El Tiradito: More legends, Part Dos

Last week I went on an adventure to find a true part of historic Tucson. Located in the Barrio Viejo, is a very sacred place in which some will tell you has special powers. Some will even tell you it produces miracles.


This place is called El Tiradito, or, The Castaway, or The Fallen One.

In my blog last week, I described one of the most popular legends behind this Tucson landmark. This week, my investigating took me a bit farther.

What I find to be most interesting about this Wishing Shrine is that not many people know about it. It is typically local Tucsonans who have lived here most of their lives who come to pray at this shrine daily. There are even some locals who fought back in 1971 to keep El Tiradito alive.

Carol Cribbet-Bell, president of La Pilita Association, gave me some wonderful information on El Tiradito.

She told me that in 1971, the City of Tucson was planning to build a new expressway called The Butterfield Express. If it were to be built, it would cut through major historic neighborhoods in Tucson including Armory Park, El Hoyo and Barrio Viejo.


It was assumed that nothing could be done to save El Tiradito, but somehow local residents, La Placita Committee and Los Tucsonenses worked hard to stop the federal funding and save the shrine. Cribbet-Bell said El Tiradito is truly a place of miracles, and this being the most wonderful miracle of all: saving El Tiradito.

As I have mentioned before, there are several legends regarding the creation of El Tiradito. Last week, I talked about Juan Oliveras. He fell in love with his mother-in-law and soon after was killed by his father-in-law after discovering the affair. This legend is by far the most accepted story according to Cribbet-Bell.

However, I found another legend that people tell when describing El Tiradito. According to La Pilita Association and their brochure on El Tiradito (and it is a bit bloody):


“The wedding of a young Mexican couple was about to begin in the home of the bride’s mother near the banks of the Rio Santa Cruz. Suddenly, a rejected suitor of the bride appeared, uninvited, drunk, crazed with jealousy and brandishing a knife. With an evil laugh he announced that there would be no wedding. Then he grabbed the bride.

The groom leapt to her defense and a violent and angry struggle was finally broken up by the guests, just as a neighbor arrived to carry the blood-stained body of the town’s only priest who was to have performed the ceremony.

On the dusty street nearby, where the priest had died of his stab wounds, the old people began burning candles, a practice that has been carried on these many years.”