Mi historias de viajes 2: Gauchito Gill y Difunta Correa

Hola! Que tal amigos? In the second part of my stories from South America, we're going to cross back over the Andes to Argentina and this was something that totally fascinated me when I was traveling in Argentina. You see, Argentina is a massive country - it is in fact the world's eighth biggest country just behind India. I traveled around Argentina mostly using internal flights but there were still many, many miles covered on road and if you ever visit Argentina, get ready for some insanely long bus rides. Thankfully, most buses are quite comfortable and come with toilets, so that makes your 8-hour bus journey more bearable. I slept a lot on those crazy long bus journeys but I also like looking out of the window, simply observing the landscape. Often, I found myself simply staring out into the wilderness, with no sign of any civilization, just trying to spot animals in the distance. But one feature that I noticed and became very interested in are these shrines by the side of the road - now you will only find these in rural areas, rather than in the middle of cities. At first I thought these were Christian shrines - Argentina is after all, a very Catholic country - with 76% of the population identifying as Christian (and 66% as Catholic). Less than 1% of the population identify themselves as either Muslim or Jewish, with 21% identifying themselves as having no religion. Then there's this whole somewhat grey area which is midway between religion and folklore which is so much a part of Argentinian identity and culture which I'll talk about now.

But if you were to look a bit more carefully at these shrines (if your bus ever slows down enough - you're more than likely to zip right past these beautiful shrines at nearly 100 km/hr), there are two kinds of shrines that will stand out. Welcome to the fascinating world of popular Argentinian cults. The first is the shrine to Gauchito Gil - which is mostly red and the more elaborate ones will have big red ribbons and flags flying in the wind, the other one is the Difunta Correa shrine which you may initially mistake for a bottle recycling facility or even a pile of rubbish. More on Difunta Correa later, let's start with the fascinating story of Gauchito Gil. Here's his story in a nutshell, but I suggest you read the full version on Wikipedia here. He was an Argentinian outlaw, a Robin Hood figure who died in 1878 - as the story goes, he was a wanted man and when he was captured by a police colonel, he told his captors that there will be a letter for his pardon when they get home, but not only that, that his captor's son would be very ill but if they let him go, he will cure his captor's son. His captor laughed and slit Gauchito Gil's throat, killing him thus. But when his captor the colonel returned home, he did indeed find a letter for Gil's pardon and his son was indeed so sick he was about to die. He then prayed all night to Gil and miraculously, his son made a recovery the next day. There are so many different versions of this story as they have been told and retold over the generations in Argentina, but the basic premise is the same: you can ask Gauchito Gil for anything - maybe you really like a beautiful lady at work and you want to ask her out on a date, maybe you want to get a promotion at work, maybe you want something bad to happen to someone you hate, maybe you want your husband to recover from an illness or maybe you're just sick and tired of being poor and you'd like to get rich quick and if you get what you want, you have to leave an offering at the shrine. Your offering can be anything from money, candy, red ribbons and flags, red candles, flowers or if you're really very grateful, build your own shrine to Gauchito Gil.

Then there's the famous water shrines to Difunta Correa ('the deceased Correa'): as the legend goes (again, this is the super short summary, read the full story on Wikipedia here) around the year 1840, Deolinda Correa went into the desert near the city of San Juan with her baby to look for her sick husband, however, she ran out of supplies and died of thirst in the harsh environment. Her body was found many days later by Gauchos who were astonished that her baby survived ordeal, still happily suckling on her breasts that didn't run out of milk even after she died. Hence the legend of the dead mother with the immortal breasts - some shrines of Correa are quite sexual, portraying her with voluptuous breasts on display, nourishing her baby. Whilst others are more PG, portraying her like the Virgin Mary, a perfect mother and devoted wife - lovingly caring for her baby. The most common offering left at Correa shrines are bottles of water, as she did die of thirst in the desert - so to the passenger passing such a 'water shrine' by the ride of the road, you may think, "gosh that's a big pile of rubbish there" or "is that a plastic bottle recycling site?" But of course, as with Gauchito Gil, you can leave anything to express your devotion at the shrine, though a bottle of water is often the offering of choice. Despite the overtly sexualized image of Correa and the uncanny focus on her breasts, it is often women who pray to her, so for example, if an Argentinian woman wants to find a good husband, she would pray to Correa and leave an offering at the shrine. But of course you can ask Correa for anything, say if you have an important exam coming up and you want good grades, you can ask Correa to bless your efforts and if you do get the grades you want, you're obliged to leave her an offering afterwards to express your gratitude. Oh it can be as simple as a bottle of water but it is the thought that counts.

Here's the thing: neither Gil nor Correa are part of any kind of Christian faith - one might use the words 'local folklore' or even 'religious cults' to describe their immense popularity in Argentina. Yet of course, the kind of relationship that the Argentinians have with Gil and Correa isn't dissimilar to the ones they have within their Christian faith. Indeed, an Argentinian person could go to mass at church then visit a Gauchito Gil and/or a Difunta Correa shrine on the same afternoon, whilst praying for the very same things. I suppose it is a question of hedging your bets - say you have started a new business, it is struggling and you're desperate for it to become a success: so you pray to anyone and everyone who can give you a bit of divine intervention to help you make a profit soon. Well technically speaking, if you are a devote Christian, you shouldn't be praying to any other god or deity (this is known as monotheism - the belief that there is only one true god) but the Argentinians have decided that there is no real conflict and have no problem with that rule. I find that a bit hard to get my head around, as I can't imagine a Christian wandering into a mosque to pray to Allah, then nipping into the nearby Hindu temple to pray to a few more Hindu gods - then why stop there? Why not go on to the local synagogue and the Buddhist temple too? Indeed, I have seen Christian shrines right next to Gil and Correa shrines in the countryside - it isn't uncommon to see mainstream religion being blended with local beliefs and folklore in many parts of the world, but I suppose for me, it was just something new since I've not lived in a part of the world where this kind of practice is commonplace. In Mexico for example, goodness me, they have so many different kinds of non-Christian 'saints' and local folklore heroes that people pray in the very same way they would pray to their Christian god. And in other parts of Latin America, there is usually a mix of indigenous beliefs blended into their local brand of Christianity too.

I find the whole concept about Gil and Correa fascinating - after all, there's a Bible and libraries worth of theology about the rules of being a Christian, whereas with Gil for example, well you are free from those rules. So you can ask for things which would other seem unethical or even immoral within conventional Christian rules: for example, your best friend has a really hot girlfriend and you wish to have sex with her. You can thus pray to Gauchito Gil and ask him to make her really drunk at the party on the weekend so she will have sex with you. Yeah, that kind of wish would probably not be the kind of request you make when on your knees, praying at mass in the Catholic church because, well, where do I even begin? The bible teaches you not to covet things that are not yours: "you shall not covet your neighbor's wife". And let's not even get started about sex! Yet with Gil, there's almost this 'anything goes' when it comes to asking for wishes, you are free from conventional Christian morality and if you covet your best friend's girlfriend, then you can park your Christian morality aside ask Gil for anything you want. I suppose being an atheist, I find it a lot easier to ask Gil or Correa to help me when I need something - I would feel like a total hypocrite to ask Jesus for any kind of help having renounce Christianity over 20 years ago and declaring that I am an atheist now. I have closed that door in my mind for good and have no intention of reopening it. When I lost my rental skis in Valle Nevado, I did ask Gil to help me resolve the matter and sure enough my wish came true (details in my previous post) and in return, I promised Gil I would spread the word about him to a whole new audience through my blog - that is my form of offering to thank Gil for the help I got from him.

I managed to make a lot of friends on this trip, so I had to ask a local for his opinion on Gauchito Gil and Correa and this was the story I was told, I can't independently verify the facts of course but I thought it was worth sharing. My friend Juan (not his real name) told me this story: "I live in a small town near Bariloche and even Bariloche isn't a particularly big city by Argentinian standards, so as you can imagine being a gay man in a small town, it can be frustrating trying to meet guys and thankfully there's the internet and I watch a lot of internet porn. So a few years ago, I had to go to Buenos Aires for work for about a couple of days and I knew of this famous Argentinian gay porn star - there aren't that many openly gay men doing porn in Argentina so like this guy is so famous and I don't know what possessed me: I found his website, sent him a message, told him I was a big fan and that I was going to be in Buenos Aires. I then thought, that's ridiculous, he's so beautiful and famous, I'm just a nobody from a small town, why the hell would he want to meet me? But when I passed the Gauchito Gil shrine on the way to the airport, I stopped there, made an offering and prayed. I just wanted to meet my idol, my favourite porn star, I wanted nothing more. When I arrived at Jorge Newbury airport in Buenos Aires, he had already replied to my email. Not only did we meet - wow, he invited me back to his place and I had the most unforgettable two hours ten minutes of my life there with my favourite porn star. Oh I am not making this part up, I don't know what he saw in me, I'm not that good looking, I'm older than him, he could have any gay man in South America he wanted. It was a one-off of course, he never replied to my messages again and I didn't expect him to. The only way I could have accounted for what happened was Guachito Gil's intervention. It's not the kind of thing I could ask Jesus for in my prayers at church, but I don't know how to explain it: Gil has a special kind of magic for people who believe in him. It really works, I just know it does. Gil is real. 100% real. I simply can't explain what happened in Buenos Aires otherwise."

I asked Juan what his religion was and without hesitation he declared that he was a Catholic - he was born into a Catholic family, he was baptized and brought up in the Catholic tradition. Puzzled, I asked if he saw any conflict in worshiping Gil like that and he didn't seem to understand my question. So I switched to English and asked the same question again, because I wasn't sure if I had explained myself adequately in Spanish. His answer explained his way of thinking but still left me somewhat dissatisfied. "If you want to buy medicine for your cough,  you would go to a pharmacy right? If you want to buy a nice bouquet of flowers, then you would go to the florist right? And if I want to eat a cheeseburger and french fries, I would go to a fast food restaurant like McDonald's, yeah? Would you go to McDonald's if you want to buy some medicine for your headache, a pair of shoes or if you needed a bouquet of flowers for a special friend? No, you would have to go to the right place to find what you need. So if my mother is very sick and I wanted to pray for her recovery, then of course I would run to the church because I think god would care and listen to me pray for my mother. But say if I wanted my football team to win this important match this weekend, I seriously don't think that Jesus really cares whether or not Cruz del Sur (the local team from Bariloche) wins or loses in the next match they play and if you think that Jesus is going to care just because you prayed or gave money at the church, then you're seriously deluded. That's not how it works, but with with Gauchito Gil, you can ask for anything and you don't have to ask silly questions like if he will care. You can ask him to help your football team win the next match, you can ask him to help you meet your favourite porn star, you can ask him for things like that and he will listen. Sometimes you go to church to pray, sometimes you go to the Gauchito Gil shrine, or sometimes you may do both - it depends on the occasion, the situation."

But why Gauchito Gil then, I asked Juan, why didn't he asked Difunta Correa to help him meet his favourite porn star? He just made a face and said, "I'm a man, Correa's a woman. Remember what I said about going to the right place for the right thing? Praying to Correa would be barking up the wrong tree - she wouldn't approve of me wanting to meet one of Argentina's most amazing gay porn stars but Gil would probably laugh and think that was awesome. In any case, it works. I have asked Gil for many things before and he has delivered many miracles, I have all the proof I need to believe with all my heart and soul. Look, my friend, I can't promise it will work for you if you ask him for something, but for me, I am so grateful for all the many miracles I have received from Gil." There are other minor cult figures that Argentinians pray to and you can find the full list here on Wikipedia, but none of them are quite as popular as the two I have focused on in this article. Quite interestingly enough, Diego Maradona - the famous Argentinian footballer - is actually on that list though he is still alive today and that would make him a living saint. Oddly enough, two other wildly popular Argentinians are not on that list: Carlos Gardel and Eva Peron. Now you may not have heard of Gardel (well not unless you are very interested in Tango music), but certainly everyone would know who Eva Peron is,  especially after the hugely successful musical and subsequent movie based on the musical 'Evita'. Yet for some reason, Evita isn't up there with Gil or Correa in the hearts of the Argentinian people when it comes to this particular aspect of Argentinian cult religions - I would have thought that she was venerated as a saint of all Argentinians, or maybe that was just the impression that the movie gave me. Can you imagine big shrines to Evita all over Argentina?  I certainly can - but those don't exist, well not yet anyway.

So there you go, what do you think? Have you ever encountered societies and cultures where they mix folklore with mainstream religion? How would you feel about praying to someone like Guachito Gil when you have lost something important (like your rental skis) and you need a minor miracle? Do you know of people who practice Christianity but dabble in some other kind of folklore based cult worship? How is this different from mainstream Catholicism where they have so many different saints to pray to - or Hinduism where you have so many different gods to worship? What about the very large number of deities that Chinese people pray to within the bigger umbrella of 'Chinese folk religion'? Hence by that token, how is this aspect of Argentinian culture really that unusual or unorthodox then? Many thanks for reading!