Horror stories and terrifying places in Lima

Hi everyone! I hope you're all okay, today I want to tell you a little about the horror stories which have been stirred up in my city: Lima.

When I was small, I remember that the story which scared me the most was without a doubt the story about "Maria Marimacha"; a story which has emerged from Lima and which makes you, at least when you're a child, die from fear as well as the story of the Matusita house and the other places which I will tell you about little by little.

There's no doubt that each city has its own horror stories and Lima, which is such a big city where a lot of things have happened!

Without further ado, let's start!

1. The story of Maria Marimacha - "Give me my heart back"



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It was said that Maria Marimacha was a little girl who was sent by her mum one day to byt meat and oil to make some delicious anticuchos (shish kebab) at home. Anticuchos are like shish kebabs made from cow heart which is then seasoned with Peruvian ingredients and is accompanied by potatoes, sauces and corn on the cob.

Maria Marimacha had to go to buy the things that her mum told her to get but for some reason, on her way to the shops, Maria found some little friends in the park who convinced her to play marbles.



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The marbles were like some fiberglass balls which perhaps today in Lima and other parts of the world, have disappeared because now kids play with tablets, playstations and cell phones. Once upon a time, the thing to do amongst kids was to play marbles and everytime a marble ricocheted with another, one was left with the one of its competitor and so someone would collect them. This game was one of the games which little boys used to play, wehreas the girls would plays jacks or cat's cradle and it's from that which the name "Maria Marimacha" derives from - the combination of names, so "Marimacha" is a play on words to say "machona" (butch/tomboy). Honestly, I don't think that it would be at all bad if a girl were to play marbles and a boy to play with jacks but anyway, that is the context from back in the day and this urban legend from Lima stated to be told by kids in their neighbourhoods... Back to the story!

Maria started to play with the marbles and she was unlucky as she lost the bet and it was because of this that she decided to carry on betting with the money which her mum gave her so that she could buy the cow's heart and oil, but once again, Maria lost all the money which her mum had given her. What could she do now? Maria didn't want to go back home empty handed so she came up with an interesting idea... Go to the cemetery to find a heart.



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So, Maria went to a cemetery to dig up a coffin (a man who had died recently) and she pulled out the heart to pass it off as the cow's heart that her mum was waiting for (I obviously don't believe this now but put yourself in the shoes of a 5 year old child who has a vivid imagination! ).

What could she do to buy the oil that was missing? Simple, Maria Marimacha found a plastic bottle and urinated in it to make her mum believe that it was oil, so with the main ingredients which she had to get for lunch, Maria went home thinking that nobody would discover her mischievous ways.

Eating the delicious anticuchos:

Maria got home without any problems and she gave her mum the human heart and bottle of urine and she didn't notice any difference so the family ate delicious anticuchos that day made with the heart of a dead man, however one of the people at the table wouldn't eat the meal and started to complain that they had a stomach ache, and guess who it was... None other than Maria Marimacha!



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That day, Maria lied that she felt bad and she went to her room to "relax", perhaps in that moment she was regretting her decision, maybe if she had told the truth about spending the money that her mum gave her, she would have just been punished and nothing else would have happened. But as they say, once you've lied, there is no way back and Maria continued with the lie, poor girl!

Time to leave the house:

That same day, Maria Marimacha's family decided to go out, her dad, mum and her sister but not her because she "felt ill". They left her alone in her bedroom, if she had wanted to go with them, she would have had to tell the truth but she didn't dare and continued to fake being ill.

Here comes the visitor, to reclaim what is his:

Maria Marimacha was lying down in her room thinking that finally everything had turned out how she wanted it to, so despite losing the game of marbles and not being able to eat that day, nobody would discover what she had done. However, this was not the case as someone would come to reclaim something that Maria Marimacha had taken.

When Maria was in her house, she heard that someone had come in through the door and despite the fact that she hadn't seen, she could figure out who it was - it was none other than the dead man whose heart she stole. The dead guy said to her, "Maria Marimacha, give me back my heart... Maria Marimacha, give me back my heart".

What could Maria do in that moment? As I said earlier, there was no one in her house and it was because of this that Maria quickly decided to hide in the wardrobe in her room. She hid herself between her clothes thinking that he wouldn't come in. Breathing slowly, so slowly so she wouldn't reveal herself, trembling she started to regret what she had done.

I'm taking what is yours, but was once mine:



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However, Maria's strategy didn't work well, the dead man could tell easily that Maria was hiding in the wardrobe and he continued to walk slowly, coming closer and closer until he got to her bedroom.

When the dead man entered Maria's bedroom, he continued to say "Maria Marimacha, give me back my heart" and he was repeating each one of the words in such a way it would make anyone's hair stand up on end leaving Maria terrified hiding between her clothing in her wardrobe - her fate was already sealed.

The dead man opened the wardrobe and found Maria. The first thing he did was grab her arms so Maria was trapped in the arms of her future executioner. The dead man grabbed Maria with more and more strength and in a single motion, snatched out her heart, then feeling satisfied with what he managed to get, the dead man decided to return to the cemetery leaving Maria's body covered in blood in her bedroom.

That same night, Maria's family returned home and when they went in her room, they found her laying on the floor without her heart. Maria's mum screamed a terrible scream in despair and that's how the horror story from Lima ends.

This is one of the stories which exists in my city and the moral of this horrible story is "don't trick your parents" because if Maria had bought the things that she had been told to buy, none of this would have happened.

Now, we're going on to the next story from Lima which is better being a story set in a place which is in the centre of Lima.

2. La casa Matusita: (the Matusita House)



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I have to admit to you, that when I was a child I was seriously a really scared kid and everything related to scary stories left me not being able to sleep and it was in one of the many things that are told when I came to hear about a house in the centre of Lima where there was suffering, where there used to be ghosts and anyone who went in there didn't come out the same once they had spent a minimum of a night there.

This is a house that could go unnoticed because on the first floor there are galleries but on the second floor which is completely empty today and it has even been the motive behind a Peruvian horror film based in the Matusita house.

Without any doubt, the Matusita house, for a lot of people from Lima, is the house where the large majority of paranormal stories from the city have taken place. This house has had various owners and horror stories have been generated by some of its owners, for example, there's a story of a woman who bought the house and was one of the first owners and who was sentenced for witchcraft during the colonial times in Lima and so, she was condemned to be burned alive by the holy Inquisition in Lima. In her agony, she put a hex on the house promising to take revenge on any future owner of the house who decided to carry on living in the house which belonged to her and only her, so that nobody would dare to live in the house on Jirón Washington & Av. España.

However, much later, other owners arrived - one of them was a guy who owned a business and treated his employees badly and it was because of this that one day, the employees no longer put up with their boss' mistreatment and they decided to kill him.



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Another story about the house says that an Asian family came to live in the house - a husband, his wife and their kids. One day, the dad went out to work as always but he came back a lot earlier than usual and when he went in the house he found his wife cheating on him with another man. In his desperation, the husband got a knife and killed his wife and her lover.

Then, after having committed this terrible crime, he noticed that his kids had seen the whole thing, so in fury and without mercy, he killed his kids as they reminded him of the woman who cheated on him. When he came back to sanity, he realised the terrible things that he had done and without thinking twice, he committed suicide with the same knife he used to kill his wife, her lover and the kids and so, everyone ended up dead in this macabre story.

What is the true Matusita story?

There are a lot of stories which have come to light because of the house and the urban legend of Lima has been twisted and turned, so you're going to hear a lot of versions of the story. I told you what I could remember in my life of Lima but it's better that you take away the illusion from now on as it is also said that this urban legend was made up with the intention to make the United States Embassy buuilding, which is located opposite the house, more safe, crossing the road, with the aim that no more people would be able to observe it and so they feel more secure.

The last and current owners of the Matusita house live in another district in Lima called Lince, they have had some interviews (which you can see on Youtube by clicking here) in order to falsify the urban legend of the Matusita house and to say that none of the horror stories actually happened.

To see the Peruvian film which was made about the house, click here.

3. La pierda Horadada de Barrios Altos (The pierced stone of Barrios Altos)



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This is a stone which has a hole in the middle of it and which rests on a corner of Barrios Altos between Junin and Cangallo street. It's a stone which dates back to colonial times, this stone could have gone unnoticed but thanks to "Peruvian traditions" by Ricardo Palma, the urban legend of Lima is now known but it does not exist. It is said that the Devil came past the stone and pierced it when the parade for Señor de Los Milagros (Lord of the Miracles) was going on. The parade goes on during October, also known as the purple month thanks to the traditional dress of the faithful.



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The stone is a meter in height and around 35 centimetres wide as well as being a dark colour. On the other side of this area of Lima, it's a little busy so it's better to come by the mornings alone to see this stone. There you will find a plaque which tells the story of the stone as Ricardo Palma did.

4. The Pavilion of Suicides in the Cemetery of Presbítero Matías Maestro:

Inside the first cemetery in Lima, there is a pavilion known as the pavilion of suicides. In this pavilion, there are different people from Lima who are buried who were linked to witchcraft and with super natural things. One of these things is the tombstone of a woman called Gregoria Camacho who is also known as "The Bad Witch". What's special about her tombstone is that it is the only one which has been recorded to have a skull with two bones in the shape of an X and it is said this is where people into witchcraft go to perform some sort of ritual.



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In the same pavilion of the suicides, you will be able to hear many more stories such as the one about the Asian Barber who worked on Capón Street (Chinese neighbourhood in Lima). This barber killed his clients and finally seeing that he was obviously guilty, he decided to kill himself before being captured by the police.

Also, the pavilion encloses the love story of Romeo and Juliet, so for example, it is told that on two of the gravestones, there lies a couple of cousins who hopelessly fell in love, but their family was against the relationship, so it was because of this that they decided to take their own lives by drinking poison. Then their family finally decided to bury them together in the cemetery in Lima.

Regarding the cemetery I have already made another publication talking about the magnificent sculptures and the myriad of illustrious characters you can find in it. You can see the publication here.

Conclusion

So as you can see, Lima is a city which locks away many stories, some which have originated from the colonial times, other which have been told in more recent times and other which have already been disappearing thanks to the modernisation that has been going on in the city of Lima.

I hope that you have enjoyed these sinister stories from Lima. Thanks for reading! Until next time.

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