Case file · Folklore / legend
El Sombrerón, Antigua Guatemala
El Sombrerón, a tiny man in black with an enormous hat and a guitar who braids the manes of horses and serenades girls until they waste away, was made famous by Miguel Ángel Asturias's 'Leyendas de Guatemala' (1930).
1930 CE · 14.56, -90.73 · status: legend
The account
The legend is set in colonial Santiago de los Caballeros (Antigua). The cure is said to be cutting the girl's hair, which he has braided at night. Asturias, later a Nobel laureate, drew on stories told in Guatemala since at least the 19th century.