It was a beautiful evening. Sancho, the proprietor of a local pension and I sat under one of the portales… the tall covered, arched, walkways that Alamos is famous for… sharing a cold beer. We were quietly looking over the Plaza de Armas and the Parroquia de la Concepcion Purisima… the picturesque cathedral that sits at one side of the plaza. Sancho was regaling me with colorful accounts of the towns history. He looked down at my camera. “This is such a wonderful place to take pictures… may I see yours senor”? I turned on the camera and handed it to him. Returning my attention to daily life in the plaza.
Minutes passed. “Oh Dios mio”! I heard him quietly exclaim. I looked to him… he was looking at my camera with disbelief on his face. “You have seen the lady in white”. It was both a question and a statement. He slowly handed my camera back to me regarding me with what I took to be a great deal of sincerity as he did so. “It appears that Alamos has special feelings for your family,” he said. “The Lady doesn’t show herself to outsiders”.
Sensing my confusion he explained rather poetically, “She died of a broken heart many, many years ago… when streets here were lined with silver and love was built on stolen glances”. “Now she wonders the streets in search of her lover whose life was taken by her disapproving father”. He took a long sip of his Pacifico and looked into the distance. “She is in your picture senor”.
Unable to tell if he was pulling my leg or not… I sat quietly waiting for him to reveal the joke. But the reveal never came. The last image that Sancho viewed is the one above.
So… do you believe in ghosts?