La Pascualita: Bridal Shop Mannequin or Embalmed Corpse?

Dressed in the latest fashion, mannequins are common in store front windows as a way to attract potential customers. But sometimes the mannequin becomes the main attraction. That's the case for a family-owned bridal shop, La Popular Dress Shop, in Chihuahua, Mexico, where there is plenty of lore and legend about whether the woman standing in the window is actually a mannequin. La Pascualita is an eerie, lifelike mannequin, and the speculation is that she's the actual dead body of the daughter of a former owner.

The tale of the mannequin of La Pascualita is a popular regional story in northern Mexico, but this famous mannequin and the store window she stands in have gained more of a reputation as a tourist attraction. "It's there in this norteño borderlands region of Mexico where her story is most prevalent, and because it's the borderlands, the U.S. is more aware of it, too, especially in Texas and New Mexico," explains Tomás Prower, Latino licensed mortuary professional and author of "Morbid Magic: Death Spirituality & Culture From Around the World."

The Story of La Pascualita

"As with any urban legend, there's no official story, but the common narrative is that a woman named Pascuala Esparza began displaying a new mannequin in the window of her bridal shop in the 1930s," says Prower. The story goes that La Pascualita, the corpse bride mannequin, appeared not only to be lifelike, but closely resembled Ms. Esparza's deceased daughter, who died young before her wedding day. Was La Pascualita the mummified body of the shop owner's daughter or just a mannequin?

Some stories say the mother had her daughter embalmed so she would have her corpse bride daughter near and dear to her, explaining the striking resemblance.

"There are various supposed causes of the death of Pascuala's daughter, most of them related to bites and stings from venomous bugs or suicide due to her mother not approving of the impending marriage," shares Prower. Some stories go as far as to say that La Pascualita is not just the daughter's body mummified, but is a ghost who comes alive in the bridal store at night. With detailed, realistic, creepy hands and varicose veins, it's easy to see how the story that this is not just a bridal mannequin but a corpse bride has taken off and created a life of its own.

How Likely Is It that La Pascualita Is a Corpse?

There's no denying that the figure has eerie, realistic features that make her look like more than just a mannequin and have brought her plenty of attention. "La Pascualita's realism is what makes her stand out from the mannequins of the day, with the hands and veins being super detailed, and supposedly her eyes are rumored to be the kind that 'follow you' and seem to be looking at you if you move around the room," explains Prower.

It can be easy to understand how this corpse bride mannequin has become an important legend but it's far-fetched to think this is an embalmed corpse and not just a mannequin in a shop window. Preserving an embalmed corpse in a bridal store for almost a century would take constant work and require special conditions to avoid deterioration.

And Prower would know since he's a licensed mortuary professional. "There are techniques to embalm a person standing up, but embalming doesn't preserve a corpse forever," explains Prower. A storefront window exposed to the intense heat of the sun is far from an ideal condition for maintaining an embalmed corpse, for starters.

"To have an embalmed corpse on display in the window of a small, family-owned business day in and day out, exposed to the hot, desert sun and human interaction would take a toll on the corpse, and it definitely wouldn't stay so fresh after being on display for over 90-some years now."

If doubts about La Pascualita lingering in anyone's mind, Prower puts the nail in the coffin of this shop window legend by saying, "As a licensed mortuary professional who has seen and worked with many corpses, I can guarantee that there is no way that mannequin is a corpse."

Why Does the Story of La Pascualita Persist Today?

Intrigue and a lack of facts lead people to become creative and imaginative. The truth is, there is limited information, which helps fuel the legend. "This is the fertile ground from which folk and urban legends are born and thrive," says Prower. He believes these types of legends continue to be passed on because they are fun and more interesting than a mundane explanation.

And there's likely another reason this "real-life" corpse bride in the shop window legend continues: It's an excellent marketing tool for this local dress shop. Who doesn't love a good mystery?

Theresa Córdova shares in her 2012 University of New Mexico dissertation thesis, "Recordando Nuestra Gente: Ritual Memorialization Along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro," that she visited the shop where the bridal mannequin stands, explained her research objectives and was granted an appointment to talk with the manager. But when she came back for the scheduled meeting a few days later, she realized she had been stood up.

A store clerk eventually told her there wouldn't be an interview because the owners claimed it would bring bad luck, she shares. "I left the store and realized how the story of Pascualita was the dress shop's marketing tool in a city with multiple wedding dress shops," Cordova writes. "The owner and public relations director viewed my study as negative publicity."

Determined to find more information about La Pascualita and prove her existence, Córdova explains in her thesis that she sought out archives at the city church and was told the story was only a legend.

"I could not find any record of her life in the archives because she did not, in fact, exist," Cordova writes. "I was unable to rely on any historical archives, written obituaries or church documents in order to reconstruct the life and death of La Pascualita."

Denying interviews about the corpse in the shop window seems to be a good marketing strategy and one that maintains the intrigue and mystery of La Pascualita. Prower thinks it's a good business decision to turn down interviews. "It keeps the legend alive, keeps their business in business, and keeps a little more magic here in our mundane world," he says.