A Continent of Living Spirits: 6 Ghost Stories From Across Latin America

When my Abuela died in early 2021, I couldn't say goodbye to her in person. The day that she died, I felt her at the end of my bed. I was twisted in guilt. I was asleep, but it was a flimsy sleep, not deep. She was laughing at me. “What are you crying for? I'm here.” Years later, I wonder if what I perceived as a “visit” was a yearning. Statistics say that two in five Americans believe in ghosts. Not a small amount. I was surprised by this, considering that whenever I speak about ghosts with friends, they are skeptical. People quote memory being unreliable, the heart being capricious, or even emotions playing tricks on you, but I have never seen it this way. Back on Colombia's Caribbean Coast, I grew up with an abundance of ghost stories. When I would go to the hair salon, the hairdresser would cut my hair while telling me a ghost story; other patrons wouldn't question it or ask me if I was scared or haunted by the experience. Instead, they would share their own. Ghost stories were an invitation to share and explore the deep threads that were our family stories, the excavations of our lineage, and who we were. To question them was no fun. It was more fun to learn the details. Sometimes, the ghosts are strangers, faces, or bodies that we see because they're haunting a house or lingering in a property that belonged to them, but sometimes, they're the echo of a loved one's spirit, wanting to deliver a message or simply keep us company. But is this connection to ghosts real? The world of ghosts in Latin America is extensive, from a rich Latin American tradition of magical realism in literature (Gabriel García Marquez, Carlos Fuentes, Isabel Allende, etc) to art, to telenovelas and movies. I was always attracted and intrigued by how the ghost was always a family member; someone who returns to deliver a message or to resolve a situation that wasn't dealt with in life. I was also impressed that authors always […]