El Luison of Guaraní Mythology, Paraguay

Nov 22

Originating from Guarani mythology this monstrous black dog creature known as Lobison in Argentina and Luison in Paraguay is said to hunt along large parts of South America. The fear it has instilled dates back centuries and has even caused families to fear their seventh child.

The Legends of El Luison

The Guarani people are one of the longest-lasting aboriginal groups located in South America, specifically in large parts of Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia. For most of its history, Guarani mythology was oral, making it almost impossible to know how and when the legend started.

This has also led to multiple variations of the legend that range widely in detail. In fact, the original name for this creature is not “el Luison/lobison” as that original name is likely lost to history.

The most common origin of el Luison is that he is the seventh child of Tau, an evil spirit and the personification of evil, and Kerana, the beautiful granddaughter of one of the first humans. In some versions of the legend, Tau kidnaps Kerana forcing her to have his children, while in other versions, they chose to marry.

Regardless of the version, their marriage or Tau’s rape of Kerana was forbidden and led to the goddess Arasy placing a curse upon them and their children. Due to the curse, their children were born with hideous monstrous appearances and are known as the seven legendary monsters of Guarani Mythology with Luison being the seventh.

Being the seventh and last child, Luison took the final brunt of the curse and was considered the most hideous creature, becoming the god/lord of death. In some legends, if you see the Luison, it means someone close to you will die shortly as it’s seen like a grim reaper. Once someone dies the luison would then feed on their corpse before it drags it away.

As the centuries went on, the Luison’s myths became closer to that of the common werewolf myths because of the influence of European settlers. The Luison was now a human until its 13th birthday when it gained the ability to transform into a demonic werewolf during a full moon. Afterward, on Tuesdays and Fridays, the Luison would go out to spread its curse to unsuspecting victims.

In these versions of the legend, the Luison emits a nauseating smell and if the sight of it scares you, the fear will drive you insane. When it is unable to find the flesh of dead animals or humans to eat it will attack but not only does it kill its victims, it eats their souls. This causes them to become cursed as well.

The Luison was also known for feeding specifically on unbaptized children if they cannot find a meal. Something that undoubtedly evolved from the influence of Catholicism as it spread in South America. The name lobison is derived from Lobisomem which translates to wolf-man, so you can see where the European influence changed the original legends.

A Tradition in Argentina

Due to the Lobison being a seventh child, during the 19th-century families began to fear their seventh child if it was a boy. According to some stories that I could not verify, families killed or abandoned their seventh son for fear it would grow to have the lobison curse.

In the 1900s it was said the president of Argentina began adopting the seventh son of any Catholic family in order to prevent their deaths. This also apparently broke the curse and helped curb the child killings in superstitious families. The practice of the president “adopting” the children became a tradition and later law in 1974.

Despite several news articles reporting this as fact, it turns out that the origin of the president adopting the seventh child of the family is not rooted in the myth of el Lobison. In 2014/2015 after several reports that Argentinean President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner adopted a Jewish child to save him from the curse, The Guardian published a story clarifying that this was not the case.

In reality, there is no “adopting” and there never has been an adoption, instead, the president becomes the unofficial godparent of the seventh child of a family. This was/is a tradition that started in the early 20th century and has nothing to do with the Lobison.

According to Argentine historian Daniel Balmaceda, the tradition started in 1907 after several Russian immigrants asked the then-Argentine president to become the godfather of their seventh son. The president agreed and it became a tradition with one president, Juan Peron, becoming godfather to 1,982 children while in office.