I really don’t know where this should go, so I’m making the thread in Spirits, evocation and possession.
In the southern cone, speacially in Argentina, there is a firm devotion for “El gauchito Gil”. Gil is the last name and a gaucho is the Pampas equivalent of a cowboy. The subfix -ito means that something is small, but can be used, as it is the case, the denote something that’s dear to your heart.
There are sanctuaries devoted to his figure and many catholics think of him as a Saint-to-be, since Antonio Mamerto Gil was a real, well documented, individual. As the story goes, he was summary executed by a cop, but before he died, Gil told him “When you finally go home, you’ll find your son sick. He will die. But call me and I will heal him”. What’s the real story and what know it is a mystery, but according to the legend, the cop found his son dying and, in despair, called the name of the man he killed. The kid recovered.
There are many stories about el gauchito Gil healing people, but there are also stories of people getting out of a dire situation of almost any order. Sometimes urgent situations, sometimes not. People do not says they do pacts; they do promises. Surprisingly, I’ve met quite some of his followers. Including one BEFORE this person made his promise. It worked.
Personally, I called it bullshit for a long time. But since I started learning about the occult, that’s not the case. Today I remembered about this and wanted to know the general opinion about him. What could it be, if any? Many similar figures do exist across South America, but this may be the most famous one.
One interesting point is that he wasn’t a common gaucho, but a “bandido rural”, an outlaw. He had blood on his hands and wasn’t a paragon of virtue during his life. His following in the southern cone is way bigger than Santa Muerte and other similar spirits. Some people has used his name against curses from the Africanist tradition. If this works or not, it is not for me to say, I just know the stories.
Here is an artist rendition.