El Gauchito

When I had been traveling through Argentina, I had been attracted by small shrines throughout the country being dedicated to El Gauchito. Someone told me he been the only member of a leftist party out of Patagonia, who had been murdered by the junta. But that has been wrong information. El Gauchito isn’t  a phenomenon exclusively in Patagonia and he has been venerated by the people for a much longer period.

Gauchito Gil had been born as Antonio Mamerto Gil Núñez in what is now Mercedes, Corrientes, most probably during the 1840s. He died in 1878. But before he became an outlaw like Robin Hood, because “he robbed the rich and befriended the poor”.

Shrine of El Gauchito near Rio Turbio 

You see these shrineS along roads and El Gauchito is venerated by the people, but The Catholic Church has not accepted him as a saint, however, there are people, who try to change this. Maybe they have a better chance, because Francisco, the pope, is from Argentina.