{{Short description|Semi-legendary character}} {{More citations needed|date=November 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}} {{Infobox saint | name = Difunta Correa | image = Difunta Correa statue.jpg | imagesize = 210px | alt = | caption = Statue of Difunta Correa at Vallecito | titles = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = | home_town = | residence = | death_date = 1840s | death_place = San Juan Province, Argentina | venerated_in = Folk Catholicism | beatified_date = | beatified_place = | beatified_by = | canonized_date = | canonized_place = | canonized_by = | major_shrine = Vallecito, Argentina | feast_day = Easter, 2 November | attributes = Woman with baby | patronage = Cattle herders, ranchers, truck drivers, gauchos | issues = | suppressed_date = | suppressed_by = | influences = | influenced = | tradition = | major_works = }}
The '''Deceased Correa''' (in Spanish '''La Difunta Correa''') is a semi-pagan legendary figure in folk-religion, for which a number of people in Argentina and Chile, especially among the popular classes, feel a great devotion. It has spread, in a limited way, to neighbouring countries such as Uruguay. Every year since its inception in 1840, miracles are said to have occurred at the shrine of La Difunta Correa, and thousands of people have visited there to pay their respects. The shrine is situated in the small town of Vallecito, 1160 km from Buenos Aires and 63 km from the city of San Juan.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sacredsites.com/americas/argentina/difunta_correa.html|title=Difunta Correa|accessdate=1 April 2018}}</ref>
==Birth of a popular saint== According to popular legend, the husband of Deolinda Correa was forcibly recruited around the year 1840, during the Argentine civil wars. When he became sick, he was abandoned by the ''Montoneras'' [partisans]. In an attempt to reach her sick husband, Deolinda took her baby and followed the tracks of the ''Montoneras'' through the desert of San Juan Province. When her supplies ran out, she died. Her body was found days later by gauchos who were driving cattle through. They were astonished when they saw the dead woman's baby was still alive, feeding from her "miraculously" ever-full breast. The men buried her body in present-day Vallecito in the Caucete Department of San Juan, and took her baby with them.
Although the Church—and in particular the Archdiocese of San Juan—has long viewed the popular cult of the Difunta Correa with suspicion, it recently announced in May 2026 that, in collaboration with the “Héctor Domingo Arias” Institute of Regional and Argentine History, which is part of the Faculty of Philosophy at the National University of San Juan (NUSJ), they have launched an investigation to determine whether this popular figure actually existed.<ref name="DifuntaCorrea">{{cite web|access-date=2026-05-25 |date=2026-05-19 |first=Estela Maris |last=Ruiz |title=Difunta Correa: un equipo de la UNSJ y del Arzobispado de San Juan investiga su existencia |url=https://www.diariodecuyo.com.ar/san-juan/difunta-correa-un-equipo-la-unsj-y-del-arzobispado-san-juan-investiga-su-existencia-n6573378 |website=diariodecuyo.com.ar}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>
The primary objective of both the Church and the National University of San Juan is to determine, by cross-referencing reliable documentary sources, the historical veracity of the myth of Deolinda Correa and to subject this myth—which has been rooted in the region’s oral tradition for over a century and draws millions of faithful to her shrine in Vallecito—to scientific and religious scrutiny.<ref name="DifuntaCorrea">{{cite web|access-date=2026-05-25 |date=2026-05-19 |first=Estela Maris |last=Ruiz |title=Difunta Correa: un equipo de la UNSJ y del Arzobispado de San Juan investiga su existencia |url=https://www.diariodecuyo.com.ar/san-juan/difunta-correa-un-equipo-la-unsj-y-del-arzobispado-san-juan-investiga-su-existencia-n6573378 |website=diariodecuyo.com.ar}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>
Oral tradition holds that the child who miraculously survived his mother was named Baudilio Bustos Correa. During their research, historians found an 1865 advertisement in the newspaper El Zonda in which a man named Baudilio Bustos Correa, who lived near Plaza 25 de Mayo in the capital of San Juan, was selling a property before moving to Córdoba. Researchers are attempting to determine whether this is indeed the son of the popular figure and, in doing so, to identify descendants who can provide information that brings them closer to the truth and thus confirms that the Difunta Correa truly existed.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2026-05-25 |date=2026-05-21 |first=Redacción |last=Sociedad |title=Histórica investigación en San Juan intentará determinar si la Difunta Correa realmente existió: siguen el rastro de un hijo |url=https://www.losandes.com.ar/sociedad/historica-investigacion-san-juan-intentara-determinar-si-la-difunta-correa-realmente-existio-siguen-el-rastro-un-hijo-n5991920 |website=Los Andes (Argentine newspaper)}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>
==Sanctuary== thumb|upright|Votive chapel to Difunta Correa at Vallecito Once the folk tale became known, the inhabitants of the nearby areas started visiting Deolinda Correa's grave, building after time an oratory that slowly became a sanctuary.
The cultus to the ''Difunta Correa'' is that of an unofficial popular saint, not recognised by the Catholic Church. Her devout followers believe her to perform miracles and intercede for the living. The survival of her child would have been her first miracle.
thumb|left|Roadside shrine in the Andes to Difunta Corea Cattle keepers first, then truck drivers, disseminated the figure of the Difunta, creating wayside shrines in many roads throughout the country, with images and sculptures of the ''Deceased''. They there leave bottles of water as votive offerings, "to calm her eternal thirst".
Since the 1940s her sanctuary at Vallecito, at first merely a cross on the top of a hill, has been transformed into a small town in which there are several votive chapels (17 as of 2005), full of offerings. The chapels are donated by her followers, whose names are engraved on plates fixed to the doors.
In the chapel located on the top of the hill there is a life-size statue depicting the ''Difunta'' lying face to the heavens, with her child at her breast. The sanctuaries are segregated by themes. For instance, one of the chapels is full of wedding dresses offered to the ''Difunta'' by women whose prayers to get married were fulfilled. Car registrations and scale-model houses can be found all around the hill to the main sanctuary.
Visits to the Difunta Correa's Vallecito shrine take place during the whole year, but they are more numerous during Easter or at All-Souls' Day (2 November) and on dates special to truck drivers and gauchos, mostly in summer. On such occasions, crowds of 200,000 people have been claimed.
==See also== *{{section link|Religion in Argentina|Popular cults}} *Miguel Ángel Gaitán
==References== {{Reflist}} *"[http://itotd.com/articles/441/the-legend-of-deolinda-correa/ The Legend of Deolinda Correa Unofficial saint of the desert]", Joe Kissell, ''Interesting Thing of the Day'', 26 January 2005
==External links== {{commons category|Difunta Correa}} *[http://www.visitedifuntacorrea.com.ar/ Difunta Correa's official site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060415020345/http://www.visitedifuntacorrea.com.ar/ |date=15 April 2006 }} (Spanish) *[http://www.cuco.com.ar/difunta_correa.htm Difunta Correa: Dictionary of Myths and Legends] (Spanish) *[http://www.culturesofdevotion.com "Cultures of Devotion by Frank Graziano"], academic website with images relating to Difunto Correa and other Spanish American folk saints. (English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Correa, Difunta}} Category:Folk saints Category:Religion in Argentina Category:San Juan Province, Argentina Category:Argentine legends