#imbunche

Catalina Parra, "Imbunche gigante (Giante imbunche)," 1977. From the exhibition "Radical Women," on view at the Hammer Museum in 2017. (More details here.)

I've been dwelling on imbunches as I re-read José Donoso's "The Obscene Bird of Night" (El obsceno pájaro de la noche), which features a storyline inspired by this monster of Chilote folklore.

In the mythology of Chiloé Island, southern Chile, the imbunche is a creature described as a stunted and deformed human with a backwards-facing head and twisted limbs. It walks on one foot, with its other leg fused to the back of its neck. It cannot speak, communicating only in guttural sounds.

Legend states that the imbunche was a first-born son who was kidnapped by (or sold to) a warlock. The warlock broke the infant's leg and twisted it over his back. When the child was three months old, the warlock forked his tongue, feeding him black cat's milk and goat's flesh, before moving onto human flesh stolen from graves. When it comes of age, the imbunche is used to guard the warlock's cave, or to exact revenge on the warlock's enemies.

Image source.

Monster master list.

1era: embarazo milagroso y deseos de crear un imbunche.

[This post comes with a content warning for ritual abuse.] This week’s fantastic being is the invunche. Also called the imbunche, this monster from the Chiloé Island of southern Chile is ordinarily found guarding a warlock’s cave. That is, after all, why the warlock made the invunche. The warlock takes a human infant—usually a first-born son—and raises him to be an invunche, performing assorted and highly specific mutilations and magic on the growing child. When the child reaches a certain age, he is kept on a strict diet of human flesh stolen from cemeteries. By the time the child reaches adulthood, he is an invunche: a hairy, twisted creature, scuttling on hand and foot (the right leg has been twisted over his back), with a split tongue. The invunche speaks only in grunts and howls. (You can read the Wikipedia page for more on the specific mutilations required; I decided it was too gruesome for this venue.) 

Image source: Christian Córdova at Flickr.

The invunche guards the warlock’s cave, but also gains a great deal of knowledge during its life and can act as the warlock’s advisor. It can also play a role in the warlock’s curses. An invunche will leave the cave only to move to a new one, to look for food if none remains in the cave, or to serve the warlock in some capacity—attacking enemies or accompanying the warlock to the Warlock’s Council. 

According to Darren Zenko in Field Guide to Monsters, the invunche eats goat meat, as human flesh is too valuable to use except in creating the invunche. Once adult, goat meat will have to do. He also notes that the creature’s stench, created by the magical poisons lingering in its body, paralyzes any who encounter the invunche—as, of course, does the mere sight of the thing. It is strong but slow and clumsy. Zenko notes that this guardian is not the first defence of the warlock’s cave; it’s the last. If you’ve gotten so close that you encounter the invunche, it’s too late.

El invunche

Los invunches son los guardianes de la cueva de los brujos. Solo existe uno con vida a la vez.

Para crear a un Invunche los brujos secuestran a un recién nacido (algunas versiones mencionan que el niño se entrega como pago por un servicio, ya que se supone que los brujos no pueden robar), y luego de pasar por un ritual en el que se le remueve el bautizo (de ser necesario), se procede a romper y coser sobre su espalda una pierna al infante, luego se le bifurca su lengua y se le frota un ungüento en la piel con el que le crece un pelo muy grueso y áspero. 

Además se le alimenta con una dieta carne humana ( obtenida de cementerios) y leche de gata negra. 

El ser resultante es un guardián antropófago que solo permite el paso de sus amos, con una fuerza innatural y una esperanza de vida reducida.

En la historia no se ha modificado mucho, el mito en si, pero el buen Alfredo si tiene algo que  "contar" que podría ser interesante. Aunque me estoy adelantando.