Who, what, or where am I? #08
What are we? When and why are we used? And where do we come from?
6 Answers
They are worry dolls, or muñecas quitapenas, from Guatemala!
My mother gave me some when I was little because I kept having nightmares. You are supposed to whisper your worries or troubles to them and they will worry about it for you, so you don't have to.
es una marioneta de palo is it a stick puppet
I think they are finger puppets. When I was in Peru, the children made finger puppets to sell on the streets.
Creo que son títeres de dedo. Cuando estuve en Perú, los niños hicieron títeres de dedo para vender en las calles.
Son tan bonitas... las muñequitas. He visto en las tiendas aqui en los estados unidos .
No, although they do sell us on the streets, we are no finger puppets and neither are we from Peru.
No, aunque se nos venden en las calles, no somos títeres de dedo ni somos de Perú tampoco.
Yeahhhh, Paralee hit the jackpot this time 
We are indeed muñecas quitapenas = worry or trouble dolls and we are traditionally made in Guatemala. We are very small and colorful and we can be made from various materials.
We are given to children that cannot sleep due to worrying. The children express their worries to us (one worry to each doll!) and place us under their pillow before they go sleep. We take all the worries away while the child is asleep. Sometimes parents take us away to emphasize the removal of the worries.
Some hospitals use us as well. Serious research is done whether we can be of any help in children's cancer treatment.
