Look at the door numbers on this corner. On one of the buildings, facing Chile street, a tin plaque with blue letters shows the number 1028. For Quiteños it's no ordinary address: it's the setting of one of their saddest legends.

1The girl who didn't want to sleep

Tradition says that house 1028 was home to Aurora and her parents. Everyone called her Bella Aurora, beautiful Aurora, because she was the loveliest girl in the city. She was kind and well loved, but she slept badly: every night she dreamed of her own death.

One feast day, the family went to the Plaza Mayor, a few steps from here, to watch a bullfight. A black bull came into the ring and, instead of charging, stood staring at her. Aurora recognised the figure from her nightmares and fainted, and her parents carried her out of the square.

According to the legend, the bull leapt the barrier, ran through the streets to house 1028, broke down the door and climbed to the girl's room. Then it simply vanished.

2What's true

The colonial house no longer exists. A modern building stands in its place, and the old number is almost all that remains. What is documented is that during colonial times, at festivals, makeshift bullrings were set up in the Plaza Mayor, today the Plaza Grande. In 2020 Quito's Culture Department turned the legend into a dance mini-series, with the bull played by a dancer.

3What to look for

  • The plaque with the number 1028, on Chile street.
  • How close the Plaza Grande is, just one block away: the bull's route.
  • The bell tower of San Agustín, witness to the corner.

Documented

Makeshift bullrings were set up in Quito's Plaza Mayor during colonial festivals; the number 1028 survives on a plaque on the present building, on Chile street.

Oral tradition

The story of Bella Aurora and the black bull that chased her home is a Quito legend with no documentary basis.

Sources and credits

Diario Expreso (Ecuador), report on house 1028 and the Guerrero Mora building; Quito Municipal Culture Department, mini-series «La casa 1028» (2020); El Telégrafo newspaper, «Las casas del centro histórico de Quito son inmuebles de leyenda».

Photos:

  • Carved stone doorway and white bell tower of the Church of San Agustín at the corner of Chile and Guayaquil: Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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