La Casa de las Canicas and the Ciudad Juárez Cobalt-60 Contamination Incident

Hi. This is Christina and Carmen and this is another episode of a Spooky Tales, the podcast for all things A Spooky Hunted places myths, legends in Latin America and occasionally natural disasters, because that's what I'm doing today. Oh, times are rough, and i've been at the time of recording. It's June eleventh, by the way, this isn't going to come out until later though, but yeah, times are rough, and I was like, I don't want to look up a crime. I want to look up a natural disaster. And I don't know why that made me feel better than a crime, which is horrific to it in its own right. Yeah it is. So I don't know what that says about me. But you know what, because it was mother nature. Yeah, no ill intentions. It wasn't mankind or a man hurting a woman or child as typically happening. What Okay, maybe I should have said man made disaster. Disaster. That's a disaster. You're right, and it is terrible. I don't know. This isn't consoling me at all. What I'm what have I done? What have you done? Yes? So? Yeah, But before all that, we do have a listener story okay, sorry, no, no, before you read it. If you have a story that you want to send us to read, email a spookita do at gmail dot com. You can d m us on any of our socials. You can submit it on Discord. If you want to put it on Discord but you don't want everyone to see it, that's on our discord. You can also just set it to me on Discord personally. That's fine, I'll see it. All those things are fine. You can call the Spooky Hotline. Yeah, all of those things are fine. We we rub That's what I was going to say. We love receiving your stories. Okay, Scooby doo bitch, Okay, we love Sorry, yeah, we love receiving your stories. So yeah, send them, keep sending them. Okay, sorry my voice. Whoa. I'm a little sick because craziness me sick. So it is the price of seeing them, Yeah, like you said, yeah, and I'm like, is it worth it? I'm questioning. I would be questioning it too sometimes I'm madream if it's worth it, it's worth it. They're always sick, or they're not always sick, but they're sick right before we see them. Yeah, No, they're always sick. Okay, they're always sick. Yeah yeah, okay, So listen to story. This comes from Fred. I would like to share the time my aunt was on the verge of death and why we suspect that her sister in law did a witchcraft on her. Oh, my god, because you're eating. The story took place around fifty five years ago, when my mom was still around seven years old. My aunt got married to my uncle and they decided that my aunt would move in with him and his family. That's always uh, I don't regre For some unknown reason, her in laws hated her with a passion and would not allow her to talk with my grandma or the rest of our family. Probably domestic violence. Sorry, I don't want to put stuff on this, but usually that's the reason. Okay, back to the story. One day, early in the morning, my grandma ran into my youngest uncle's godfather. While talking, it came up that my aunt was experiencing something weird, and so my grandma decided to go visit them, no matter who tried to stop her. When my grandma arrived at the ranch, she found my aunt laying on a mat, unconscious and a bunch of lit candles and people around her praying what. From time to time, my aunt would start yelling, still unconscious, helped me, bancho, it's trying to kill me, and she would toss around on the mat. She started pulling clumps of hair from her head, and a couple of times she'd yell, stopped it. Stop hitting me, please, I'm banging you. Stop. I didn't do anything to you. And then bruises would pop up on her arms, legs, and even a couple on her back. My grandma started freaking out and decided to try to do something about it and went out to grab some holy water, some holy water from the nearest church. Two hours later, she came back to the house with a glass bottle of holy water, but as soon as she had put the bottle in my aunt's hand, it exploded. The weirdest thing is not a single drop of water was visible. It's as if it evaporated immediately. My grandma was fed up at this point and demanded my uncle go out and grab his truck to take my aunt to the same church. She grabbed the holy water from my uncle immediately ran now to try and grab his truck. During that time, my grandma stayed beside my aunt, grabbing her hand, when all of a sudden, my aunt started screaming again. Somebody helped me. She's going to drown me, and her legs and under her fingernails started getting sandy. Finally, my uncle came back with this truck and they loaded my aunt into the backside of the truck, but all of a sudden, the truck turned off and my uncle was unable to turn it back on. As the last resort, they decided to go find a cab. Luckily, it only took them a couple of minutes to find one. They loaded her up in the cab and drove towards the church, but the tire popped. The cab driver quickly changed the tire and they went off again. On the way to church, you had to pass through a small dried out river that didn't have any water for years. But as soon as they tried it driving through it, it got stuck and muddy. The cab driver furiously said Signora Sevedra sabilukez mioto. Damn, this is crazy and in inglass, ma'am. If I had known this involved demons, I wouldn't have put you in my car. My uncle and the cab driver got out and pushed the cab out of the river, and they continued to drive to the church. Finally they arrived at the church. When they tried to take her in, it seemed as if there was an invisible while preventing them from even getting close. It ended up taking my grandma, my uncle, the cab driver, and four other men that were inside the church to even get her near. This is wild, this is insane. As soon as they got close to the church, the doors slammed close again. It took everyone's strength to open the door and carry her in quickly. They dropped her in the middle of the church, and the father and nuns told them to exit the church and let them do what's necessary. Finally, hours later, the father exited and let my grandma enter the room they placed my aunt in. My aunt looked exhausted and pale, as if her life was sucked out of her. She stayed there a couple of days, and then once she felt better, she went back home. To this day, we all think that it was her sister in law that did something to her because of her unwarranted hatred towards my aunt. That's my family story. I hope you liked it. Special things for you two for doing such great work on spreading stories from our cultures, keeping amazing people. Lots of love, heart, Thank you Fred for your story. That was crazy. Did I catch that the sister in law's name was Teresa? Yes? Is that what you were going to comment to? No? No, I was not commenting, but yes, good catch. Are you? Are there any good that ISAs? I'm not sure? Let us know. I only say that basing it on the NOVELA Teresa, which we yopped about extensively for almost two years on novel, and that from that experience, I know that there are no goods and if there is one, no shade but the has And this one from this listener story, this one was an evil witch. Yes, it has now taught me to fear alter. Yeah. Should I get into let's get into your story key story today. Yeah. So today we're going to be talking about like I feel like it's like the guy who mixing up. Today we're talking about come with me to talk to talk about come with me as I talk about like No, but we're talking about like I guess say all that say all that normal? Okay. Today we're talking about like in Guahuila, Mexico. This house was built in the nineteen thirties and is located near the corner de Las cay Is Victoria Heic den Gal. It's located in Saltillo, the capital city of Guahuila. And the house got its nickname because the last people who lived in the house. Wait, how do you let me first? How do you think it got its names? I'm assuming someone hears marbles in the middle of the night and so they started calling it, you would think, But okay, this house earned its nickname because the last people who lived in the house were two sisters. Wait, where's this going? Two sisters who were apparently short, fat, fair haired, and light skinned. So the neighbors nicknamed them cankas, and the house came to be known as came to be known as Yeah, imagine your your Mexican nickname because now the subject of a hunted legend. I'm not surprised, no wonder you said, how do you think this came to me? If this happened to me, the house would be called short yeah, and then in parentheses melonde. Yeah. So that was just hilarious, absolutely insane. I was not expecting that. Yeah, I don't think we've come across a story where it's named after a Mexican nickname. Yeah, because we know those Mexican nicknames can be brutal. I'll never forget, and actually all all of Latin America. But our dad telling us like, yeah, this guy in the neighborhood, he was so ugly, he looked like a lizard, and we called him Lagarticas. Yeah, and to this day he's still Lagartica. And then the guy with the big head was yeah, yeah, so yeah Casias. And uh, the Kanka sister's dad, dad Kanikas, if you will, Apakanas. He built the house and the family La family Kankas got their wealth from way back, being Asiandados. Oh, and the house was very beautiful and it's heyday. The family often held many soares with their high class friends. Okay, Around nineteen seventy, the house was abandoned after one of the Khankas died. One of the sisters died and the other one moved away to live with relatives. The house then fell into disrepair, giving it a creepy appearance, and the legend started. So two of these legends involved Daddy Kankas. It said that La Casankas had a lot of servants and that Daddy Kankas wasn't exactly at the goal with the servants house staff. Wow wow. And one of these maids was Yolanda. She was said to be extremely beautiful and unfortunately for her, her beauty caught the eye of Papaas. Sorry, yeah, I don't know his name. I did never found his name, so none of them have names. So they had what some would call it romance, what reasonable people, though, would call being sexually abused or exploited by your boss. And this led to Yolanda becoming pregnant, and Yolanda hid her pregnancy for about six months. But you know, you can only hide it. So so far true. So not too long after, Deanas found out about the pregnancy and he confronted Orlanda and the stables of the property. It is said that after the confrontation, Yolanda was so devastated that she had a miscarriage in the stables. I should have said at the beginning tree running for sexual workplace, sexual abuse and miscarriage. Yes. Since then, it is said that the cries of a child can be heard as one walks by the stables, but once you get closer, the crying abruptly stops. And the other legend involving Daddy Kanikas has to do with his paranoia of banks. Maybe you can guess where this is going. Hidden treasure. Yes, okay, I love a hidden treasure story. So it was rumored that because of his paranoia surrunning banks, Papakka's hid or buried trunks of treasure full of gold coins all over the property. After Lasi Manaskanikas left the home, leaving it abandoned, people went into the property and started digging. And some of these people don't have found anything, but they went on to suffer from terrible accidents later on. I don't know what, but that's me. I couldn't find more specifics. Yeah, yeah, terrible accents. Terrible. So you know they're like, well, they're cursed from looking for this treasure. And the last legend from Nakasakas involved a group of high school students and a wigi board. Oh this Caskankas has it all right, I'm seated. I have my juice. No, its my juice, my lacrow, sparkling water, my lacrow. Okay, I'm ready. So this happened in the nineteen nineties. The students went inside the house and walked through until they found the perfect room for wigi activities. So they settled in and pulled out the wigi board. But as soon as they started playing with it, strong winds blew through the house. A bright light appeared down the hallway and one of the girls became possessed. Then the light in the hallway got brighter and brighter, when all of a sudden, the pass grow disappeared. When the light finally went away, the students went to look at the spot that the light had been at, and what they saw was the image of setan Nas himself burned into the wall. And I see it was said that the image of the devil remained there for at least ten years before fading away. Wow weird, okay, And that is like I said kanas in Kuahila, Wow, thank you so much. That had it all. That was fun. That was a good one. I don't think I will ever hear khanikas the word the same again. Okay. And before we get into my disaster, we'll take a little outbreak here and we're back. Sorry, we've been out of the game for a little bit. It has been a while since we've recorded. Yeah, okay, so my case here, I'm just going to jump straight into it. I hope you didn't read any of it. No, I didn't. Oh good, Okay. By now, we have all heard about scher Noobyl, one of the worst diss that happened in like recent times. For those that don't know, I guess, the Chernobyl nuclear plant was located near Pripia, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union today Ukraine, and it exploded. It is one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at the maximum severity level on this scale called the International Nuclear Event Scale. Oh that doesn't sound good at all. No, And counting the cancer that was caused by radiation over the decades, there's over sixty dead from this one disaster. Wow. It's also one of HBO's best shows from what I've heard, I haven't watched it. What's a show called Chernobyl? Oh? I thought you were talking about the I didn't realize you were. I thought you were comparing it to Chernobyl, But I time, although you said Ukraine, I didn't put two to together. Still wow, But yeah, I've heard your things about that show as well. Yeah, but also like devastating, which of course makes yeah, yeah, but that's not today's topic. What is today's topic is considered to be Mexico's own Chernobyl disaster. If you look up the Chernobyl of Mexico, this will come up. But it's also known as the Studa Aquatis cobalt sixty contamination incident. Oh wow, have you heard of this. I've heard about the Chernobyl of Mexico, like, I've heard that term, but I I don't know, like anything else about it. I don't know, I mean other than you tell me it wasn't what is perfect, But yeah, that's that's good. And no, unlike Chernobyl, it wasn't nuclear, but still radioactive and tragic of course. So before I talk about the incident, first, what is cobalt sixty? And I'm sorry because I'm about to talk about science that I don't understand because I'm a dumb bench. Okay, queen, Yes, So, cobalt sixty is a synthetic radioactive isotope of cobalt with the half life of five point twenty seven years to produce artificially in nuclear reactors while cobal itself is naturally occurring. Does that make sense so far, because yeah, I don't know what I'm saying. I remember cobalt from my art science class at junior college, and I dropped out of the nursing pre nursing program when I had to take chemistry because I don't know what was going on. So I don't actually don't remember that. I just said that. Oh wow, okay, anyway, that and it has different purposes like to sterilize medical equipment. It's a radiation source for medical radiotherapy. It's used for industrial radiography pest insects sterilization, and a radiation source for food irradiation and blood irradiation, and those things are used to make food or blood lasts longer and blood as in like blood banks. Not vampires, yes, or vampires. Yes, so we know what that is. What happened in November nineteen seventy seven, Dicentro Medico, the especially that is Medical Center for Specialties, a private hospital in sues Chiuawa, Mexico, purchased a radio therapy unit called the Picker CEE three thousand. A doctor, doctor Abelardo lem Mouse, wanted to treat his cancer patients with radio therapy, and he purchased the Picker c three thousand for sixteen thousand dollars. And this machine is crazy looking. The patient lays down on it, and then there's this thing that looks straight out of a sci fi movie pointing at the person laying down on this table. I'll post a picture on the dial called the picker. Maybe actually I'm picturing like like a score food. I put the picture in the document. If you want to look at it right now. Okay, that's what that's picturing. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy looking. Again. I will put it on social media and in the video. This machine is supposed to to focus a narrow beam of gamma radiation at a tumor to kill the tumor's cell and not the surrounding tissue. And of course the machine was full of cobalt sixty, which was contained in a sealed capsule inside the machine. And no one was supposed to use this machine without training first, and the machine was not supposed to be installed or worked on without special protective equipment. And the manual alone for this thing is like over one hundred pages. I skimmed through it. But for some reason, this machine was introduced to Mexico without sharing this information, without complying to the existing regulations for machines like it. So nobody knew and the machine, it just sat in a storage closet for six years at this hospital because nobody there. There was no qualified personnel to operate it, nobody knew how to use it. So I just sat there for those years. Right, And after all those six years, some content training its power to choose this. Yeah, So after those six years, someone told an employee of the hospital to dismantle it and sell it for parts, and so we sent this Sotello. Alardin did what he was told. He dismantled the picker C three thousand on December sixth, nineteen eighty three, and he had no idea what the machine was or the dangerous within it. So he started off by disassembling the head of the radioactive unit and then taking out a cylinder full of cobalt sixty. Then he loaded all of this into his truck. In his truck, he drilled into the cylinder containing the cobalt sixty, which caused cobalt sixty granules to spill onto the bed of his truck. So now the truck is contaminated with cobalt sixty okay, he drove to the Junkyard after that at Yonke, he left the parts there and then when he returned, his truck stopped working. So the contaminated truck stayed parked in front of his house in a Sida Quadis neighborhood, and it spent forty days there. And during that time, hundreds of people walked by the truck, leaned on it while she's mando, just like as you do if you're outside and you're just like there's a car, let me lean on it. Or kids played next to it, maybe touch the bed. I don't know. Remember when we used to play in the truck of one of our DIA's neighbors, but he lived whatever the way it was, he parked there and we used to get inside, play like that was a boat, and you know, so we were getting the trunk. So magic kids doing that in this situation, yeah, which I'm sure they did. I'm sure they did too. In the meantime, Elon at the Junkyard electro magnets, you know how, like remember the movie Brave Little Toaster. Yeah, when they're in the dumpster and then there's just a big magnet pulling them up and they're like, Oh my god, save us. That's what they say. Anyway, I love that movie. I got to rewatch it. So those things, those things are at this junk yard, and you know, they're handling all of this grab us at the junkyard, including the cobalt sixty granules and all the parts of this cobalt sixty machine. And so they're moving everything around and they're spreading the cobalt sixty across a lot of things in that junkyard. Oh oh yeah. So eventually all the electromagnet cranes were affected and they were mixing in other metals with that cobalt sixty. Then the radioactive scrap was sent to two different places, Acerosa Chiwawa, a construction rebar factory, and the Machila Doras falcon Nejuades, a manufacturer of table bases. Oh my god. Then products from both of these factories were sent to other parts of Mexico and the US. Uh oh. And for three weeks no one knew any of this happened. Then, on January sixteenth, nineteen eighty four, a truck carrying construction rebar was heading for a site in Los Alamos, and for some reason that truck took a detour like maybe it was lost, and it took a turn it wasn't supposed to, and and it ended it up near the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. And as the truck passed through this national Laboratory, it triggered their radioactive alarms. And if you're wondering why they have radioactive alarms with the yeah, and it's one of the sites where the nuclear bomb was designed during World War Two, Los Alamos, New Mexico, right, So yeah, they had this all over and so those radio radioactive detectors went off and the lab was then like, oh my god, what is giving off all this like radioactive energy. This isn't normal. And then like there it's this truck. Oh, it's this rebar. Where did this come from? Oh? They were able to track it to a source in Mexico, and the lab notified Mexico's National Commission on Nuclear Safety and Safeguards two days later. Once they did all the other work, so by then another truck in the Basso was found transporting the same contaminated rebar. They were able to stop that from spreading anywhere else. Luckily, the National Commission in Mexico tracked down the rebar to the scrap metal where the scrap metal came from that junkyard who took it to the junkyard. They're like, oh my god, the hospital. But by the time they found the hospital worker and he told them what he did, thousands had been exposed. Oh my god. So ten days after the discovery of the truck in New Mexico, on the twenty six they found the park truck, that hospital Bookers park truck, and it had been emitting one thousand, one thousand rentkans per hour. And that is a unit of measurement for the exposure of X rays and gamma rays. That's like the most basic explanation. Not good, Yeah, not good, and one thousand of that not good, not good time to one thousand yes, yes. And so because of how toxic the truck was, it was towed away with the crane that picked it up like a magnetic crane picked the truck up and then just like floated it like drove away so it wouldn't touch anything else. That makes sense, yes, And so then that same commission discovered that aside from the truck, the junkyard and the two factories, I knew about three other companies had also received contaminated material. Wow. These were in Monterre and Durango. And material from these companies made its way to thirty thousand table bases. Oh my god, it is like so spread out now, yes, And six thousand, six hundred tons of reebar wow, and all all of these were contaminated from just six thousand cobalt sixty pellets. That's and that's what contaminated everything. Yeah. Like I said, thousands of people were exposed to the radiation, and the effects were not as devastating as other disasters like Chernobyl, but still like not great. The exact number of people affected is unknown to this day. Some sources say one thousand people were affected. Other sources said four thousand, but some other people so some of the workers at the scrap yard, they suffered from sterility after working there and being exposed long term to the rebar or all the scrap I mean. And then many in the neighborhood where the truck was parked received radiation burns. Wow. And there's at least one documented case of bone cancer and some children who developed blood disorders. Wow. But no exact numbers, unfortunately. I would be inclined to believe the higher number just because how far everything went same and it's just so wild to see one machine caused all this. Yeah, that's crazy. By the end of the investigation, they found that the contaminated rebar reached seventeen Mexican states. Wow, and two were still in the US. So they I mean to seventeen Mexican states and to the United States States. The Commission managed to recover two three hundred and sixty tons of the rebar. They had to demolish eight hundred fourteen buildings that had been built with that contaminated bar. Yeah. But in order to find those eight hundred fourteen buildings, they inspected seventeen thousand buildings. Wow. That is a lot. Yeah, And sadly, it's very very likely that some contaminated rebar was never found and remained in people's houses. Damn. I mean yeah, I could see that. Yeah. The thirty thousand contaminated table bases were all recovered, and I guess ninety percent of those table bases were in the US oh wow. Yeah, but they were recovered before they got to any one. Oh that's good. Yeah. By the summer of nineteen eighty four, there were still over a thousand tons of rebar unaccounted more most likely in a ton of states in Baja California, Baja California, sou Chiaja, Lisco, Nova, leon Qures and Sacatecas. Wow and shut hell the places. Yeah, information and yeah and seen they did find some of the rebar in Sacatecas, and more homes were demolished on top of whatever number I already said. Wow, And in order to put all this radioactive material somewhere after it, all you know, was collected, found and all those houses were demolished, and like to not expose anyone else, they had to build a new proper storage building for it. And this was in the sat Mala Yuka Desert, and they called it a cemetery for contaminated material, and it was known as La piedre Ra. And there was two other similar facilities made in Mexicali and the state of Mexico, so that all those contaminate pieces didn't have to go very far. But La Piedrera ended up with the most And I'm sorry for all these numbers I'm about to say, but nine hundred and thirty tons of contaminated rebar, seven hundred and thirty eight tons of contaminated unprocessed metal and two hundred tons of metal table bases were all that La piedre Ra, as well as almost two thousand pieces of scrap, eight hundred and sixty tons of containers of other contaminated material, and twenty nine thousand tons of contaminated soil. Wow, it's a lot of contaminated things. Too many contaminated things. Damnomach. Yeah, it's even worse because in some places they were supposed to build something similar and they didn't, and they kept this all in like grouped up outdoors and so then like riggy and exposed, still being exposed or still exposing yeah wow. Yeah, And like there's some parts of Samala Yuka that their radiation levels are still pretty high because it was left on outdoors so low there no, like it's in the middle of the desert. Okay, but I don't know about like you know, there's life. Yeah yeah, But because the half life of Cobal sixty is five point two seven years, by now twenty twenty five, it should be less way less and by twenty thirty completely fine. Okay, Yeah, but this happened in nineteen eighty something, so it did remain there for that long. Yeah, so yeah, yeah wow. And because of this incident, the US and Mexico worked together on regulations and procedures with this type of machine. I think that's good. Yeah, eventually we're all replaced with like better, more modern units that weren't as dangerous. Sadly, and like many lesser developed countries, they still have this kind of stuff and there's like cases of them being taken apart like this, oh, like in the Globals House. But because I mentioned Chernobyl in the beginning, I do want to say one more thing about Chernobyl and Mexico that I had no idea happened. So, like I said at the top of the episode, Chernobyl was devastating not only for the surrounding areas in Europe, but like all of Europe, not just like right next to you know, Ukraine, but also Asia and Mexico. There were radioactive clouds from Chernobyl that traveled as far as Asia, and then also like toxic clouds traveling all over both Europe and Asia, and so you know, toxic fumes made their way to places like Ireland, I mean everywhere in Europe, and then in these places this contaminated toxic cloud rain or whatever contaminated food animals obviously also people, and so the Irish government authorities noticed that milk stored at some place was giving high radioactive emissions and apparently made the choice to sell this radioactive milk. That's one version you made. So they saw that it was zeroactive and then they chose to keep selling it. Yes, that's one version of events. There's other versions from other sources that I also found that said the first time they tested the milk it was fine, and because nobody knew how far the effects of chernobyl could go, they didn't retest it after these toxic clouds made their way over all over Europe. I have to believe that version. I would think so, because it's like, how would they know? Yeah, so I would be more inclined to learn that they just didn't retest it, and so they thought it was fine when they sold it, because that sounds like nicer. Yeah. But it was sold to Gona Soupo, a government organization that was in charge of securing foods safety for or extra food for Mexicans. Basically like it provided food for low income areas in Mexico, and so it seems like the purchase for this powdered milk had already been agreed upon before Chernobyl happened, and it was tested back then and it was it seemed fine, and they didn't retest it, and then some sort of radioactive rain happened, and that's how the milk was contaminated, not retest then sent to Mexico. Eh No, there are other versions of events where they say Ireland knew, the government of Ireland knew it was contaminated, tried to sell it to Brazil, and Brazil was like, no, we don't want it, and that's when they sold it to Mexico. But I've read both, so I want an is shore both because I don't know which one is right either way, the milk arrived in Mexico the somehow Antonio Gonzales Kintania, the Mexican ambassador in Brazil, had heard about this contaminated milk and warned the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So seeing this, honestly does make it seem like the worst version of events is a little bit because how did he know to warn like he knew it was going to Mexico. So that's a that's a little at all. Yeah, but this warning when ignored, what for some reason, the forty tons, sorry, the forty thousand tons of powdered milk went into Mexico. Like I was saying, some sources say it was intentional, that both the Irish government and the Mexican government were both being corrupt trying to save money. Maybe then it's not how I can go. Honestly, it's not unheard of. It's not unheard of either. Yeah. The British Food Minister Joe Walsh would later go on to state that the product was under the allowed levels of radiation. I don't know, okay, either way, this radioactive milk made its way to Mexico to mostly low income communities. And yeah, I would assume that that's how the ambassador knew because they tried to sell to Brazil first. Like again, it just doesn't look good for either government. No, but apparently two employees of a nuclear power plant like knew about the warning of the ambassador, a physicist and a vice admiral, Manuel ro Digues Gordo and miguelance Vladawinos, and they tested the milk and they warn't gona soup all the organization that bought it. They warned them not to send it out because it was like forty times above the allowed reniation level. That's a lot, a lot, And they were ignored. And then they tried to go public with this information and they were put in jail. So for whistleblowers, seriously, that's a risky position they put themselves into try and warn the people. So yeah, they were put in jail. They just went ahead and with the delivery of the milk. And so the powdered milk went to Nestley Your cold ya cool to remember those drinks? Yeah, and even craft foods, which I was like, what are they doing? What are they doing in Mexico? Nobody eats mac and cheese there. I don't know. I did see mag and cheese at the store, but oh, okay, it looked different. That's what we didn't buy it. Oh and so yeah, over forty thousand tons of powdered milk were sent out to these companies who might have not even been where because this was the government. Yeah. Yeah, And so it ended up being distributed all over the country, again to mostly low income communities, and to this day, the exact number of affected people is unknown. What is known is that the percentage of childhood cancer between nineteen eighty seven and nineteen ninety seven increased by three hundred percent. That's a lot. That is that is a lot. I was just going to ask you, well, but do we know what happened, like, what were the effects of this? Wow? Yeah, I mean that can't be a coincidence. No, right, and there's no there's no statistics for this next part. But deformities in children, deaths, and sudden illnesses did go up in nineteen eighty seven after the milk was like they looked back and saw that after the milk had been you know, delivered and got to where it was supposed to go, that these things were happening suddenly deformities, deaths, and sudden illnes is wow. When you know when the milk would have been unknownly consumed by Mexicans, right, and yeah, that is the Chernobyl of Mexico and the effect of actual Chernobyl in Mexico. Wow, that's horrible. Yes, I don't know why I thought I would feel better doing this instead of a crime. I'm not sure, but yeah, those are today's cases. We'll take a little break here and then we'll be back with spooky recommendations, and we're back. Do you have a speaky recommendation? As a matter of fact, I do, okay, and it is the same speaker recognition I had I had in our Spanish episode, but this time ending less. So recently I listened to an audiobook by v cast show and I think it's her news. It's called Their Mortal Pleasures. Okay, So here's the description. Hundreds of years ago, she was known as La Malinche, a Nawa woman who translated for the Gistallo Cortes. In the century since, her name has gone down in infamy as a trader, but no one ever found out what happened to La Malinche after Cortes destroyed her people in the Ashes of the Empire. She was usually born as Mali nali An, a mortal vampire, and she has become an avenger of conquered peoples, traveling the world to reclaim their stolen artifacts and return them to their homelands. But she has also been in search of something more. For this ancient vampires still has deeply human longings for pleasure and for love. When she arrives in Dublin in search of a pair of aztex Golds, artifacts intimately connected to her own dark history. She finds something else, two men who satisfy her cravings in very different ways. For the first time, she meets a mortal man, a horror novelist who is not repelled by her strange condition but attracted by it. But there's also another man, an immortal like herself, who shares the darkness in her heart. Now Mali Nani is on the most perilous adventure of all, a journey into her own desires. So it's very sexual. But my favorite parts were the historical fiction. Of course, it's like a retelling of Malon Nani's story and then also you know what happens here after, And it didn't remind me of Sinners, but there is one part where it's like that timeframe and she's like in jazz club, so that Saise, It did give me Sinners vibes for that part, and like, yeah, it's like her life as a viper throughout the decades, and but she's like, but something's missing. I gave up on love blah blah blah, and you love too, right, But yeah, she also talks about the past, like the colonial pre colonial and colonial times and how her mom sold her and that's how she ended up being given into cortes By. That was like a stepmom. So this book and the other book I read called Mali Nali both say it was her mom, so I'm not sure. Yeah, I thought it was like the new wife of her dad. Her dad died, her mom remarried, had a new kid, and then gave her up yet out to both of these books, and yeah, I just that historical piece was so interesting. And wait, let me see if I wrote. I didn't write a review because I don't like I don't write reviews. I just read books. But I think I wrote like notes on it. Okay, I'm just gonna this was like my free thought. Okay, my what did they call it? Free free thought? I don't know, but like I like my just my thoughts. As I finished it, I just was like, you know what I mean, yeah, freestyle thinking. I don't know it. There's a word for it. I don't remember anyway, I couldn't tell you. I put Jesus a vampire exclamation point. Judas also a vampire, but not a trader. He was also Judas Judas, Yeah Judas, Okay, because you know, we know him as the one who traded traded, and so there's an interesting parallel here between both of them being known as traders. He bonds with Nani because they're like, oh, both of our stories are remembered wrong by history. Okay, Okay. V Castro and nan Cortes a villainous vampire. Mali Nani a vampi badass getting revenge against her colonizers. Yeah, so that's like the descript said, she gets her the artifacts back. Yeah. But also he's the one that makes for a vampire oh my god. Yeah, he controls uh Mexico and make sures no like the vampire wise, I mean, make sure no, makes sure I'm gonna talk, make sure that no like colonizing vampire like vampires get into Mexico. He's like, never again, they am I living you guys? Okay. But yeah, there's also like there's a powerful like feminist retelling I guess of her story. But to me, so one thing I also read a while ago another book about Malee Nali called Malee Nali. I listened to it, I mean, but that one I didn't like because well, there was a lot of things I didn't like as much. I don't know if I wrote those down or not. It was a while ago I read it. Yeah, one thing I didn't like is that I feel like Mali because that's all in the past. There's no you know, she's not a vampire, and that one that's what was missing. Anything could be made better by vampires, but no. But so it was obviously set in the past during her life, and I felt like she thought in a modern American feminist way when it's that's not how she would think, That's not how she would I see, you know what I mean. And then the writing was kind of clunky, like very showy instead of no, very telling, instead of showing I think that's what they say, or have the phrase ghosts. So that's why I didn't like. And this one's kind of like that too, but not as much. And so all of that what I just said, you know, vampire stuff basically, and the historical fiction was really cool too. All of that it was enough for me to ignore the cringy sex scenes, which is what a lot of people hate about this book. And man, is it wild? The only thing I remember right now wild cringey, though not wild good. Yeah, wild cringeing okay, it's crazy. Well, another thing I didn't like in I think I said it in the Spanish epiloade is that this is a vampire who's lived hundreds of years, you know what I mean. I don't believe that she would find a random white man so hot and they living for that long. I don't know. Yeah, and so they have the craziest fucking sex. Okay. I remember there's this one line that I remember because it haunted me. Afterwards. They have like anal sets, right, and she's all like, I remember what they were doing. She's like they're making out or something. They did it already once and then she's like I want to counter and I put butter in my asshole like as lube, and I was like, excuse me, And maybe people are into that. You know, I don't wanna. I hate this phrase, but I don't want to yuck your yum lat. I don't like that phrase. It gives me the it's itchy for me to say that, but you know, like whatever, I don't wanna. You could have just said we don't want to kink shame. I couldn't remember that word. Okay, yeah, yeah, if you're into that, Okay, whatever, maybe I'm maybe something's wrong with me. I mean too, but the way that it's and then yeah, there was so there was a lot of that going on. I just put some butter in my asshole, so I went to the counter better. I was like, what girl? What? So, yeah, there was a lot of that, like my lips opened up for him, like things like that, And but I thought it was really cute how she meets Judas and how he helps her defeat at National Days. And then oh Nan Cortes had an evil sidekick, his helper or whatever. They did evil operations together. They had a they had a business preying on vampires because they were making like skincare for humans for to maintain their youth from the blood of vampires. So you know what would Yeah, he would. It's very accurate, and it's so funny because when it's his point of view. First of all, I didn't expect it to be in his point of view as well, so I was like whoa, whoa, whoa. And then he's he's just horrible. He's all like, yeah, I regret nothing. Those the colonizing I did. It was the best time of my life. The only thing I regret is I couldn't colonize him more. And I was like, no, but he would, right, he would, he would, he would say that. So it didn't try to redeem out him at all. That's good because that would have been some funniest shit ever though. But then, yeah, there's another historical figure who I want to say he's British but I forgot his name. And then him at the end he turns against a non Cortes and he helps out Maley, Nali and Judas, and there's a group of black vampires who have been hunting this British man who I forgot his name, okay, And they're like at the end, they all come together, beautiful, and they're like, just because you did this one good thing doesn't absolve you of the curocities. You have done your entire life. And so we're taking now and he's like, you're right, I'm going with you guys, okay, And I was like, yeah, it was a good time. It was a wild ride. Again. Some that the veccceines are too much for some people, and it ruins the whole book for me, to ruin it because everything else was like top notch for me. Yeah, but I liked it. Okay, but again it was a wild ride. Okay, okay, wow, I do recommend it, so though, I rated it out of five because it was such a wild ride and like for me, people like some reviews were like it was like a you know, when you watch something or you watch reality TV just because like you want to read something trashy. I didn't feel like it was trashy for me, but some people said that that that was like their kind of like how they read read it. For me, it was like campy VAMPI I'm sorry, I love a campy thing too. It's the media. I'm there, I am seated and I was yeah yeah. So a lot of the reviews said that that they didn't like it because of that it was like too much, too cheesy. The sex was like cringing. I liked it for out of five. Things don't have to be like, you know, literature, yeah, high row literature for me to give it four stars if I liked it, I had a good time for four stars. Okay, okay, four pieces of better around of five pieces of yes, yeah, all right, I do. I have a speaky recommendation. Oh the menu. I talked about it in the Spanish episode and watched the menu, and I thought, I don't think it was horror per se. I would consider it more of a thriller. But thrillers can be horror because they scare you anyway, writing like I'm not one of those like very strict uh definition, like no, that's a thriller movie. No, that's a drama a movie. So yeah, it was a good time. I also watched Night Bitch, which was a little silly and if you just lean into that silliness, and I kind of wish she really would have been turning into werewolf because that was all in her head, right, That's what I was way more fun. Yeah, it would have been way better if she was really turning into a were wolf. I think it could be made better by a werewolf or a vampire. Yeah, it would. It would have made the same points in the movie even if it was really a werewolf. Yeah, I think so. Really, it would have been just better to actually do it. They should have just leaned it all the way. Then I would have loved it more me. Yeah, I would have loved it more. Yes, but it is and bars were a little too cringy, but it was overall. I would recommend it just know that it's not. It was. It was marketed as a horror movie. It's not, it's not. That's what I also didn't. It's a dark comedy. Yeah. Yeah, And I read the book and I watched the movie, but it's the same thing, you know. Yeah, the book also not horror. It's yeah, and you know, I thought it was horror. I ended up reading it because it was one of my work book club picks, but my eyes were already on it, like I was already on my TVR because I thought it was horror. Yeah, and it was marketed in that way, and you know, sorry, go ahead, no, go on. Oh. I was just gonna say, I hate when something says it's horror and it's not. But when something doesn't say it's horror and it is, I love that, you know what I mean? No, exactly, just too dump it, just saying exactly, yes, I agree, and yeah, if it would have been like if she really would have been turning into a were wolf, and it would be a horror, and I would have loved that more. So. Yeah, those are the two things that I watched, and honestly, I would recommend both of them. If you know that it's not toined to serious. Yeah. Yeah, I started to watch a movie in Spanish because we has an episode about it, Virus thirty two. It's a zombie movie somewhere in South America. I don't remember if it's Chile or Hurricane Tina or not even those two. South America for sure, though, but I started putting it on when I was trying to do something else and I couldn't pay attention to I really need to focus on that Spanish because it's not the same as even like, you know, Mexican Spanish is what I know best, so it's not the same. And so a lot went over my head, and I'm like, I really need to watch it with subtitles because there's a lot of slaying that I don't know the context of as well. So I started that and it was about to start getting crazy, but I was like, I need to pause this because I don't know what's going on. But I'm excited to finish that one. And there's another zombie movie that I never finished, and I'm like, why didn't I finish this? And people were describing it as more drama with zombie, which I was like, Okay, I still love that because that's what The Walking Dead was. It wasn't just zombies. It was drama with zombies in the background. I love that, and of course that's what all zombie shows are going to be, because yeah, humans are going to be humans wherever the situation is, right right, And this was a Filipino zombie movie. It's on Netflix. It's the only Filipino zombie movie on Netflix. So you can find it that way because I don't remember the name. Actually, I should just search for it really quick. Hold on, ah, yes, it's called Outside. Yeah, it's a Filipino zombie movie. I was trying to see what it was like a rading, but I don't see five point one out of ten on IMDb. I'm still gonna watch it. I don't care because I mean, how many Filipino movies or is Filipino zombie movies are out there? I gotta watch it. So yeah, I started watching that a long time ago and I never finished. So those are two things that are zombie things that I need to finish. Yeah, I guess that brings us to the end of the episode, all right, Right before we go, I did want to add if you want to support us on Patreon, we were gone during our break, but we were not gone from Patreon. We were still over there, and so there's a vlog from our La road trip that's basically just the road trip. We didn't we didn't record anything else because we suck up logging. And then there's also other things, a lot of things over there. Bonus episodes. We have like extended versions of ad like the full normal episode, but sometimes we yap before we get to the stories. So those extended versions are on Patreon AD free, and that's at the lowest level. So yeah, if those things sound cool, then yeah, check us out. We also have an exclusive keychain for the eight dollars members that you know, if you want the keychain and then you want to downgrade it, that's fine, You're just gonna do the payment once. So so yeah, other than that, watch out for watch out for said Makas and Papaka Nicas. Honestly, Paknas is who you need to just one to watch out for. Yeah, yeah, and yeah, stay a spooky We'll catch everyone next time. Bye. Spooktels is hosted by Christina and Carmen, produced and edited by Christina, researched by Christina Carmen, and with the help of Don shout out with Don. If you aren't joying the podcast considerably, going to say five star review, we would really appreciate it. 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