Antonio Gil Núñez was a gaucho from Corrientes and a devotee of San la Muerte who was beheaded on January 8, 1874, or 1878. Stories of his miracles spread throughout the Litoral region and Buenos Aires, and in the 1990s, truck drivers carried the cult along the highways throughout the country. Today, it is common to see the two saints together on the same red altar.
This essay explores faith and popular devotion as embodied by Gauchito Gil and San la Muerte. It also examines death and that which cannot die (even if its throat is slit). It is about blood and the Litoral region; it is about those red spots we see as we drive by, on the side of the road. This essay explores the invisible drive of those who, through their actions, uphold a belief.
