, named after the island on which it
was founded and named after the lake in which the
island was located. Lake Shalto Khan was really just the

(04:39):
extreme northern branch of Lake Teshkoco, separated by the main
lake by a narrow neck of water and marshes. In
the Aztec language, Nahwato chaoto Kan means sandy ground of spiders.
The Otomi band that lived in Chalto Khan was called

(04:59):
s Auto Cameca, and the Chato Cameca believed in the
supremacy of the Moon goddess, which was worshiped as their
primary deity. One of the many aspects or manifestations of
the moon goddess was called Aka Pashappo. In the Ottomi
dialect of Chato Khan, the word aka Pashappo loosely translates

(05:23):
to water weed mirror. The Aka Paschappo appeared out of
the lake and was seen as the goddess of intuition
and of the future. The Chato Camechas would call upon
her to deliver messages and omens and to impart predictions.
She was often felt and assumed a spirit form, but

(05:47):
sometimes a kappa Chappo took on a physical body. She
was often described as having the upper body of a
woman with long hair and pale skin. She had light eyes.
She wore jewels covering her neck and breasts that were
illuminated by moonlight. Her lower body was that of a

(06:08):
black water serpent. The Aka Pashapo could be seen or
summoned at Lake Chaoto Khan, but could appear in any
body of fresh water, including streams and rivers and smaller
lakes and ponds in the Otomi homeland. When the Aztecs
swept across the Altiplano from the north and decided to

(06:31):
settle the Lake Tshkoko area around the thirteen hundreds, their
growing empire absorbed the surrounding cultures, and, like most empires,
integrated those cultures into their own. The Aztecs respected the
older gods and belief systems that existed in the region
before they came, so the Otomi aspect of the moon goddess,

(06:55):
called Aka Pashapo became Altanchane, which is a combination of
the words Atal meaning water, Tonan meaning mother, and chane,
which means magical being or spirit. By the time of
the Spanish conquest, altonanchane had turned into the word tlanchana.

(07:21):
The tlanchana was somewhat syncretic in that it was based
on the older Ottomi a Capaschappo, but was combined with
a slightly different spiritual view of the world of the Aztecs.
For one, the tlanchana was no longer a one hundred
percent benevolent being. While her older version was seen as

(07:43):
a helpful spirit and associated with the Moon, who was
the female deity who created all life, the Aztec version
could be good or evil, and was mostly malicious. In
this aspect, she was closer to the European inversion of
a mermaid, that of the temptress, who causes the downfall

(08:05):
of men and who acts out of jealousy or who
has selfish intentions. While the Otomi built altars to their
half female, half snake water spirit, the Aztecs looked upon
the tlanchana with a certain degree of cautious respect. The
tlanchana was more of a whimsical dark sorceress, an enchantress,

(08:29):
often lonely and often envious of humans. She only appeared
at night, and her appearance was almost always a bad omen.
According to Aztec legends, she would also sing or cry
for help to lure men to their dooms, much like
the European mermaid. If she wished, The tlanchana could also

(08:51):
grow legs so that she could more easily move about
the human population, but this was rare at the time
of the Spanish conquest. Men who worked on the lakes,
either catching fish or hunting waterfowl, would often give offerings
to the tlanchana for safe boating or for a good bounty.

(09:15):
A Spanish priest, who right after the conquest lived in
the small indigenous community of Almoloya de Rio on the
shores of Lake chick Nawapan just north of Teluca, wrote
that the tlanchana was a demon and the practice of
her worship should be eradicated. The Spanish then did what

(09:38):
the Aztecs had done before them. They took the previous
belief system and modified it. The tlanchana idea transformed once again,
and the post conquest female water spirit turned into a
very European looking mermaid, complete with a dolphin like flipper,

(09:59):
often blode and joyfully playing a guitar. The guitar playing
mermaid can be seen today throughout the crafts of Central
and Southern Mexico, especially in and around Metepec. The tlanchana
can sometimes even be found as a character in hand
crafted nativity sets, attending the baby Jesus, along with the

(10:23):
Three Wise Men, the angels, and the Shepherd boys. Many
legends and myths often find themselves based on reality. It
is not our purpose on Mexico unexplained to come to
conclusions about such things, but some people believe that the
talanchana could be a real creature or based on something

(10:45):
real that is experienced at the lakes and other bodies
of water, especially at night. There are several modern day
stories of Mexican lake mermaids, and many people in Central
Mexico believe that the stories are indeed real. Here are
three of them. On the shores of a small lake

(11:05):
called Laguna de juamush Titlan in the Mexican state of Guerrero,
there is a story of Tlanchana emerging from the water
and calling a young man from the lake. The laguna
has been seen as a sacred and spiritual place for centuries.
It was so important to the Aztecs that they built
fourteen small pyramids on its shores. There is a small

(11:30):
intermittent spring coming out of a rock wall on the
shores of the lake, and the Aztecs once believed that
the spring was a portal to another world. In this
modern Mexican towel, the young man's impulse was to run
away from the noise, which grew increasingly louder as he ran.

(11:51):
When he got back to his village, he told the
townsfolk of his experience, and dozens of men returned to
the lake with machetti and torches to get to the
bottom of things, but found nothing. Overlooking the town of Teluca,
the capital of the Mexican state of Mexico, is a huge,

(12:11):
dormant volcano called Nevado de Toluca. The mountain is often
snow capped, and in the more temperate seasons there is
a small lake which forms in the center of the caldera.
According to legend, once there was a man who went
to the mountain with his daughter to gather snow. The
little girl was drawn to the lake and went to

(12:33):
the water's edge to wash her face. While washing, she
fell into the lake and was pulled by an unseen
force to the depths of the icy waters. When the
man realized that his little girl was missing, he became
frantic and called out to her. The voice of the
little girl replied and told the man that she had

(12:54):
fallen into the lake and that she was safe, but
under a spell by the spirit of the lake and
could not leave. She also told her father that she
had been transformed into something half fish. Distraught and able
to do nothing, the father left his daughter at the
top of the mountain. Thus the little girl became probably

(13:17):
the only mermaid in the world to be living at
fifteen thousand, three hundred feet. The last legend that we
will briefly examine here comes from a small lake near
Puebla called Laguna de Alhohoka. There, the Tlanchana is an
evil and jealous spirit who guards the lake. It is

(13:38):
said that women who enter the lake or accidentally fall
into the lake survive, but men never do. If you
were a man and you wish to cross the lake
in a boat, the Tlanchana will capsize your boat and
will drown you. The same goes if you try to
swim or go knee deep around the edges. According to

(14:00):
the locals, if a man ventures into the laguna, a
woman will appear with the tail of a snake, and
the blue eyed face of an angel, and that is
the last face you will ever see. This more severe
tale of the Tlanchana could have been invented to make
sure children stay away from the water, or to punish

(14:22):
unruly children, much like the story of Laurona. Please see
episode number two of Mexico Unexplained for the legend of
the Urona. But back to the stories surrounding the lake
at Alhohuka. While doing research for this podcast, I came
across a comments section in an online article about the

(14:45):
legends from this lake, with many comments coming from local residents.
Those who chimed in and wrote claimed that the tlanchana
living in the lake is one hundred percent positively real
and is encrypted or unknown creature, much like Bigfoot or
the Lockness Monster. A young man in the same comments

(15:07):
section noted that he participated in a triathlon which had
its swimming portion in that lake, and all the male
triathletes miraculously survived. As commenting on the internet as prone
to play out. The triathlete was ridiculed and called a
liar or a troll by those who claim to have

(15:28):
actually seen or heard the evil mermaid in Lake Alhohoka.
The whole story and reactions to it just show us
the sheer power of belief in myths and legends, even
in the age of the Internet. Thank you once again
for listening to another episode of Mexico Unexplained. Remember to

(15:51):
like and subscribe to us on YouTube and follow us
on Twitter. Please go to our website, Mexico and Explained
dot com for references, illustrations, and for free access to
transcripts of past shows. Please consider making a donation to
help the show. We appreciate your kind attention. Once again,

(16:11):
until next time, Thank you and gracias.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
Thank you for listening to another episode of Mexico Unexplained
with host Robert Bitto. For show summary, relevant links, and commentary.
Please check out our website at mexicoanexplained dot com, Like
us on Facebook and be a part of the conversation.
Addie on sand Haste la Vista.