La Tulevieja
By rivers in Panama, people say a woman with a face full of holes and feet like a bird's searches the water for the child she lost.
What was reported
The Tulevieja is one of the best-known figures in Panamanian folklore. In most versions she was a young woman who lost her baby in a river and was cursed for it, turned into a creature with a pitted face, long hair, wings and clawed feet.
She is said to wander the riverbanks at night crying for the child, and in some tellings to try to take babies left alone. Parents used the story to keep children away from rivers after dark.
Explanations offered
She belongs to a family of weeping-woman legends across Latin America, alongside La Llorona. Folklorists see her as a warning tale, about the dangers of rivers and about mothers' duties, rather than a report of something seen.
- When
- Told for generations
- Where
- Los Santos, Panama
- Witnesses
- Panamanian and Costa Rican folklore
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.