older couple from Colorado. For the first few days, they seemed to be enjoying the place, but within two weeks they had moved out. The woman said she was being bothered by horrible nightmares, and would awaken with the sense that someone was choking her. Just a few days later, a group of family members and friends from the Chama area came to visit, so my mother offered to put them up at our house while my brother and I slept in Doña Leticia’s house. I must admit I was a bit nervous about entering the house, but my parents reassured me that everything would be fine, and after all my brother would be with me. That night, my brother and I went off to the old witch’s house.My father said he would join us later. We spent the early part of the evening listening to an old radio, but as the night grew darker, I heard a soft crying sound coming from the bedroom. I lowered the volume on the radio to hear better, and we both clearly heard the sound of a baby crying in the bedroom. As I got up to investigate, I saw on the wall of the hallway the shadows of three tall cats—standing upright. As I approached the shadows, they glided across the wall. I stood still. Then I heard what seemed to be an argument among the cats, but they were speaking in women’s voices. I ran back to the living room, grabbed my brother’s hand, and dashed home. I was shaking and sobbing when I reached our house and told my mother, in front of all our visitors, what I had experienced.
My father, his brother, and my godfather decided to spend the night at the old woman’s house. Later that night, I was awakened by my father’s voice. Then he and my mother grabbed blankets and set the men up on the floor of our house. In the morning, my father
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told me the whole story. He said that the three men were joking and preparing their beds when they heard what sounded like a large dog scratching at the front door. My father opened the door slightly, but saw nothing. However, as he turned toward the other men, something large and dark streaked into the house through the partially opened door. All three men saw a flash of black head for the bedroom. As they followed it, they suddenly heard the loud, piercing scream of a woman. “Fuera de mi casa. Fuera de mi casa!” (Out of my house . . . ), she yelled. Then the men saw the dark shadowy figure of a woman materialize and approach them as a cold rush of air pushed them out of the bedroom. They all scrambled out the front door and ran to our house, and that’s when my father’s voice and the loud conversation of the others woke me up. After that night, our family only ventured to Doña Leticia’s house during the day. Unable and unwilling to use the house for family,my parents have rented it several times throughout the years, but inevitably the renters have left. Sometimes they would cite strange happenings, other times they claimed they saw or heard an unknown woman in the house. Once,my parents brought a medicine man from San Juan Pueblo to perform a blessing ceremony on the house. This settled things down for a while. But we’ll never know if Doña Leticia’s presence has been removed because soon after that my parents sold the house to the New Mexico Highway Department and it was razed. I hope the bulldozers destroyed Doña Leticia’s evil presence along with the house. We haven’t heard of any further strange occurrences taking place on the land, so I hope her power has finally gone.
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