Argolito: The Goatherd's Story

Augustina Valencia had many stories to tell. She was a grown woman living in the Yaqui village of Tórim in Sonora, Mexico many generations before Rosalio Moisäs was born. Rosalio would eventually go on to write a memoir in which he would retell many of the stories told to his grandmother when she was young by Augustina Valencia. Without this unique chronicle, the astonishing events she lived through would've likely been entirely forgotten. She had lived through yearly epidemics of diseases such as smallpox, yellow fever and cholera. She had fled to the Sierra with her husband, only to be captured by Mexican soldiers at Apelahuecheme. This hill, as its Yaqui name suggests, was notorious for constantly emitting noises as if there were rocks falling from it when no rocks were ever present. She and her band of refugees were able to survive this situation when the guns of the Mexicans miraculously refused to fire. She remembered the Apaches raiding as far as Rio Yaqui, she remembered a devastating earthquake and she recalled seeing the world unnaturally '*covered with red clouds*' one morning at daybreak. The French in the municipality of Guaymas were also witness to this frightful event. However, none of these stories even come close to that of the Argolito (also known as suawáka or suaguaca in Yaqui). This fearsome being is described in a manner which makes it sound alarmingly similar to modern stories of extraterrestrial visitors...

## What the Chivatero Saw

According to Augustina and Rosalio's grandmother Maria, these beings hail from another world, and travel through the air at supernatural speed - appearing as small lights while emitting '*whoosh*' noises. When they're closer to the ground, it is said that long ropes can be seen trailing out from behind their glowing forms. All Argolitos are said to carry ropes over their shoulders. They are the natural enemies of monstrous shapeshifters known as Sierpas. Sierpas were once people, until they made the dire mistake of committing a crime such as incest, and were thus transformed into abhorrent beasts damned to live in caves and caverns, perpetually growing in size. Once they reach a large enough size, they leave their caves and go out into the sea. According to Yaqui lore, there are many Sierpas in the sea.

This would perhaps be naught more than a curious legend if it weren't for the story told by a Tórim *chivatero* (goatherd) by the name of Wite, which had allegedly taken place relatively recently in the history of the Yaqui. Wite was staying overnight close to a canyon called Cenyoa-Baam, which was supposed to be haunted by a Sierpa in the form of a giant rattlesnake. This Sierpa was held to have once been a local man named Tomás who had married a close relative of his, and was therefore transformed into a monster. One of the entity's manifestations was evidently a woman in white, seeing as such a thing had been often reported to walk out of the canyon and stand in full view of passersby on several occasions. Late that night, Wite saw a bright light with a rope flying out from behind it come hurtling out of the sky and down into the canyon. He crept towards the edge of the formation to see what was happening - and what he saw shocked him. An Argolito had appeared, and was doing battle with the local Sierpa. This terrible fight would continue for hours until daybreak - when the Argolito finally bested the monstrous serpent, killing it and cutting it up, tying up the monster's meat with its rope. Once the entity had finished tying the meat, it turned and caught sight of the chivatero in his hiding place. The Argolito asked if he wanted to come with it back to its home world.

Perhaps unwisely, Wite agreed to this. He and the Argolito flew away from the canyon before landing on another world. At this point, Wite was promptly imprisoned alone in a room for three days. All the while, he could hear the Argolito's children asking their parent whe they could eat him - to which the adult Argolito explained that the chivatero was actually '*the son-in-law of the rain*'. After the three days had elapsed, Wite was taken back down to Earth with the Argolito, who left him on a hill North of Tórim. He stumbled back into the village and told everyone about his amazing experience. Rosalio Moisäs's grandmother personally attested to the truthfulness of Wite's story.

## Sources

'A Yaqui Life: The Personal Chronicle of a Yaqui Indian' by Rosalio Moisäs