Halloween Countdown - Oct 9
Oct. 9th, 2013 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivienMy favorite thing about doing a countdown every year is that I inevitably learn something new.
I'd never heard of the La Chusa until I ran across this account from Lamar, CO.
I know the woman that someone posted could fly. I didn't know her but knew where she lived. She lived on Washington Street on the north side of town. We lived in Pueblo and had family that lived in Lamar.
My aunts uncles and cousins told us about her but we didn't believe them. We were down there for labor day and were in the back yard, it was late probably around one or two a.m. My younger sister started yelling that there was a huge bird in that tree, nobody paid much attention until the bird started screaming.
It got very quiet fast. My uncle had a spotlight on his truck. He pointed the light in the direction of the screaming and we saw an elderly Hispanic woman with wings like a bar in the neighbors elm tree about 40 feet off the ground.
Scariest thing I'd ever seen before or since. Most of family won't speak of it. I know it sounds crazy but we saw what we saw.
There were these follow up comments on the next pages:
Comment by Curious: That was a witch bird La Chusa, however you spell it back in my home in Kansas, there were two of those birds. A big one across the street in a tree and another one in our tree, it sounded like an owl... But you are supposed to cuss the bird out and tell it not to come back!.
Comment by anonymous: I'd be willing to bet the lady you knew that flew lived on Washington Street between 6th and 7th on the north side of the street. She was blind and she was a witch. I saw her fly also. I saw this more than once.
I saw her fly over our privacy fence and straight up to my window on the second story of our house on North 7th. It was 1987 or 1988. People in Lamar used to talk about seeing the giant ghost owl. A lot of people who lived in Lamar then also knew it wasn't a ghost owl.
So I had to Google "la chusa" and found this description:
In Mexican folklore, La Chusa is a creature that has the head of a woman and the body an owl. There are variations to the tale, with a more modern version (the creature is a witch) more common in places like Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.
(Lechuza is Spanish for owl.)
Lamar is in the far southeast of CO, so not far at all from Texas and New Mexico. The next time I'm back there for work, I may ask someone whether they know anything about this flying woman.
I'd never heard of the La Chusa until I ran across this account from Lamar, CO.
I know the woman that someone posted could fly. I didn't know her but knew where she lived. She lived on Washington Street on the north side of town. We lived in Pueblo and had family that lived in Lamar.
My aunts uncles and cousins told us about her but we didn't believe them. We were down there for labor day and were in the back yard, it was late probably around one or two a.m. My younger sister started yelling that there was a huge bird in that tree, nobody paid much attention until the bird started screaming.
It got very quiet fast. My uncle had a spotlight on his truck. He pointed the light in the direction of the screaming and we saw an elderly Hispanic woman with wings like a bar in the neighbors elm tree about 40 feet off the ground.
Scariest thing I'd ever seen before or since. Most of family won't speak of it. I know it sounds crazy but we saw what we saw.
There were these follow up comments on the next pages:
Comment by Curious: That was a witch bird La Chusa, however you spell it back in my home in Kansas, there were two of those birds. A big one across the street in a tree and another one in our tree, it sounded like an owl... But you are supposed to cuss the bird out and tell it not to come back!.
Comment by anonymous: I'd be willing to bet the lady you knew that flew lived on Washington Street between 6th and 7th on the north side of the street. She was blind and she was a witch. I saw her fly also. I saw this more than once.
I saw her fly over our privacy fence and straight up to my window on the second story of our house on North 7th. It was 1987 or 1988. People in Lamar used to talk about seeing the giant ghost owl. A lot of people who lived in Lamar then also knew it wasn't a ghost owl.
So I had to Google "la chusa" and found this description:
In Mexican folklore, La Chusa is a creature that has the head of a woman and the body an owl. There are variations to the tale, with a more modern version (the creature is a witch) more common in places like Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.
(Lechuza is Spanish for owl.)
Lamar is in the far southeast of CO, so not far at all from Texas and New Mexico. The next time I'm back there for work, I may ask someone whether they know anything about this flying woman.