Are you sure you want to bring that home?

Odd finds at a mercado in Mexico City.

I was walking around a mercado called La Lagunilla in Mexico City, when I spotted something familiar an a makeshift rug at a stand by the side of the street.

Now, at first glance, you might be like, alright man… it looks like a lot of old junk. And you might be right.

Now, I’ve been wanting one of those wooden skeleton things (diablitos is what I came to know them as), and I had been searching for years. A photographer in Cuenca, Ecuador had them in his studio for me to pose with for a photoshoot for Spotify.

But alright, the point is, that wasn’t what I was looking at! Look at those little drawings, zoom in if you can. They are hand-drawn sketches of little events.

My sister had given me one after her trip to Oaxaca and I had it at my old studio in Los Angeles. It was of a person standing in a room with an apparition floating in front of it, what appeared to be a floating woman in white.

But check these out. They are either ghost encounters, or when la virgen appeared in front of people. At the bottom, they have a short description about the event.

The one on the right talks about how they were able to escape the grasp of the ghost of a bride. They say that they are grateful for being able to walk away from it.

These things are called retablos tradicionales or retablos Mexicanos, where they hand draw an extraordinary event, a miracle, or an encounter with a ghost. I always thought they were children’s drawings, but in reality, it’s just regular people (non-artists) making this drawing on metal or wood as a way to give thanks.

They usually place them in sanctuaries, churches, or capillas as a way to thank those saints.

The retablo was being sold for $150 MXN, so about 8 USD. Pretty expensive for what it is, but vendors around there have gotten used to selling things at a markup price because of the amount of tourists and curious people from other parts of the city who are willing to pay more just because it came from there.

At one point, that market used to be a simple local market with everyday things, but then TikTok came around and made it what it is today. It’s still cool, though. They even have full bars with DJs and stuff among the tents. And 10 dollar sandwiches if you’re into that.

If you’re wondering if I bought it, no I didn’t. There were some pretty strange things there that there was no way I was going to bring home. For example, there was a lamp with a wooden figure of the devil, with goat legs and horns on its head and everything that when you would turn it on, it would cast the silhouette of it on your wall.

I’m good.

I don’t normally believe in vibes and energies in objects, but man, some of those things just gave off something uneasy about them. I’d rather not risk it.

Anyway, I hope you had a good weekend and you got to check out the latest episode of Paranormal Club! Today I recorded a video on dark stories from Mexican ranchos that will be coming out next week.

Keep it scary,

Edwin Covarrubias