Island of the Dolls/ La Isla de Munecas

joannaauthor ♦ August 3, 2023 ♦ Leave a comment

I grew up with many types of dolls, from what we called “doll babies” the kind you rock and feed and play Mommy with, to Cabbage Patch, to Barbie dolls. We won’t even get started on doll like toys, that were humanish but not really dolls, per se. (My Little Pony, Gloworms, etc). I was never frightened as a child by dolls. I do remember one night waking up in bed screaming because I thought my Cabbage Patch doll, Roxanna Sabine, had moved. Well, her hair. My mom explained that her hair probably did move (it was a long, dark brown, yarn ponytail) because I had probably moved Roxanna in my sleep, making her jiggle, thus causing her hair to move. I went with it.

Even when I visited my Aunt Lee (RIP), her room full of “collector’s dolls” didn’t scare me. I thought they were beautiful- porcelain dolls on high shelves, sometimes under glass. I remember that I liked the Japanese dolls best, and I still have one somewhere that Aunt Lee gave me when I was “old enough to appreciate it”.

But, the Island of Dolls in Mexico, that brings Pediophobia to a whole new level, even for someone like me, that isn’t afraid of dolls.

Located in Xochimilco, a suburb of Mexico City, the Island of Dolls’ history is a little unclear. It is believed that Don Julian Santana Barerra moved there in the mid twentieth century, after abandoning his wife and family. The Island of Dolls, was just a small island located in the Teshuilo Lake. Accounts say that shortly after moving to the island, he made a sad and gruesome discovery- the body of a young girl washed onto the shore of his island, believed to have drowned while playing in the lake. While processing her presence on his shores, a doll came floating in the lake behind her, which he believed to be her doll.

Sensing that this was a traumatic and unexpected death, Don Julian worried that her soul would be restless and uneasy. To appease her soul, he took the small doll and hung it from a tree. Don Julian still fell her soul was not at rest, so he took upon the task of looking everywhere for dolls- taking a small boat to Xochimilco on most days, gathering them from trash cans, no matter their state. For over 50 years, Don Julian hung dolls (or parts of dolls) all over his island, earning it the name, La Isla de Munecas.

Don Julian’s death echoed the tragic death of the young girl, being found floating in the river, near the shore of the island in 2001. Many people in Xochimilco, including Don Julian’s family wonder if the little girl really existed, as there were no reported missing children around the time he found her. They wonder if it was a dream, a hallucination, or just something that he thought happened. La Isla de Munecas is a popular tourist site now, with visitors bringing dolls with them, to leave on the island, in honor and memory of Don Julian and the little girl.