Case file · Folklore / legend
The Trauco
The Trauco is a short, ugly forest man of Chiloé, dressed in plant fibres and carrying a stone axe, whose stare can kill and who seduces young women in the woods.
1914 CE · -42.48, -73.76 · status: legend
The account
Pregnancies outside marriage were traditionally blamed on him, and his partner, the Fiura, is said to cause skin diseases with her breath. The year is approximate, marking early 20th-century collections. The pin marks the woods near Castro.
The sceptical view
Anthropologists see the Trauco as a social device that explained and excused pregnancies outside marriage, and sometimes covered for abuse.