Huenchula
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La Huenchula, Cucao or Chirena is a character belonging to the mythology of the Chiloé archipelago (Chile).
Description and origin of the myth[edit]
It is said that Huenchula was a girl from the Cucao area (west coast of the Big Island of Chiloé) who had love affairs with an aquatic being, who was kidnapped by him and later turned into guardian of the fertility of the ocean. There are several versions of the story, which differ in numerous elements, such as the relationship that existed between the girl and her parents, between her and the fantastic being who took her away or the fate of the baby they had, but they all place the facts in the area of Lake Cucao and in the case of the versions known today, it is said that it happened specifically in Chanquín, on the shores of Lake Huelde. A Huilliche myth about the origin of Lake Cucao that was recorded in the 18th century, 2 is seen as the first version of the story.
At the end of the 1760s, a Jesuit missionary, who could be2 Segismundo Guell, recorded a myth about how Lake Cucao originated in his Brief and Modern News of the Chiloé Archipelago, of its terrain, customs of the Indians, missions, written by a missionary from those islands in 1769 and 70. The myth explains that in another time a young Huilliche named Cucao used to go every day to wash on the shore of the Ocean and that there she had encounters with a "merman" (wekufe) that carried her out to sea. However, one day her mother rebuked her for her love with that being and she made it known to her lover, who, confused, became enraged and knocked down hills to make a lagoon where both could meet without being seen. . For Renato Cárdenas, a researcher on the culture of Chiloé, this would be the first version of the history of the Huenchula.
Legend[edit]
According to legend, the Huenchula was a young huilliche born from the union of a machi, called Huenchur, and a woodcutter. The family lived on the Pacific coast of the Isla Grande de Chiloé, in present-day Chanquín (commune of Chonchi), a place located between Lake Huelde and [[Lake Cucao] ] and the girl was recognized for her beauty in the surroundings.
As part of her housework, the young woman had to carry water from a well near Lake Huelde. One day, when she returned from her daily work, from driving water from the nearby lake, she told her mother her dislike for this work; not because of the effort that she demanded of him, but because of her fear that she was producing the presence of a rare animal, with certain forms of sea lions and men, who contemplated her from the waters, more and more insistently. Her mother had warned him that she should not look at herself in the well, as it could be that she did not see her reflection, but that Millalobo took her appearance from her to observe her without being noticed. Huenchur told her that the Millalobo does not usually go to earth either, since this change causes terrible tremors in her body, as if she were feeling a great cold. However, she did not obey her mother and gazed at her face in the waters. In other versions of the story, she sees that the Millalobo watches her from the well, but she does not stop looking because she is attracted to him.
One day she no longer returned to her house with the water and when her mother worried about her, she went to look for her at the well, but only found the abandoned container and the troubled waters. Supposing that her daughter had been stolen by the Millalobo and taken to the bottom of the sea, the woman began to lament and gave her up.
After a year, the Huenchula arrived at her mother's house with a bundle in her arms and greeted her naturally as if he had never been separated from her and telling her that he had married a fish. She told him that she had guests to eat, very important people who were friends with her husband and that she would come out to greet them. She then asked her mother to beautify the house for them and that while she was absent she would take care of her bundle, but for no reason to open it. With that said, she left the house.
However, the old woman could not resist her curiosity and unwrapped the bundle of clothes, hoping to find her granddaughter inside, but what she found was a pool of water while a small luminous form that emitted a hiss came out of the house. Warned by the sound, Huenchula returned to the house and rebuked her mother for not having been patient. She told him that now she had missed the opportunity to meet her granddaughter, that her guests were unhappy, and that she would never visit her again. She then she left forever.
Upon reaching the sea, the Huenchula, I empty the contents of the limpet; and she called her husband to tell her what had happened. Her husband, the being known as Millalobo, told her to stop crying since her daughter was not dead, and after saying this, a beautiful young woman named Pincoya emerged; which was the daughter of both. La Huenchula, very happy, went to the side of her husband and her daughter, and so they all went to live in the palace that Millalobo has at the bottom of the sea. As the years passed, Huenchula and Millalobo would have two more children; called Pincoy and Siren.
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