The Prince of Gobiado

    In Pueblo Nuevo, Jinotega, in the mountains of northern Nicaragua, the locals insist that every Holy Tuesday or Thursday and five minutes before midnight, the chilling spirit of a horseback rider descends from El Gobiado Hill. The mission of this eerie specter is to seek out a woman who is about to give birth and steal the unborn child.

According to the locals, El Gobiado or the Prince of Gobiado as some call him, made a pact with the devil long ago when he was alive, and now, every year, his duty is to search for newborns to deliver them as sacrifices. He is heard galloping down, wearing his black cape, terrorizing animals, women, and workers in his path. Dominated by their fears and the tales they have heard since childhood, people seek refuge behind the closed door of their darkened homes. Every year it is heard that the rider descends until he reaches a famous farm. There, he enters the main hall of the lonely property to meet with the demon who awaits him in the form of a serpent. After a certain ritual, he leaves the house and the serpent turns into a huge sow that begins to spin around until it opens a hole in the ground that swallows him completely. El Gobiado enters the hole where he will remain submerged halfway and then deposit the creatures he has stolen, and surely their parents have not had time to baptize. His mission has been fulfilled, his life perpetuated.