Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Lauren
Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here dressed in a shop's best fashions. Mannequins are
Speaker 1: common in storefront windows as a way to attract potential customers,
Speaker 1: But what about when the mannequin becomes the main attraction.
Speaker 1: That's the case for a family owned bridle shop La
Speaker 1: popular dress shop in Chillavla, Mexico, where there's plenty of
Speaker 1: lore and legend about whether the female figure standing in
Speaker 1: the window is actually a mannequin. Lapascualita is an eerily
Speaker 1: lifelike mannequin, and the speculation is that she's the actual
Speaker 1: dead body of the daughter of a former owner. The
Speaker 1: Tale of the Mannequin La Pascualita is a popular regional
Speaker 1: story in northern Mexico and near the border with Texas
Speaker 1: and New Mexico, but this famous mannequin and the store
Speaker 1: window she stands in have gained more of a reputation
Speaker 1: as a tourist attraction. For the article, this episode is
Speaker 1: based on hastuff Work spoke with Thomas Prower, a Latino
Speaker 1: licensed mortuary professional and author of the book Morbid Magic, Death,
Speaker 1: Spirituality and Culture from around the world, he said. As
Speaker 1: with any urban legend, there's no official story, but the
Speaker 1: common narrative is that a woman named Pascuala Esparza began
Speaker 1: displaying a new mannequin in the window of her bridle
Speaker 1: shop in the nineteen thirties. The story goes that this
Speaker 1: new manniquin appeared not only uncannily lifelike, but also closely
Speaker 1: resembled Esparza's deceased daughter, who died young before her wedding day.
Speaker 1: So was the mannikin, a nicknamed La Pascualita, actually the
Speaker 1: mummified body of the shop owner's daughter. The legend goes
Speaker 1: that the mother had her daughter embalmed so that she
Speaker 1: could keep her daughter near and dear to her. Prower said,
Speaker 1: there are various supposed causes of death of Pasquala's daughter,
Speaker 1: most of them related to bites and stings from venomous bugs,
Speaker 1: or suicide due to her mother not approving of the
Speaker 1: impending marriage. A storyteller's point to supposed signs such as
Speaker 1: the unusual features of her mask like face and incredibly
Speaker 1: detailed hands, including fingernails, palm lines, and veins. It's especially
Speaker 1: startling to find in a small local shop. Some stories
Speaker 1: go so far as to say that Lapascualita is not
Speaker 1: just the daughter's body mummified, but a ghost who comes
Speaker 1: alive in the bridal store at night. It's easy to
Speaker 1: see how the story that this is not just a
Speaker 1: bridal mannequin but a corpse bride has taken off and
Speaker 1: created a life of its own. There's no denying that
Speaker 1: the figure has eerie, realistic features that make her look
Speaker 1: like more than just a mannequin. Prower said, Lapasqualita's realism
Speaker 1: is what makes her stand out from the mannekins of
Speaker 1: the day, with the hands and veins being super detailed,
Speaker 1: and supposedly her eyes are rumored to be the kind
Speaker 1: that follow you and seem to be looking at you
Speaker 1: if you move around the room. However, although the legend
Speaker 1: is fun, it's far fetched to think that this is
Speaker 1: an actual embalmed corpse. A Preserving such a thing for
Speaker 1: almost a century would take constant work and require special
Speaker 1: conditions to avoid deterioration. A storefront window exposed to the
Speaker 1: intense heat of the sun is far from an ideal
Speaker 1: condition for maintaining an embalmed corpse for starters, and Prower
Speaker 1: would know, since he is a licensed mortuary professional. He explained,
Speaker 1: there are techniques to embalm a person standing up, but
Speaker 1: embalming doesn't preserve a corpse forever. To have an embalmed
Speaker 1: corpse on display in the window of a small family
Speaker 1: owned business, day in and day out, exposed to the
Speaker 1: hot desert sun and human interaction would take a toll
Speaker 1: on the corpse and it definitely wouldn't stay so fresh
Speaker 1: after being on display for over ninety some years now.
Speaker 1: If doubts about La Pascualita are lingering in anyone's mind,
Speaker 1: Prower put the nail in the coffin of this shop
Speaker 1: window legend. Quote. As a licensed mortuary professional who has
Speaker 1: seen and worked with many corpses, I can guarantee that
Speaker 1: there is no way that mannequin is a corpse. Like
Speaker 1: lots of good folk and urban legends, this one has
Speaker 1: the key ingredients of a lack of verifiable historical information
Speaker 1: and a fantastic explanation that's more tantalizing than the mundane one. Plus,
Speaker 1: there's another likely reason that the story of the real
Speaker 1: life corpse bride in the shop window continues. It's an
Speaker 1: excellent marketing tool for this local dress shop. Researcher Teresa Cordova,
Speaker 1: now the director of a community arts and culture space
Speaker 1: in New Mexico called Las Pistoles, wrote about La Pascualita
Speaker 1: in her twenty twelve University of New Mexico dissertation thesis.
Speaker 1: She visited the shop where the bri al mannequin stands,
Speaker 1: explained her research objectives, and was granted an appointment to
Speaker 1: talk with the manager. But when she came back for
Speaker 1: the scheduled meeting a few days later, she realized she
Speaker 1: had been stood up. A store clerk eventually told her
Speaker 1: that there would not be an interview because the owners
Speaker 1: claimed it would bring bad luck. She wrote in her thesis,
Speaker 1: I left the store and realized how the story of
Speaker 1: Pascualita was the dress shop's marketing tool in a city
Speaker 1: with multiple wedding dress shops. The owner and public relations
Speaker 1: director viewed my study as negative publicity. Determined to find
Speaker 1: more information about La Pascualita and prove her existence, Cordova
Speaker 1: sought out archives at the city church and was told
Speaker 1: the story was only a legend. She wrote, I could
Speaker 1: not find any record of her life in the archives
Speaker 1: because she did not in fact exist. I was unable
Speaker 1: to rely on any historical archives, written obituaries, or church
Speaker 1: documents in order to reconstruct the life and death of
Speaker 1: La Pascualita. Denying interviews about the corpse in the shop
Speaker 1: window seems to be a good marketing strategy and one
Speaker 1: that maintains the intrigue and mystery of lapask Kalita. Prower said.
Speaker 1: It keeps the legend alive, keeps their business in business,
Speaker 1: and keeps a little more magic here in our mundane world.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article LAPAs Kalita Bridal
Speaker 1: shop mannequin or Embalmed Corpse on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written
Speaker 1: by Lauren David. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart
Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com, and it
Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.