The legend of the haunted river.

Photo Municipality of San Salvador de Jujuy. 

By Jorge Aliaga Cacho.

Argentine legend originally published by San Salvador de Jujuy, tourism@sansalvadordejujuyturismo with the title: ''La Leyenda del rìo engualichado''. The present is a version written by Jorge Aliaga Cacho with the title: ''The legend of the haunted river''.

In Jujuy there is a legend of an enchanted river that says once you drink from its waters you will always be compelled to return there. The legend began in the times of Francisco de Villagra, who camped with his troops in the Xuxuy valley in 1550, creating the first European settlement in these lands. They had fierce confrontations with the native tribe known as the Jujuyes, who were characterized by their bravery in defending their lands from these Spanish invaders. Several Spaniards died because of these confrontations with one another. The result of successive tense conflicts between the two parties, one on each bank of the river: those who camped on the right bank, the Spaniards, and those who occupied the left bank, the brave Jujuyes 'which incidentally in the Russian language means something rather crude as I embarrassingly found out while recanting the story.'

The legend begins with a love story between a Jujuyan princess and a Spanish soldier who had a chance encounter. The young princess and her people were interested in what was happening on the other side of the river. They looked over at them with both curiosity and animosity, and after many occurrences on both sides of the waters, Oderay and Martin, our protagonists, lived a somewhat beautiful and contradictory romance together. 

One day the peninsular soldier was ordered to leave the region, sending the princess into the deepest of sorrows, akin to that of Shakespear's suffering Lady Montague, who died of a broken heart at the banishment of her son. In order to stop her lover from leaving her lands, the princess went to barter for a spell from the spirit of the river, she would have to make Martin drink some water from the river, this would make his soul dissolve forever into the waters so he would always be pulled back. This is indeed what happened. The Spanish soldier returned to Spain but after two years, and after suffering continual hardships, he returned to his beloved princess. 

In the place of their first encounter, some bushes have now grown that feed the cattle, representing the resilience of love. When you go to Jujuy remember that love is flourishing right now in that very place, underneath a dreamy bridge.