THE 7 MOST POPULAR LEGENDS OF GUAYAQUIL - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Some of the best known legends of Guayaquil are La dama tapada, El niño de la mano negra, La Llorona, Victor Emilio Estrada and the pact with the Devil and The legend of Guayas and Quil. It is said that the latter gave the name to the city.

The city of Guayaquil was a very important commercial port and a shipbuilding center for the Spanish in colonial times. It obtained its independence before Ecuador, on October 9, 1820.

La Llorona, one of the legends of Guayaquil.

In 1822 it was annexed to Gran Colombia by Simón Bolívar. After the failure of Gran Colombia, Guayaquil ends up being part of the newly born Republic of Ecuador.

Raids and burning of the city by pirates were quite common. Today popular stories are told about these clashes.

The 7 most outstanding Guayaquil legends

1- The covered lady

It is believed that this legend comes from the year 1700. The story tells of the appearance of the ghost of a woman at midnight walking the streets of the city, wearing an elegant black dress from the colonial era with her face covered by a veil.

Her figure and the scent of perfumes was very attractive to the men who saw her, who were mostly drunkards or typical "don Juanes", seducers and womanizers.

The men tried to walk towards the lady, but she started walking without letting them get close enough.

In this way they chased her through dark alleys to the cemetery, where she stopped and turned around to see her victim.

It is then that the veil revealed a hideous corpse face with eyes ablaze with flames and a lot of rotten stench.

Very few are believed to survive this encounter. History does not define why the victims of the covered lady die: if it is from fright, pestilence or some other factor such as hypnosis.

In more contemporary versions, the victims fall down a cliff or are run over by vehicles.

2- The tamarind widow

This legend comes from the story of a Manabí woman who murdered her Spanish husband. She was cursed to wander near a tamarind tree on a farm in Quinta Pareja, eternally crying for the memory of her husband.

This myth is quite similar to the covered lady. It is said that she is dressed in mourning and sometimes crying through the dark streets of the city, with a veil or umbrella.

The men who saw her came after her to comfort her. The widow made them follow her to the tamarind tree, where she revealed her face and they died.

3- La Llorona

This story derives from the typical situations of innocent young women from the villages who moved to the city in search of better opportunities. This legend tells the story of a girl who managed to get a job in a house of wealthy people.

Naivete made her easy prey for love and she got pregnant with the owner's child. After being fired from her job, she tries to return to her family, but was strongly criticized.

Desperation made her throw her newborn baby into the river. Realizing her inhuman act, she tried to recover it between screams and cries but was swept away by the current.

The stories say that they have heard the girl cry at night looking for her son among the houses and farms near the rivers, scaring children and adults alike.

4- The boy with the black hand

It tells the story about a boy from a wealthy family named Toribio de Castro Grijuela, who was missing his right hand from birth.

The family was very religious; They had special devotion to the Virgin of Soto from whom they asked many miracles. Thanks to Christian upbringing, Toribio grew up with a very kind and altruistic heart. He liked helping poor and needy people.

One day an old woman asked the boy for food, he served her with great joy, as he always did. She gave Toribio a gift. The next morning the boy woke up excited, because he had his right hand, but it was black.

It is said that Toribio had his heroic moment confronting the pirates in 1587, defeating the famous Cavendish and his men.

As they say, when the body of Toribio was exhumed after years of his death, his black hand showed no signs of decomposition.

5- Posorja

This legend tells the story of a girl with the gift of divination who one day arrived brought by sea in a kind of small boat. The Huancavilca natives of the area adopted her as a princess and named her Posorja.

Many powerful men from other tribes wanted to marry her or marry her children, to take advantage of her divine gifts and expand their territories. The Inca emperor Huayna Capac was obsessed with her.

The Huancavilca fled from the Incas founding the Posorja area. As a result, many confrontations and deaths occurred between tribes.

Before disappearing into the sea again, Posorja predicted a tragic future for both Huayna Capac and Atahualpa.

6- Victor Emilio Estrada and the pact with the Devil

He was an Ecuadorian politician whose presidency in 1911 lasted less than four months, since he died of heart failure on December 21 of that same year.

According to legend, the former president had made a pact with the Devil, offering him his soul in exchange.

The inhabitants of Guayaquil believe that this was the reason for the order to build their mausoleum in copper, to prevent the Devil from entering and taking his soul after being buried.

After his death, the Devil enraged by the ruse cursed Estrada's soul, sending his demons to guard him and not let him rest in peace.

Since then they have seen the ghost of the former president dressed elegantly and in a hat, wandering around the entrance to the cemetery.

Some stories say that the apparition seeks to converse with the people waiting for the bus.

7- The legend of Guayas and Quil

The legend goes back to the time of the conquest of the area. The story deals with the sacrifice of love and freedom of the couple of native warriors of the Huancavilca tribe when they were threatened by the Spanish.

Sebastián de Benalcázar had many strong confrontations with this tribe to try to establish the new city of Santiago (current Guayaquil). Cacique Guayas and his wife Quil led the native resistance forces, and they were wonderful warriors.

They were eventually caught. Guayas, knowing the avarice of his captors, offered the Spanish many hidden treasures in exchange for his freedom and that of his wife. They then took them to Cerro Verde (present-day Cerro Santa Ana).

Here Guayas asked for a knife to move one of the stones that covered the entrance to the hiding place of treasures.

But instead of gold and precious stones, Guayas plunged the knife into Quil's heart, and then into his; they would rather die than be subjugated.

This event is said to have occurred near the current Guayas River, where the bodies are said to have fallen. This is one of the origins that is given to the name of the city.

Subject of interest

Ecuadorian legends.

Legends of the Ecuadorian coast.

References

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