Fern Flower
Published on January 21, 2022

Bienbienes

Regions of expansion

Dominican Republic 1
Dominican Republic

Description

Bienbienes characters from legends Sierra del Baoruco. 

They were described as wild, unpredictable creatures who spoke like ordinary people, but with a kind of frightening grunting or grunting. They didn't wear clothes to cover their naked, short, skinny, deformed and ugly bodies. But they easily climbed trees, rocks and ravines.

The creatures lived in tribes, at night they moved unorganized from one place to another to look for food on peasant land plots. Being very careful, they left false traces so that their hiding places would not be discovered.

They also attacked sleeping residents of cities and painted ominous and incomprehensible messages with blood in the homes of their victims. In the daytime, they hid from human eyes and came out of shelters only at dusk. Legend also says that when someone approaches the territory of bienbienes, they begin to make threatening sounds.

Because of the belief that the bienbienes eat human flesh and entrails, and also use people as sacrifices.

It is believed that the legends turned fugitive African slaves and enslaved Indians into mythical creatures, who fled from sugar factories and gold mines in the 16th century, finding refuge in the mountains and in desert areas. They were cursed by their enslavers and were forced to live in isolation, limiting contact with the outside world.

Bienbienes in popular culture