The Ghost of Seventeenth-Century Potosí: An Autopsy

In his 1611 Treasury of the Castilian or Spanish Language, Sebastián de Covarrubias began his definition of the word duende as follows: “It is one of the spirits of those who fell with Lucifer, of which some fell to the depths, others remained in the airy region, and some [landed] upon the surface of the Earth, as it is commonly held. These tend to be found inside houses and among mountains and in caves, frightening with their occasional apparitions, taking on fantastic shapes.”¹ Over a century later, the 1732 Diccionario de autoridades was more concise; a duende was simply “a species of hobgoblin or demon that, as the name suggests, ordinarily infests houses.”² Had Enlightenment reduced one of Lucifer’s minions to a household sprite?

In recounting the notable events of the year 1653, Potosí native and early eighteenth-century historian Bartolomé Arzáns de Orsúa y Vela included the following story in a huge manuscript he titled Historia de la Villa Imperial de Potosí, composed between 1705 and 1736. The story was separated from the larger entry for the year 1653, translated into English by Frances López-Morillas, and given the title “The Spook” by the North American historian R. C. Padden in his 1975 abridgement of Arzáns, called Tales of Potosí. Here it is in full:

There lived in this city of Potosí a Negro named Antonio Bran de Brizuela, a native of the town and the slave of Don Pedro Brizuela, a rich ore refiner of the Ribera [Potosí’s millstream]. This Negro disturbed the peace of the whole town with his evildoing and depredations. He was called “the Spook” [El Duende], for when the townspeople least expected it he would enter their houses and cause great losses. He was reckless to the last degree, fighting equally well on foot and on horseback, and for this reason he was feared by the Spaniards. The unfortunate womenfolk of the town dared not stir out of their houses from seven o’clock in the evening onwards, for he had raped many on the streets.

One day when President Nestares was standing on his balcony in the public square he saw that this Negro, the Spook, was beating a poor Peruvian stranger to the city; he became very angry, shouting that the Negro must be killed and that he commanded it in His Majesty’s name. At once more than two hundred men of various nations appeared in the plaza with swords drawn to attack him. But the Negro (whom everyone believed to be an agent of Satan) defended himself against all those Spaniards with a huge sword he carried, stabbing at all he could reach and moving back step by step until he gained sanctuary in the church of the Society of Jesus. The chief magistrate as well as lesser magistrates had already issued proclamations against his life, for one night he had attacked them all and put them to flight.

At last, when God the supreme judge was weary and no longer willing to suffer the abominations of this sinner, He caused the Negro to pay for them with his life by falling into the hands of the law. And so it happened that one night he plotted with a maidservant for her to hide him under her mistress’s bed without the knowledge of anyone so that when all were asleep he might kill that noble lady and steal everything that was in the house.

By divine intervention while the lady was lying in bed and before she had fallen asleep, she heard a noise under the bed; suspecting some evil (but under the pretext of feeling unwell), she got up in her nightgown, went out to the patio, and swiftly and secretly called for the aid of some neighbors; for though this lady was married her husband was away from the city on that occasion. Several men went in and, not knowing who was there, surrounded the bed with weapons in their hands, whereupon the Spook attacked them like a fearsome wild beast, with dagger...