Scream Queens: La Pascualita

“La Pascualita,” a mannequin in a bridal shop in Chihuahua, Mexico, has attracted hundreds of visitors and inspired numerous stories, songs, and Internet musings since she was first installed in 1930. According to the legend, she is actually the embalmed corpse of the original shop owner’s daughter, who died of a spider bite shortly before her wedding night.

For Further Reading: 

• Atlas Obscura: La Pascualita
• Cortometraje: La Pascualita
• Reuters (via Banderas News): Riddle of "Corpse Bride" Draws Crowds
• Recordando Nuestra Gente: Ritual Memorialization Along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro

October is the perfect time to delve into all things spooky. So this month, we're talking about the women who give us goosebumps. Some are real-life creators of spine-chilling works of fiction. Others are the subjects of frightening folklore. Either way, these Scream Queens are sure to give you a scare.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones, Abbey Delk, Hannah Bottum, Lauren Willams, and Adrien Behn. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.

Original theme music composed by Brittany Martinez.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello for Wonder Media Network.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Wamanica. October is the
perfect time to delve into all things spooky. So this
month we're talking about women who give us goosebumps. Some
are real life creators of spine chilling works of fiction.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Others are the subjects.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Of frightening folklore. Either way, these screen queens are sure
to give you a scare. Today a mannequin whose eerily
lifelike appearance spawned decades of rumors that maybe she was
actually unembalmed corpse. She peered out at passers by from
the front window of a bridle shop in Mexico for
decades until just a few years ago. Let's delve into

(00:42):
the legend of La Pascualita.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
In Chihuahua, Mexico.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
The city's shopping district has a bridal store that dates
back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Back then,
La Papoular was run by Pascuala Esparza. She would regularly
update the windows of the shop to showcase the latest
in bridal fashions. So on March twenty fifth, nineteen thirty,
that's what Pasquala did. She put a new mannequin in

(01:09):
the window, and she dressed her in the perfect spring gown.
In the bustling downtown shopping district, people would slow to
admire Pasquala's ever changing windows, and day after day, as
people passed by, they started to notice something a little
different about this display.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
It wasn't just her romantic gown.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Passers by saw how this mannequin was far more elaborate
than the ones they'd seen in the window of La
Papular before. Her glassy eyes peered out at them, real
hair fell out from under her lacy veil, and where
other mannequins were pale, this new one had a blushed
quality to her skin tone. Not only was this new

(01:54):
mannequin far more realistic than her predecessors, she also bore
an uncanny resemblance to someone they knew, someone they'd seen before,
the shopkeeper's daughter. We don't know her name, but according
to the myth, Pasquala's daughter was engaged as her wedding
day approached, tragedy struck. She was supposedly bitten by a

(02:18):
black widow spider, or perhaps it was a scorpion sting.
Either way, the beautiful bride to be ded just short
of the altar, and now her likeness appeared to be
in the window of the bridle shop. Her mom was running.
So did Pascuala take her daughter's body carefully, embalm her,

(02:40):
dress her in the latest wedding fashion, and place her
in the window of the shop where dozens of people
walked by each day. That's what people were accusing her of.
Pasquala faced harassment and threats. The police even reportedly investigated
the rumors. They said they found no evidence that the
mannequin was human. Even so, the mannequin in her window

(03:02):
had taken on a life of its own. What started
as harassment turned into a morbid fascination. La Pascualita, or
the Little Pascuala, became a local obsession, then a national one,
and even international.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
People began flocking.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
To Pascuala's little bridle shop to see the supposed corpse
bride and to try to determine for themselves if the
stories were myth or reality. In one tale, a French
magician used his power to bring Lapascualita back to life.
He said he brought the corpse bride out of her
perch in the shop for a night out on the town.
Shopkeepers reported seeing La Pascualita's eyes follow them around the

(03:41):
store while they worked. Some even said she changed positions overnight,
that they would come in for their shifts in the
morning only to find that she'd moved. Some employees were
too spooked to touch her. Even when the shop changed hands,
the tradition of changing the windows with the latest fashions remained.
Workers at La Popular changed Lapascualita's outfit as much as

(04:02):
twice a week, and while other mannequins came and went,
she remained. To this day, there's still a rich dialogue
about the details Lapascualita's hair, her eyes, her hands. Some
even say she has Verico's veins. Others drop parallels to
the preserved corpses of the Soviet revolutionary Vladimir Lenin and
Chinese leader maoze Dong. Morticians note that it would be

(04:25):
impossible for a corpse to stay so well preserved in
the Mexican heat, especially with all that handling, but people
still want to believe. They cite all of these details
as proof that La Pascualita is not a mannequin, but
a well preserved human corpse. The corpse of the bereed
shopkeeper's daughter whether or not Lapascualita was ever alive herself.

(04:51):
Her legend lives on nearly a century from when she
first appeared in the window. Residents revere her and say
she grants wish. She's become a tourist destination. She's the
subject of countless news articles, radio stories, songs, fan fiction,
YouTube videos, Reddit threads, and even a short film. In

(05:12):
twenty twenty four, it was reported that La Pascolita had
been removed from her post. In her place, there's an infoboard.
It's not clear why the mannequet of myths and legends
had been removed from her perch after nearly a century.
All month, we're talking about screen queens. For more information,
find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special

(05:33):
thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Talk to you tomorrow