Gauchito Gil Redux

Our Argentine correspondent sends us this article from Santa Fe daily El Litoral dated 8 Janary 2008. Gauchito Gil was previously discussed here. Translation forthcoming. Until then try your luck with an online translator.

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Update 13 January. The following translation was made with the assistance of http://www.freetranslation.com/; Cassell's Spanish-English Dictionary (1978); and Ximena Faya.

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Miraculous powers are attributed to him

Thousands of pilgrims in Corrientes to honor Gauchito Gil

Today is the anniversary of his murder, according to legend, by a police patrol.

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Thousands of pilgrims arrived at a site located in the neighborhood of the city of Mercedes in Corrientes where they paid homage to Gauchito Gil. Today is the anniversary of the day on which, according to legend, he was murdered by a police patrol and since which time miraculous powers have been attributed to him.

Municipal and police sources reported that the faithful have come from all corners and since yesterday have occupied the installations adjacent to the place where Jesus Antonio de la Cruz Gil, best-known as Gauchito Gil, is buried.

In this place a kind of oratory was built and has since given rise all manner of pilgrimage-based commerce, converting the popular rite into a lucrative business.

The sanctuary of Gauchito Gil, located at some 8 kilometers from the center of Mercedes and some 275 kilometers from the city of Corrientes, each year at this time harbors devotees from different points of the country and even neighboring countries.

In 2007 more than 120 thousand people came on January 8 "to salute" Gauchito.

An increased presence of provincial and National Police has been mounted in the zone since last Sunday. It is a matter of preventing not only accidents or fights, somewhat common due to the conglomeration of people and to the excessive consumption of alcohol, but also other types of crime such as contraband merchandise and drug trafficking that in previous years have proliferated in a significantly.

In the early hours today the bulk of the pilgrims arrived, above all from the delegations of other provinces, that arrived together in order to pass "a few hours" in the sanctuary.

A legend that grows

According to popular tradition, Gaucho Gil lived in the period between end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. For his followers he was responsible for bringing a little justice to the disparities of the epoch, stealing from the wealthy to help those in need.

Nevertheless, for the authorities of that time, Antonio de la Cruz Gil was a dishonorable gaucho, a deserter from the Army and a murderous thief. They searched for him intensely until he was trapped in an ambush and killed. The "legend" indicates that in the moments prior to his death he managed to speak with the policeman who wounded him; Gil indicated that his son, seriously ill, would be cured when he returned to his home.

Apparently, when the policeman returned to his dwelling, he found his son cured of his pain and from this the belief in Gaucho Gil’s miraculous powers was born.The legend grew over time, winning increasingly more followers and becoming one of the most popular rites in all the Argentine territory.

A little history

For Félix Coluccio, investigator of the American folk tradition, the gaucho Antonio Mamerto Gil Núñez, or Antonio Gil, or Curuzú Gil had in the middle of the last century a band that "divested money from the rich to give to the poor". The denomination "curuzú" signifies cross.

His greater significance dates from between 1840 and 1860, an epoch of small guerilla bands and their leaders. His life is wrapped in thousand tangles; it is said that he was an exploited laborer that became cunning, that he participated in the war with Paraguay under the orders of one General Madariaga, and that he was executed as a deserter.

According to Mrs. Anabel Miraflores, her mother Estrella Díaz of Miraflores, a rich land owner, had an affair with Gil at the same time she was the intended of the local police chief. This, and the hatred of her brothers, caused Curuzú to flee Pay Ubre and he enlisted in the Paraguay War.

After the fall of Rosas the federal litoraleños [residents of the Littoral, a region of Argentina] were divided into two factions: Reds (traditionalists of the divisa punzó or autonomistas) and Celestials (liberals) According to the legends, Gil was recruited by the Celestial colonel Juan de la Cruz Salazar, and as the gauchito was sympathetic to the Reds, took advantage of an opportunity afforded him by the negligence of his unit and deserted with mestizo Ramiro Brown and the criollo Francisco Gonzalez; companions whose path led them to become famous brigands.

His companions were killed by shots from a blunderbuss and the gaucho was put under arrest and taken to Goya. In spite of the intercession of one Colonel Velázquez, he was hung upside-down from a carob tree (on the way to Goya, at some 8 kilometers from Mercedes) and beheaded. Apparently he was hung that way to elude his reputed hypnotic powers and to avoid the influence of the payé (talisman) of San la Muerte that he had hanging around his neck.

Mouse Problem? Call....Lucifer?

What obviously strikes one's "WTF?!" button first is the name of this here product, a standard mousetrap, that quaint killing machine whose efficient simplicity has given rise to an expression to describe useless endeavors. (No, not "blogging") "Building a better moustrap." Squaring the wheel, essentially. The one pictured here was found at a rural supermarket for a euro, hanging out among lightbulbs and bottles of butane.

But yeah, wtf indeed? "Lucifer?" Can you imagine that flying in the US of A? Procter & Gamble used to use the man in the moon and thirteen stars as a logo and as of 1995 were still trying to shake off charges of Satanism. They've even got a current webpage with info on how "To contact Procter & Gamble about the trademark rumor." Get behind me Satan!

Conveniently, Lucifer's makers have burned their web address on the face of the product. A sign o' the times somehow both incredibly odd and perfectly logical at the same time. Why wouldn't you put it on there?

So, according to the site:

The Compagny Masy Père et Fils is a family company with around 20 employees. [Why don't they know the exact number of employees?]

Based at Nouvion le Comte since 1920 (Aisne department) it has been in business for over a century and is the originator of the design behind the registered trademark "LUCIFER".

Its core business activity is manufacturing mouse traps. It is the only French manufacturer of this product, and supplies 80 % of the national market.

In addition to an assortment of traps and other rodent-busting products, the company makes "food safes" and trestles. Satanic ones.

Post Script: A stumbled-upon article by the improbably-named Texe Marrs points out that there is in fact an American company in the US called Lucifer Lighting. A web search confirms it. "We find our inspiration in many places. But at Lucifer, it all comes back to lighting." The name is so self-evident yet so blatantly provocative in a land where the likes of Texe Marrs are roaming about one can't help but wonder.... (insert Vincent Price laughter here)

Texe pictures an "Illuminati Eye" as seen in a Starbuck's window on his page but neglects to include the Starbuck's logo itself in his list of suspicious icons. It always struck us as a bit darewesay "occult" and lo! maybe there's a good reason for that after all. This oldy but goody traces the origin of the logo to a 15th century engraving of a two-tailed mermaid certainly of alchemical provenance.

Book of Insults

...the suffering could be read on each body, as a document written in insults to flesh and bone...

-- Pynchon, Against the Day, Pt. III, p. 654

Wish I'd heard the crying of Lot # 181 at Wilkinson's Auction![1]

A Rare & Macabre Early 17th Century Anthropodermic Bound Book in carrying box. The book entitiled; 'A True and Perfect Relation of The Whole Proceedings against the Late most barbarous Traitors, Garnet a Jesuit and his Confederats'; Printed London 1606 by Robert Barker, printer to the King and believed to be bound in human skin[2], possibly that of the aforementioned Jesuit Priest; Father Henry Garnet.

But books, snooks: The Brits apparently nailed Viking hides to their church doors—a caution to would be marauders. "It would seem," notes FoxEarth, "to be ascribing a meticulous care to the Anglo-Saxons to take the existing hinges off in order to mount the Danes' skin."

If you're interested in bounding books and doors (and yourself, Mr. Gein) with human skin but you cannot spare the flesh, here is the workshop for you:[3]

Sunday Dec 2nd 11am to 5pm - Mini Tissue Engineering workshop and lecture ... University of Western Australia (sorry, sold out): Tissue culture and tissue engineering represent a new area for artistic engagement ... Tissue engineering enable researchers to grow three dimensional living tissues constructs of varying sizes, shapes and tissue types. This half-day hands on intensive workshop will introduce … people to basic principals of animal tissue culture ... The workshop will involve a demonstration for how to extract and cultivate stem cells from bones bought at the butcher. These advanced techniques can be done with homemade equipment and kitchen gear.

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[1]"Contact your postmaster!" cried our friends on the Pynchon-L, noting that "Lot 49 is some kinda pot!"

[2] Of course there are many other Necromicon wanna-be’s, including this here reverse-Faustian-twist: "The Boston Athenaeum, a private library, has an 1837 copy of George Walton's memoirs bound in his own skin. Walton was a highwayman -- a robber who specialized in ambushing travelers -- and he left the volume to one of his victims, John Fenno."

[3] We thank BoingBoing for bringing this class & the Wilkinson’s Auction Item to attention.

Welcome to Visions of Jesus Christ.com

This site is a collection of weeping statues, weeping icons, miraculous images and a list of Catholic visionaries who are associated with Marian apparitions.

'Nuff said, really.

It was fortuitous that Laws of Silence stumbled onto Visions of Jesus via the page about the rather gruesome Bolivian weeping icon we've pictured with this here blog entry, for he's macabre enough to excite the morbid imagination and invite further exploration of the site.

Although the site is evidently reverential and comes from a standpoint of faith, there are lots of good photos and lore to be found for those seeking to learn more about "miraculous" icons. And hey, why not put it into some context with a dubious Wikipedia link to Weeping statues. While you're at it, take a peep at Marian apparitions.

The Tale of the Lambton Worm

The Laws of Silence recently reported two tales of water & death: the fountain sprung from the sarcophagus of St. Fris & the haunted falls at the heart of Minneapolis. Another such tale stems from Sunderland (North East England); this tale is said to be at least 500 years older than the stories of the Loch Ness Monster.

Our story starts with Young John Lambton, heir of the Lambton estate, a rich young punk who shirked his duty and smirked at misdeeds. Skipping church one Sunday to fish the River Wear (rhymes with “near”), he pulled out a hideous open-gilled eel; disgusted, he tossed the foul thing into the peasants’ well (one can picture the jerk taking a piss in the waters right after)—echoic of the French tales of Gargantua, living in a well where people tossed stones at his head.

But the weight of duty cannot be escaped so easily: shrugged from young John’s shoulders, it weighed upon his heart, a burden of guilt. After a restless Sunday night, a weary Monday morning found Lambton at church, where the priest sent him to the Crusades in penance.

Nine battle-weary years later, Lambton found his homelands in the grips of terror. First the well had grown foul; soon nearby sheep and cattle were vanishing in the night. A ring of terror and death spanned outward from the well, a navel with the umbilical worm grown gargantuan in John’s absence A few brave souls challenged the beast, but whenever it was hacked by swords it healed itself, rejoining its cleaved halves and smothering its would-be killers in a constricting embrace before devouring their lifeless bodies. John’s weary old father surrendered into truce, leaving nightly offerings for the beast outside his castle: a trough filled with milk from nine cows seemed to satiate the dragon’s ravenous hunger ("worm" stems from older words meaning "dragon"). The once proud ruler was emasculated, reduced to a wet nurse for his son’s worm.

John Lambton had turned to a priest when guilt engulfed his heart, but he turned to a witch when the worm engulfed his lands. The witch gave John a plan of attack but told him that once the serpent was defeated he was required to kill the first living thing he saw; should he fail, shirking from this duty, the Lambtons would be cursed—for nine generations, none would die in bed. (This type of deal is know as Jephthah’s Vow in reference to a similar bargain related in Old Testament, Judges 11:30-35.)

Lambton followed the witch’s plans: he crafted razor-spiked armor, waited for river-swelling rains, and rowed a boat to a rocky stand in the Wear. The Lambton worm sensed the challenge and rushed forth to kill its former captor. It coiled round the Crusader and constricted; but the tighter it gripped, the more the armor cut into its flesh. John stood fast as the serpent cleaved itself, its severed flesh rushing off in the roaring waters which prevented it from rejoining itself.

John rowed back to shore and trumpeted victory with his hunting horn, the prearranged signal to his father who was supposed to release a hound for John’s required sacrifice. But the elder Lambton, overcome with joy and relief, tottered out of the castle, arms held out wide for his son—he was the first living thing to fall under John’s horrified gaze. All John had to do was meet his father’s embrace; the razor-sharp armor would do the rest—but he could not fulfill his duty. He shouted for a hound and killed it in desperation.

History shows that nine generations of Lambtons died a violent death.

As an interesting side note, Lewis Carroll spent lots of time in Sunderland. Was Alice’s trip down the rabbit hole inspired in part by this tale of a beast in a well?

We leave you a few final questions: Why are death & water so often linked? Is it simply that water is associated with life and the desecration of water therefore a harbinger of death? Then why the River Styx? And why is slipping into the earth so often associated with surrealist adventures? Our recently posted examination of the desecration of the Mississippi suggests that these are not just the stuff of European tales of yore: elemental water and earth continue to hold sway in the shadowy realm of ... imagination?

Recommended for further reading on the Lambton Worm:

• Mason & Dixon, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 60
• Alice in Sunderland, Bryan Talbot
• The Bishoprick Garland, Sir Cuthbert Sharpe gathered 30-some versions of this tale in 1834. There were a couple reprints, but it’s still an uncommon work. We would be incredibly grateful to anyone who could supply us with a scan of the relevant pages in the The Bishoprick Garland.