As legend has it, Gaucho Gil (Antonio Mamerto Gil Núñez) was an army deserter
who stole from the rich to give to the poor, a la Robin Hood. He was eventually captured, but was later pardoned by the governor of San Juan Province in 1878. However, the official pardon was not delivered until after he was hung upside down and had his throat slit, as was the custom for army deserters. He is alleged to have said to his executioner, "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". The executioner returned home to find his son indeed gravely ill. He left his sick son and built a cross, which he planted at the place of Gaucho Gil’s execution. His son was soon healed. Since then believers in Gil’s divine miracles have visited the execution site and have erected smaller shrines around the country. Offerings of food and strong drink are frequently left in honor of the “gauchito”.Likewise
, the legend of Maria Antonia Deolinda Correa is that she died of thirst in the desert of San Juan Province as she endeavred to give aid to her sick, army conscript husband. Found several days later her child was still suckling milk from his mother’s breast. News of this miracle quickly spread and shrine was erected in the town of Vallecito. At first gauchos, farmers and then trucker drivers erected small shrines around the country leaving license plates, spare parts and water bottles as votive offerings. The cult of Difunta Correa has grown to many hundreds of thousands of believers in this miracle and subsequent miracles attributed to her. Crowds estimated at over 100,000 visit her shrine during the Easter holy week.The Catholic Church does not recognize either as true saints. One might think since both events took place in San Juan Province that either San Juan is a place where divine miracles do happen or the chamber of commerce devised a way to attract many to an otherwise very desolate area.
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