Gila Giraldo

Gila Giraldo, better known as La Serrana de la Vera (Gargantalaolla, the last third of the XV century - Plasencia, first third of the sixteenth century), was a serial killer of Spanish history that inspired many legends, romances and plays of the Golden Age.

According to legend, he was a native of Gargantalaolla, a few leagues from Plasencia. In the days of the Catholic Kings came Don Lucas de Carvajal, captain of arms, in search of soldiers. He asked for lodging at the Giraldo's house. Gila refused and chased him all over the town with his hunting-rifle shotgun to his side. Don Lucas vowed to return and revenge himself with Gila's deception, which he complied with by cheating and winning his honor. Discovered the deception, Gila took revenge in turn throwing Don Lucas by a ravine. He fled to the mountains, where he survived in a cave as a mountain range tending cattle. When a traveler was lost, he was received by her in the cave, and after a copious meal and drink and sexual acts to fatigue and sleep, was beheaded, so that at the bottom of the cave, different bones could be seen. So far the legend according to the version of Luis Vélez de Guevara and the novels; historically could represent a real woman, Isabel de Carvajal.

Real historical events were probably mixed with the legends and myths of Extremadura mountain, women who lived in the mountains and lived a life of elemental rusticity.

Gila was captured and died with gallantry and serenity executed in the Plaza de Plasencia. The character stars not less than twenty-one versions of romances and later is treated in each theatrical pieces of Luis Vélez de Guevara (1613), Lope de Vega (1617) and a version "to the divine" of Jose de Valdivielso. Sources

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