Case file · Folklore / legend
El Familiar of the sugar mills
In the sugar country of Tucumán, Jujuy and Salta, El Familiar is a demonic black dog or serpent said to live in the mills' cellars and to devour one worker a year in exchange for the owner's prosperity.
1910 CE · -23.83, -64.79 · status: legend
The account
Workers who disappeared were said to have been 'eaten by the Familiar'. The year is an approximate date for the legend's spread with the industrial mills in the early 20th century; the pin marks Ledesma in Jujuy. Historians have linked the story to real disappearances of labour organisers and to the 1976 'Night of the Blackout' at Ledesma, when workers were abducted during the dictatorship.
The sceptical view
Folklorists read the legend as workers' commentary on exploitation and on the real violence of mill owners.