THE 5 MOST POPULAR LEGENDS OF ZACATECAS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Some of the best known Zacatecas legends are the Calle de las Tres Cruces, the Cerro de la Bufa or the black stone. The history of this town is told by its inhabitants through legends as impressive and shocking as the magic of its architecture. Follow us on this cultural tour of one of the most exceptional states in Mexico.

Not in vain, Zacatecas is known as "the city with the face of quarry and a heart of silver." The phrase honors its baroque-style colonial streets. The pink color of its imposing quarry conveys a magical atmosphere perpetuated in modern times as an immortal treasure from the past.

Zacatecas Basilica Cathedral. Iris Alejandra Gonzalez Perez

Its heart of silver refers to the extraction of minerals, one of its main economic activities that began at the beginning of the modern era, between the 2nd and 10th centuries, and which remains in force today.

In addition to its architectural beauty -which boasts its historic center as a Cultural Heritage of Humanity-, Zacatecas exudes an air of mysticism in every street, sidewalk and alley.

Its paths evoke the memories of the colonial era, told by its people through legends that make your hair stand on end. That is precisely the experience that we will live below, with the 5 most shocking legends of the Mexican state of Zacatecas:

The street of the Three Crosses

It was the year 1763. Don Diego de Gallinar was a man attached to tradition. He lived with his niece, Beatriz Moncada, a very beautiful young woman who arrived at her uncle's house after having lost her parents. Because of her beauty and youth, she was the center of all eyes on Tres Cruces Street.

But not just any suitor was capable of captivating her, only a young indigenous man named Gabriel, whom she had met at a local festival. Inspired by the purest love, Gabriel serenaded him every night, while Beatriz religiously reciprocated from her balcony.

Don Diego, far from believing in romantic tales, had imposed on his niece an arranged marriage with his son, Antonio de Gallinar, who longed for the moment to consummate the alliance with the most desired young woman in town.

Until one night, legend has it, Don Diego discovers Gabriel's nocturnal serenades and forces him to leave with authority and aggressiveness. The young indigenous man responds firmly that he is leaving out of commitment and respect, but not out of fear of Don Diego's violence.

He, feeling afflicted and challenged, attacks Gabriel with his sword, when between the struggle he ends up mortally wounded with the same weapon. Suddenly Gabriel, still confused by the terrifying scene, feels a stab in the back.

He was a servant of Don Diego who, seeing him distracted, murders him in cold blood in the most vile and cowardly way, taking revenge for his boss. Beatriz cannot bear the misfortune, she falls from the balcony in a faint and the impact takes her life instantly, right on top of the other two bodies.

This is how Calle de las Tres Cruces got its name, an imminent stop among tourists.

The Cerro de la Bufa

This legend goes back to colonial times. It is said that the Cerro de la Bufa shelters in its entrails an incomparable treasure: walls of gold, floors of silver, all illuminated by the brilliance of precious stones that dazzle as if seeing the sun.

Every year at night, during the town festivities, a stunning woman perches on the top of Cerro de la Bufa, almost like a heavenly angel, harmonious and proportional in all her features.

Serena, wait patiently for a man to walk down the sidewalk. Pretending to be an enchanted princess, magnetic and hypnotic due to her beauty, she asks any curious unfortunate person to carry her in their arms to the main altar of the Basilica of Zacatecas.

That is the price that must be paid to take ownership of all the treasures that the hill hides. The woman only puts one condition: it is forbidden to look back once the tour begins with her in her arms.

What the man who decides to take her does not know is that a hell of suspense awaits him behind his back. Desperate noises, like the screams of lost souls, make everyone who takes the path to the altar sweat with the woman in tow.

Unable to avoid curiosity, scared and anguished, the man finally turns, looks back and causes the woman to transform into a snake and end her life.

Until today, the treasure of the hill is still considered a mystery rather than a legend, although no one has yet been able to prove it and claim it.

The black stone

Misael and Gerardo were two very young miners who came to Vetagrande, the cradle of mining in Zacatecas, looking for an opportunity to work and get ahead in the 1800s.

Both began their exploration in this land full of resources and mineral wealth, until they found a mysterious cave that caught their attention. Once inside the cave, a huge, shimmering golden rock came into view.

It seemed that that stone was bathed in gold. Misael and Gerardo did not hesitate and immediately reached an agreement: to watch the stone all night and without rest, sitting around it, to take it home together the next day.

But the night grew long and darker. Misael and Gerardo did not stop staring at each other, poisoned by greed, visualizing a wealth so great that they would not want to share it with each other.

The next day, the two young miners woke up dead. The stone began to turn black with the passage of time, as if it possessed anyone who noticed it, took its soul and made it evil.

The news spread like wildfire among the town's residents, until the bishop of Zacatecas learned of the bad omen brought by the stone, previously golden, now increasingly black, which had already claimed several lives.

The man of God took the stone with him to prevent human greed from ending in more death. He placed it in the Cathedral, under the bell tower, at the rear of the temple. There the stone darkened more and more, until it was completely black.

The last confession

Martín Esqueda was a classic village priest. Parish priest of the Santo Domingo temple in Zacatecas, he spent his days preaching the word to his faithful without much news. It was the custom of the inhabitants to visit him at any time of the day and night, piously asking for a confession for a man or woman on their deathbed.

But in the year 1850, an event would change everything he knew up to that moment. Late at night, an old woman came to his door requesting a final confession for a relative of hers who, most likely, would not survive the dawn.

Father Martín agreed without question, because for him it was completely normal to make that kind of confession at home, no matter where the clock was placed. He collected his conventional religious instruments: the bible, a rosary and his characteristic stole, which represents the sign of Jesus.

Together with the old woman, he set out on foot to the vicinity of the Plaza de Toros. There was a group of very old houses and deteriorated by the passage of time. She opened one of these houses for him until she reached a very small room where a man was resting, clearly weak and ill.

At the same moment that the father entered the small room, the old woman turned around and without saying a single word, left. Martín practiced his usual confession ritual without any irregularity. He returned home and thus ended his night.

The next day, the father noticed that something very important was missing: he had forgotten his stole in that old house. He decided to send two emissaries from his church to retrieve it, but they both returned unsuccessfully to the temple. No one in the sick man's house opened the door for them.

Father Martín decides to go by himself to retrieve it, but like his emissaries, he received no response from within. When the owner of the dilapidated houses sees the insistence of the father when he knocks on the door, he approaches and is surprised.

Many years have passed since the last time one of those houses was inhabited. The owner decides to open the door for the priest, and the setting was not the same as the night before: amidst dust, creeping animals and cobwebs, the cassock lay hanging on the wooden stake where Father Martín had forgotten it.

Shocked by this strange event, he could not even offer the day's Eucharist. He was stunned. Shortly after that night, legend has it that Father Martín fell ill and died after a few years. He was never the same since that last confession.

The french mirror

The sonatas that Matilde Cabrera played on her grand piano sweetened the day of any passerby who passed her window. Her instrument of decorous melodies sat in the living room of her house, in front of a window that overlooked the main street where she lived.

The young woman performed her recital alone every evening, without fail. A member of a very conservative family, Matilde frequently attended church. There she met an attractive gentleman who stole her heart at first sight.

Respecting her family traditions, she approached her lover very little. They communicated between signs to show the love they had. It was a romance like few others, where affection and caresses were felt without the need to touch.

Inspired by her lover, she managed to see him every afternoon from her home, when he religiously sat down to play the piano. She placed a mirror with a French finish on it to see, as in a rear-view mirror, how her gentleman used to make gestures of love to her every day from the window, gestures that only they understood, her own love code.

One day, the man left without warning to enlist in the army and fight the battles that were taking place those days. Matilde never lost hope, she got better and better to wait for her lover. She was obsessively perfumed, combed and dressed every afternoon, looking through her French mirror, waiting to see the reflection of a man she would never see again.

Now melancholic sonatas were echoing outside Matilde's house. Her lover never returned. As the years passed, the neighbors began to call him the madwoman in the mirror, because day after day he continued to play the piano, waiting.

Now, if you dare to visit Zacatecas and go through the so-called Calle del Espejo, you will have no problem telling the legend to your companions.

References

1. La bufa, the hill that keeps treasures. Article of the newspaper El Universal de México, published on January 5, 2017.
2. Zacatecastravel.com, official governmental-tourist website of the state of Zacatecas.
3. Visitmexico.com, official tourism website of the government of Mexico.
4. Amet Pamela Valle, Legends of Zacatecas (2014).
5. Juan Francisco Rodríguez Martínez, Legends of Zacatecas, tales and stories (1991).