Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ing out in 1821, and López killed Ramírez. The only nonmilitary
figure of the era, Bernardino Rivadavia, claimed the directorship of
the United Provinces in 1826. He ambitiously enacted numerous
“reform” laws totally out of cadence with the political rhythm of the
country, annoyed the caudillo governors of the interior, alienated the
landowners of his own home province of Buenos Aires, and resigned
his office in less than two years.
THE ORIGINS OF AN ARGENTINE
SAINT: LA DIFUNTA CORREA
T
The incessant civil disturbances during the decades that followed
Argentine independence were devastating for the people and the
country, and the troubled times gave rise to Argentina's popular patron
saint. As the Mexicans have their Virgin of Guadalupe, Argentines today
have their mother figure, la Difunta Correa, (the deceased woman
Correa). Neither the Vatican nor the Argentine Catholic Church offi-
cially recognizes la Difunta, but that does not prevent an estimated
600,000 devotees from visiting her remote shrine in the Andean foot-
hills of La Rioja province every year.
Señora Deolinda Correa was a victim of the interminable civil wars
of the first half of the 19th century. Sometime in the 1840s, Correa
was carrying her infant son as she followed her husband's military unit
crossing the barren desert of western Argentina. Exhausted and hungry,
she died of heat stroke along the trail. Legend has it that muleteers
later found her body, with her son still alive, suckling at her breast. The
scene was interpreted to represent the miracle of motherly love, and
the legend spread by word of mouth throughout the region. Much later,
in 1895, some herdsmen lost their cattle in a dust storm and appealed
to la Difunta for assistance. The herd miraculously reappeared the next
day, and in appreciation, the cattlemen built a monument on the hill
where her remains were buried.
Today, all across Argentina, travelers and truck drivers stop by little
roadside shrines to pay homage to la Difunta, light a candle, and ask for
help. Those who seek special favors—health for a loved one, success
at university examinations, a new vehicle—will visit the original shrine
nestled on a foothill of the Andean mountains, where centuries before,
the indigenous peoples of these parts had prayed at similar shrines to
Pachamama, the goddess Mother Earth.
