The girls could not watch television, read magazines, or listen to the radio. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. You will be cursed. Through the course of her interviews, she learned that Villa de las Niñas had actually been an escape from deeper horrors outside its walls. So was cheating. [Spoilers] Your email address will not be published. She knew she could handle this. She looked not unlike the students at Girlstown: She had black hair that fell to her shoulders and almond-colored skin — the sort of complexion that is commonly called “mestiza.” She said she felt compelled to bring the girls back to reality. “I noticed that when she talked about these things, she got better. It was as though the school had sought to sever each girl’s ties to the outside world from the moment they arrived. Abid Rahman, Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. In the fall of 2003, the nuns offered her a spot on the bus for Villa de las Niñas. What a fascinating story and lavishly illustrated. EP 450 - The Haunting Of Girlstown. “What is Ouija?” she asked. But gradually, through hours of sitting down with Loa Zavala, the girls began to improve. Today we take a look at one story: The case of a mysterious illness that struck and all-girls school in Mexico. “It was beside the Lord.”, Loa Zavala was trained to stay calm. ‘‘Maria was burning, surrounded by flames, and laughed as she told us that we would be the next, that it was our fault because we accused her,” Loa Zavala quoted one girl in her report. “It started like pricks, and my legs hurt, like they screeched,” she recalls. Her lower body became wracked with pain. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Jovita passed a math and writing exam and was called in for an interview at her elementary school. Tales of ghosts and apparitions of restless souls were abundant. The story describes an epidemic of mass hysteria with supernatural roots at … https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/21242299/outbreak-girlstown-chalco-world-villages-villa-de-las-ninas, One who is attempting to find out. We’re looking at hundreds here!’”. Some 15 years after the outbreak that terrified everyone involved, this account has been corroborated through firsthand interviews with participants. He has had a solo exhibit at the Type Directors Club. The nuns, who were mostly South Korean, were largely oblivious. Hysteria, even its skeptics concede, is triggered in people in that unknowable physiological bridge between the brain and the “mind.” It is real but not, and a century later, still somewhat dismissed. And she had a growing suspicion of what was happening. Daniel Hernandez is a culture reporter at the Los Angeles Times. The outbreak was frightening, and the promise of Girlstown lifting its wards out of poverty didn’t materialize for her. The bulk of her hours were spent with adolescents experiencing psychosomatic illnesses. Many came from broken families and experienced abuse.