Sihuanaba
The Siguanaba and its variants may have been brought to Latin America from Spain during the Colonial Period, used by the colonists as a means of exercising control over the indigenous and mestizo population.
In the border regions between Guatemala and El Salvador, those who see the Siguanaba make the sign of the cross upon her or bite their machete, while simultaneously banishing both the evil spirit and the fear that grips the victim.
[9] Likewise, cigua or cegua, names for the spirit in Honduras and Costa Rica, also have their origin in the Nahuatl word cihuatl, simply meaning "woman".
[9][10] In Guatemala the Sihuanaba is known as La Siguanaba; she is known as Cigua in Honduras, Ciguanaba in El Salvador and as Cegua in Costa Rica.
She is supposed to be seen at night in the rivers of El Salvador, washing clothes and always looking for her son, Cipitio, who was also cursed by Teotl to remain a boy for eternity.
[1] A Kaqchikel Maya version of the Siguanaba from San Juan Comalapa describes her as a woman with enormous glowing eyes and a hoof for a hand.
She wears a glittering dress and has very long hair and haunts the local rubbish dump, frightening disobedient children and drunken husbands.
[15] On the Guatemalan side of Lake Güija, in Jutiapa Department, the Siguanaba is able to take on many forms but the most common is that of a slim, beautiful woman with long hair who bathes herself on the banks of the Ostúa River, although she may also appear by other water sources or simply by lonely roadsides.
After riding with her victim for a short while, she reveals her fingernails as fearsome claws and her face as that of a horse, causing the rider to die of terror.
[8] In Mexico, the legend of the Siguanaba is present in almost the entire country, mostly throughout Mesoamerica, where they call her Macihuatli, Matlazihua, X'tabay, X'tabal or, more popularly, "horse-faced woman".
She presents herself as a woman with an attractive body, always seen from her back or walking away, with her face completely covered by either her hair or a large veil.
Her appearance plays a sobering role that brings a consequence for a specific behavior, unlike La Llorona, whose victims can be anyone.
The Siguanaba is an entity that enforces compliance with the classic recommendations of a grandmother or mother to young men: "don't go out now, and behave well."
According to the Nayarit version, she was a woman or a moon goddess who was the wife of the god Tlaloc, with whom she had a son, who treated her badly and abandoned her.
He condemned to wander the countryside, appearing to men at first as a beautiful woman, but revealing a hideous horse face by the time they got close.
In the state of Coahuila, within the city of Torreón, this terrible specter that frightens men was a woman who received a curse or was the victim of witchcraft, black magic, or a satanic ritual, so she became an evil or a demonic entity seeking "revenge."
In the state of Nuevo León, they say that she is seen on the roads at night in search of machistas, gangsters, womanizers, the lustful, or any man who goes astray to kill them.
In Mexico City, according to the Mexica, the Macihuatli was a moon deity called Metztli, who suffers the betrayal of their husband Tláloc.
In colonial legends she frightened night owls, rapists, or women who walked in bad steps, taking them to ravines and then killing then.
In the state of Puebla, she is known as the Andalona, where it is described as a specter that has multiple forms; she is said to seduce men who roam the mountains in order to drive them mad or kill them.
In Oaxaca, where he is known as the Matlazihua or Bandolera, he is associated with a "Zapotec" deity of death, known as Mictecacihuatl, who was in charge of collecting the souls of the deceased to take them to the underworld, and was the consort of Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the dead.
This specter is said to punish people's wrongdoings, or sins, but she generally appears to men (especially drunkards, womanizers, partygoers, or those who abandon their families).
A second version tells that it was a Mayan princess named Suluay, daughter of Governor Halach Huinic, who had fallen in love with a young warrior and they saw each other in a ceiba tree.
In other regions of Chiapas, it is also said that the Siguanaba may appear on the roads asking motorcyclists to climb it and, after a while of walking, she transforms into a monster with the head of a horse.
She then wandered out of mind, never removing her increasingly filthy wedding dress until she died of heartbreak after her suitor married another woman.
In this country, La Cegua is a myth that is most common in rural areas, although the figure's actions are generally the same as in the rest of Mexico and Central America (especially her habit of bathing at night).
She is described as a very pretty young woman, white, with an oval face, large black eyes, long curly black hair (or brunette, depending on the version), and a beautiful mouth, with lips red as blood, with a divine voice that lulls like siren song, and a slender body with pronounced curves.
It is said that she was a witch who was betrayed by her partner and that she is looking for revenge against the womanizing men and night owls, for which she made a pact with the devil in a cornfield, where she performed a ritual to vomit her soul and begin a transformation.
The specter seizes the man and bites his cheek to mark him as an adulterer, leaving him crazy and scared to death.
There is also another version of the legend, from the department of León, which describes her as an ugly and old woman, with long white hair, breasts down to her stomach, who laughs mockingly.
