Nevermind the fact that the legend I'm about to tell, has the same name as the president/dictator/usurper of Venezuela. I'm honestly not doing this on purpouse, this is an horror story after all..... though politics and horror..... hmmm
Anyway, this is the story of a very old Espanto (a terror, a ghost, a threat), who might not be as impresive as other Espantos, but is still part of the venezuelan folklore. To put it simply, El Pez Nicolas is a fish with the face of a man.
INTRO
Bah! that's it? a fish with the face of man? that's not scary at all!
Well, maybe where you live is common to see a variety of fishes with their respective man face, but in here is truly a rare sight.
Truth is, this particular Espanto is not meant to scare or horrify people, at least not in the "usual" way other ghosts do.
It is presumed that the Pez Nicolás is a very old legend turned into a belief or a belief made legend through the years and passed on orally from generation to generation.
The Pez Nicolás is represented as a sea monster, with the body of a fish and the face of a man, and in many fishing communities they have staged it in crude and joking pantomimes that they have taken in easter entertainments to the sound of dances and folkloric manifestations.
THE LEGEND
The legend takes place in the state of Nueva Esparta, who is commonly known as Margarita. A place popular for it's beaches and famous for being a state with a highly turism rate, for both venezuelans and foreign turists.
Nobody dares to say of what epoch the legend or the belief about the Pez Nicolás dates. The versions about the origin of the Pez Nicolás are two, but all converging to ensure that it was a flesh and bone person.
Some say he was a beastly and denaturalized son who tried to seduce his poor mother, who feared that the "eternal punishment" would fall on her. One day, the son advances were coming too strong, and the mother could not take it any longer. She cursed him a thousand times with all the power of her heart and pushed him into the sea with her own strength, which enraged, was responsible for slowly swallowing him until it disappear.
In this same version, some say that the mother hugged the son tightly and jumped along with him to the sea, to ensure that both would drown.
Others say it was the product of an incest agreed between mother and son. That the shameless mother raised in her treacherous and cursed entrails for 13 months, and that in giving birth to such a spawn of human face and body of fish, both threw it in order to continue concealing their sin, but the sea opened at that moment, swallowing them without leaving traces, taking this way that horrible secret.
In this same version, some say that it was a normal baby boy that was born, but the outcome was the same.
Much later, a heretic fisherman, who disobeyed the traditional order not to fish on Holy Friday because God was dead and could not guide and select fishing, managed to catch between his nets a strange being with a fish body and the face of a man, who told him in detail the reason for his existence.
The fisherman, involved in a strong nervous crisis, managed to win the beach with the rare specimen of his cursed fishing, where he implored the Almighty for the forgiveness of his sin.
Feeling truthfully repented, the fisherman was forgiven, and so spoke the beastly fish, that he recieved the "Touch of Glory" and returned to the sea just as when many people were getting close to scold the fisherman, but they did managed to see a creature that was dragging itself to the sea.
The fisherman then recounted everything that happened, but since it was somewhat forgotten, because he was still nervous, he gave the two versions of the story that has been preserved until today, and that in the background they have some coincidence.
FINAL NOTES
Unfortunately, there are not many stories regarding encounters, many are supposed encounters of some fishermans with the creature, but nothing worth mentioning.
This could be because of what the story of the Pez Nicolas represents: a demonstration of punishment to immorality and disobedience, and also to show that from heaven to earth there is nothing hidden.
So of course, anyone who would said it encountered, it will be accused of doing something that caused to be "visited" by the creature.
In modern days, the Pez Nicolas has fallen into one of the forgotten legends of Venezuela. But that doesn't mean he is not watching...
Images: 1 Source 2 Source 3 Source 4 Source
5 Original picture from the book "Mitos y Creencias Margariteñas" (Margaritean Myths and Believes)