The Island Of Dolls, is where a loner spent his life hanging dolls from limbs to ward off evil spirits.
The best-known chinampa in Xochimilco belonged to a man named Julián Santana Barrera, a native of the La Asunción neighborhood. Santana Barrera was a loner, who was rarely seen in most of Xochimilco. He came to fame because he would collect the old broken bodies of dolls from the canals and rubbish tips, and then hang them from branches and tie them to tree trunks to keep away evil spirits and appease the spirit of a dead girl he had found. He would state that he believed that the dolls were somehow still “alive” but “forgotten” by their owners and at night, these dolls are said to walk around the island killing animals, and other places were “discovered” in the early 1990s, when the area was being cleared of excessive water lilies. Before this, it was thought that no one lived on this chinampa, but Santana Barrera was there, living in a hut with no services and generally did not receive visitors, other than family. The display of dolls and parts attracted attention of the press. Eventually, he stated to them that the dolls were there to keep away evil spirits and to help with the harvests in his gardens. His favorite was called La Moneca and he frequently moved the dolls around among the tree branches. He began to receive more visitors to see the dolls, which eventually included local political figures. Santana Barrera died in 2001. The dolls, however, are still on the island, accessible by boat.[36] @Curionic
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