Very regularly, we spotted small shrines and sometimes even small buildings with picknickareas and bbq’s, covered in red. We wondered what it was and why all the red and looked it up. They are shrines for Gauchito Gil, a legend here in Argentina.

In broad terms the legend tells that Antonio Gil was a farmworker and that a wealthy widow fell in love, or had an affair, with him. When her brothers and the head of the police (who was also in love with the widow) found out about ddtheir relationship, accused him of robbery and tried to kill him. He enlisted in the army to escape from them. In the army, he fought against the Paraguayan army. Finally, he could come back to his village as a hero.

But, when he arrived at his village, he was forced to return to the army to fight in the Argentine Civil war. It was a brother versus brother war and “Gauchito” Gil was tired of fighting. Therefore, he decided to desert. During this time he became an outlaw and acquired a reputation as a Robin Hood figure, for his efforts to protect and help the needy.

In the end the policemen caught him in the forest. They tortured him and hung him from his feet on an tree. When a policeman was going to kill him, “Gauchito” Gil said to him: “Your son is very ill. If you pray and beg me to save your child, I promise you that he will live. If not, he will die”. Then the policeman killed “Gauchito” Gil by cutting his throat. That was January 8, 1878.

When the policemen came back to his village, the one who had killed “Gauchito” Gil learned that his child was in fact very ill. Very frightened, the policeman prayed to “Gauchito” Gil for his son. And afterwards, his son got better. Legend has it that “Gauchito” Gil had healed his murderer’s son.

Very grateful, the policeman gave Gil’s body a proper burial, and built a tiny shrine for “Gauchito”. Moreover, he tried to let everybody know about the miracle.

Now, he’s considered a saint here in Argentina and people bring offerings like water, (red) wine and other red articles to the shrines in order to have a good journey. We have a picture of him on our handlebar bag and hope it will bring us good luck on the road from now on. But till today it only brought us a hard headwind…