El Sombreron (Based upon a Guatemalan folktale)

Long ago in the land of Guatemala, there was a young girl named Susana; a very beautiful girl with large brown eyes and long dark hair and because she liked to dream, she would often sit outside and gaze up at the stars.

One evening, however, while Susana was looking up at the sky, a strange short man appeared beside her who dressed entirely in black, wore a very large black sombrero, a belt with a buckle of shining silver round his waste and played upon a silver guitar.

He was El Sombreron, a kind of fairy or demon that liked to seduce young women especially girls with large eyes and long hair.

He played Susana a beautiful song of love in spanish, "Te amo y nunca te dejo mi amor", he sang, which means "I love you and will never let you go, my love" and when Susana heard it she became enchanted by the song and thought that she was in love with the strange man.

But then, hearing the sound of the music, Susanas strict, god fearing parents came out and, worried that their daughter was talking to a strange man, dragged her inside their house, forbidding her to talk to the stranger.

El Sombreron did not go away however, instead he tied his pack of black mules to a post at the front of the house and continued to play his guitar and sing beneath Susanas window.

Only she could hear the music now though, hear it inside her head and heart, driving her mad with love, so mad that she could not sleep and would not eat and, over time, the girl because she didn't eat started to waste away.

Her parents tried everything to remove El Sombrerons spell. They took her to the priest and he blessed her with holy water and they cut her hair short so that she would be less attractive to the demon but nothing they did seemed to work and they couldn't untie El sombrerons mules from the post of their house either, his knot was impossible to loosen and whatever they tried to cut the rope with, it would break.

But then a boy named Pedro, a poor but very fine and upstanding young man, who was deeply in love with Susana, because he could not bear to see her waste away, was determined that he would free her from El Somberon.

But he did not know how and so he wen't to look for La Llorona the weeping ghost who searsces, on moonlit nights, for the bodies of her drowned children in the river; he took her a beautiful silk handkerchief to dry her tears.

"Perhaps", he reasoned, "If I give her the handkerchief, she will not try to drown me".

Walking about by the river in the moonlight, Pedro listened for the sound of a woman crying and then, suddenly, by the edge of the river, he saw a woman bent and searching in the water, weeping and wailing for her lost children.

Bravely approaching her, he held out the silken handkerchief and, at first, when the ghost saw him she was going to drown him in the river but then, when she saw the handkerchief she snatched hold of it and smiled.

"Thank you, senor", she said, drying her eyes, "You are the first man in a long time who has been kind to me. Most people are just afraid of me but why are you not afraid?".

Pedro told La Llorona about El Sombrero and how he had enchanted Susana and the ghost told Pedro that he must challenge El Sombrero to a fight.

"But how can I fight a demon?", asked Pedro.

So then La Llorona told him what to do and the next day Pedro went up to the post to which El Sombrero had tied his mules and he shouted "El Sombreron, I challenge you to fight me".

Immediately, infront of the young man, El Sombreron appeared, leaning against a wall and he laughed.

"Do you know who I am?", he said, "How do you hope to fight me?".

"I will fight you", said Pedro bravely, "And I'll beat you".

So then, El Sombreron took off his huge sombrero and Pedro saw that he had horns beneath it, as large as a bulls and, getting down on all fours, El Sombreron charged towards Pedro, flames shooting out of his nostrils as he snorted like a bull and a mad look in his eyes.

But then Pedro ran, he ran as fast as he could with El Sombreron chasing behind and because El Sombreron was so fast, sometimes one of his long horns would prick Pedro but this only made the young man run faster but then, infront of him Pedro saw the Ceiba tree, a very ancient and sacred tree and just as he was getting close to it, he leapt suddenly to one side and, because El Sombreron was chasing after him so fast he couldn't stop in time and went crashing into the tree, getting both his long horns stuck in its trunk.

"Let me go", he shouted angrily to the tree but because the tree was sacred, El Sombreron could not free himself from it, no matter how he struggled.

"I will cut you lose", said Pedro to El Sombreron, "But only if you swear upon the holy book that you will free Susanna from your spell, leave and promise never to return here again".

El Sombreron put his hand upon a bible and burned his hand print into its cover but he swore to do what Pedro had asked and a demon cannot break an oath sworn upon the bible, then Pedro use his axe to cut the demon free and, picking up his giant sombrero, he and his pack of black mules disappeared as fast as the wind through the desert.

And when he did the spell that his silver guitar had placed upon Susanas heart was broken and she forgot all about her mad love for El Sombreron and, not only that, when Susanas parents heard what he had done to free their daughter they knew that he was a fine, upstanding young man who loved Susana and would care for her and so they consented to him marrying her and Pedro and Susana both lived happily ever after.