Witches and werewolves are creatures of the night feared everywhere — there are Argentine versions adapted from European folklore. While the country doesn’t traditionally celebrate Halloween, there is a wealth of centuries-old local legends and mythological creatures that keep people up at night even today.

“Mythological beings in Argentina are not usually classified in evil or diabolical terms, like in Christian tradition. Here, good and evil are relative,” writer and anthropologist Adolfo Colombres told the Herald.

Colombres wrote several books on Argentine popular culture and mythological creatures, such as Argentine Mythological Beings (2001) and Supernatural Beings from Argentine Popular Culture (1984).

Here are some of the most popular Argentine mythological creatures.

El pombero

The pombero is a kind of goblin of Guaraní origin, very popular in the provinces of Corrientes, Misiones and Chaco, according to Colombres’ book Supernatural Beings from Argentine Popular Culture.

This creature is usually described as a tall, thin, and hairy man who wears a straw hat. If it catches children hunting birds during siesta or nap time, it will take them and leave them far away from their homes — hurt or often even dead, so the stories say. In Chaco, people believe that it sucks the blood from children until they are dead, and then hangs them from trees.

To be on the pombero’s good side, you can leave some tobacco leaves outside your home for it to chew on. Cigarettes or even money are a good option too. To keep it away, put garlic cloves in the corners of your house.

Also, the pombero is very silent when it walks. So be wary, or it may catch you.

El familiar

El familiar is similar to the demonic hellhound, an ally of the devil. It is big, black and has terrifying, flaming eyes — akin to Hades’ dog Cerberus but with just one head. Also known as perro familiar, it feeds from human flesh and is popular in Salta, Catamarca and mostly Tucumán, home to Argentina’s most important sugar mills.

Local beliefs hold that gruesome sacrifices made in honor of familiares are behind the success of the sugar industry in Tucumán. 

“Owners of [sugar cane] fields or sugar mills (apparently the only ones who adopted these animals) will have to provide one worker a year, at minimum,” Colombres says in his 1984 book.

“Sometimes, workers left their jobs after growing tired of being mistreated [by their bosses], or being paid insufficient salaries, and many disappeared,” either because they returned to their homes far away and were never heard from again, or because they died in the Tucumán jungle on their way home, Colombres told the Herald. “Those disappearances gave place to a legend that said their employers fed them to the familiar. Some employers used this myth as a warning against workers who misbehaved.”

Witches and el lobisón

Yes, Argentina has witches too. They live in North-Western provinces like Santiago del Estero, La Rioja, Catamarca and Salta. On Friday nights, they fly on their brooms to the salamancas, caves where the Devil — often called Supay — lives. There, they perform demonic rituals.

“Before entering the salamancas, they have to spit on an upside-down cross which is found near the entrance,” Colombres said. “Then, they carry out a ‘dark mass,’ which is a transgression of all things benign.” It is said that many singers and musicians go to salamancas to make sacrifices and deals with the Devil to be successful in the artistic industry. “When dawn breaks and roosters sing, the witches flee, because they are enemies of light.”

In many provinces, tradition says that the seventh consecutive daughter born in a family is a witch. The seventh consecutive son in a family, on the other hand, is a lobisón, the Argentine version of a werewolf.

This myth is so ingrained in popular culture in Argentina that there is even a 1974 law that includes it. It stipulates that the “witch” or “werewolf” child is to have the incumbent president as their godparent. Yes, the president. The aim is to protect the seventh daughter or seventh son because out of fear of them turning into evil creatures, they were often shunned by society or even killed. Thanks to this law, the child also receives economic assistance to ensure their education. However, the law didn’t create the concept — it only formalized a tradition started in the early 20th century.

Featured image: the pombero and ‘el familiar’, as featured in Supernatural Beings from Argentine Popular Culture (1984).