La Patasola

Overview

La Patasola ('one foot') is a vampiric forest spirit of Colombian and wider Andean folklore who appears to lone men in the wilderness as a beautiful woman, then reveals her true one-legged, fanged form to feed on their blood and flesh.

Details

Origin:

La Patasola is a creature of Colombian folklore with related traditions in Venezuela and Ecuador. She is most strongly associated with Andean Colombia and adjacent Amazonian and inter-Andean valleys.

Regions:

Andes, Amazonia, Orinoco basin, Colombian inter-Andean valleys

First Reported:

1800s

Full Account

La Patasola is one of the best-known monstrous figures of Colombian folklore, with related variants in Venezuela and Ecuador. She is described as a one-legged woman whose single leg ends in a cleaved bovine-like hoof; in her revealed form she has bulging eyes, a hooked nose, large lips, feline fangs, and a single breast. La Patasola haunts mountain forests, jungle, and other heavily wooded country, appearing chiefly to lone men in the bush at night - hunters, loggers, miners, millers, and animal herders. She first manifests as a beautiful seductive woman, often resembling a man's wife or sweetheart, lures him deeper into the forest, and then drops her disguise to attack and drink his blood. Multiple origin stories explain her condition: in different traditions she is a mother who killed her child, an unfaithful wife mutilated by her husband, or a temptress condemned and burned by villagers. Folklorists also read her as a moral cautionary figure and a protector of the forest against extractive male labor.

Also Known As

• Patasola (Spanish, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador)
• La Mujer de Una Sola Pata (Spanish, Andean Colombia)

Etymology

Origin:

Colombian Spanish, from pata ('foot/leg') + sola ('single', 'only').

Meaning:

'Single leg' / 'one foot'.

First Use:

Documented in Colombian folklore literature of the 20th century; circulates in oral tradition before that.

Timeline

• 1800s — La Patasola circulates in Colombian rural oral tradition as a forest spirit and cautionary figure (Crystallization of the figure in Colombian folklore)
• 2006 — Javier Ocampo Lopez publishes major collections of Colombian myths and legends including Patasola material (Authoritative folkloric documentation of the figure)

Sightings & Evidence

Cultural Significance

She is treated in folklore as a real danger of lone forest travel; men working in the bush are advised to carry tobacco, garlic, or salt and to avoid lustful thoughts that summon her.

Related Phenomena

• La Tunda — Colombian Pacific-coast shapeshifting forest woman with a wooden leg
• La Sayona — Venezuelan vengeful female shapeshifter who targets unfaithful men
• La Matlacihua — Mesoamerican forest seductress and phantom 'White Lady' figure
• Ciguapa — Dominican forest woman with backward-facing feet who lures men
• La Llorona — Pan-Hispanic weeping-woman ghost; another major female cautionary figure

Tags

Sources

• Patasola — Wikipedia
• La Patasola Is the Vengeful Protector of the Andes — Atlas Obscura
• Mitos y leyendas latinoamericanas — Plaza & Janes
• La Patasola — USC Digital Folklore Archives