An Account of Coyote Iguana and Lola Casanova in Seri Oral Tradition

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• An Account of Coyote Iguana and Lola Casanova in Seri Oral Tradition
• Cathy Moser Marlett (bio)

Presented here is a translation of a Seri account of the abduction of Lola Casanova, narrated by Roberto Herrera Marcos and recorded on reel-to-reel tape by Edward Moser, in Desemboque, Sonora, in 1964.¹ While other Seris, notably Jesús Morales, provided additional details when queried by Moser, Herrera's is the most complete single narrative recorded in the Seri language. This was made more than a century following the abduction. The recording was made during the visit of Edith Sykes Lowell in June 1964, while she researched the Seri information about the abduction for her University of Arizona master's thesis (Lowell 1966) and a subsequent article (Lowell 1970).² In Desemboque, Lowell and her husband met the Mosers, who then introduced her to known Seri narrators, one of whom was Roberto. His wife, Ramona Casanova, was considered to be the great-granddaughter of Lola Casanova and Coyote Iguana.

Perhaps primarily because of the severe consequences inflicted on the Seris as a result of Lola's abduction, the event remained a part of Seri oral tradition.³ Besides showing the depth of this tradition, the narrative is significant in that it relates to a little-recalled period when the southern Seri people, known as the Xiica Xnaai Iicp Coii "those who live in the south," or the Xnaamotat, "those from the south," inhabited the area near Guaymas, Sonora (see Moser 1963, 2017). By the late 19th century, the people as a group were lost to history, having been integrated into the surrounding Spanish and Indigenous populations, or, to the north, been decimated in conflicts with other Seris or the Mexican military. Only a few words of the distinctive dialect of the Seri language they spoke have been recorded, recalled by descendants of Seris from one of these groups (Moser n.d.). [End Page 461]

Herrera's narrative, along with what other Seris confirmed at the time, makes it clear that Coyote Iguana was a Seri man who, because of spending time with Yaqui people, was acquainted with their songs and language. Coyote Iguana, whose Spanish name was Jesús Ávila, became the subject of apocryphal and sometimes mystical accounts in Seri folklore. However, little has been passed down about his victim and companion. One might wish that the account given here contained more personal details about Lola, such as her character, her offspring, and her life with the Seri people. It is clear from the paucity of personal details here and elsewhere that the significance of the kidnapping event lies in the consequences suffered by the people rather than in Lola's life with the Seris.⁴

Herrera's account, loosely translated into English, follows.

About Coyote Iguana

Roberto Herrera Marcos

I'm going to narrate something, and probably I'm telling it as it really happened. Maybe all of the Seris will be familiar with it. Here it is:

This is about a Seri man named Coyote Iguana. He was living near Guaymas, and left the Seris. He was away from them for a long time, maybe five or six years. He didn't see them during that time, as he was living with other people [apparently Yaquis] that were there. He was still a young man. That's why, when the Mexicans saw him with those other people, they said he was one of them. But that's not the case. Then, after his absence, he returned to the Seris and lived with them.

While he was there, the people [Yaquis] living in the Guaymas area went to visit the Seris living near Tastiota, and became friends with them. I can imagine what it was like.

There was an older Yaqui man the Seris called Haxö Itaast, "Shit Tooth," living there with the Seris. He ate sea turtle meat and went around with the people, becoming well acquainted with them. It happened that he left and went back to the Yaquis who had stayed behind [in Guaymas] and told them about the Seri camp, and about what he called the Seri territory. So, those Yaquis who...