El Futre is one of the most traditional legends of the province of Mendoza, in western Argentina. A province famous worldwide for the quality of its wines and for lying at the foot of the Andes Mountain Range.
There are two versions of how this story was born. A drunken gaucho, who fell asleep with his neck on the tracks of a train that, unable to stop, ran over him, beheading him. Another version makes reference to an Englishman who came every month to pay the wages of hundreds of locals who worked on the construction and maintenance of the railroad network that spread across the nation as from the mid-19th century.
According to this version, this Englishman was called Mr. Foster, a name that locals mispronounced as Mr. Futre, a word, used in Chile for someone impeccable.
Those who tell the Englishman's version say that he became a soul in eternal wandering when, due to a snowstorm, he had to take shelter in a cave.
There he ran into some thugs who stole all the money from the wages he had to pay, before cutting his head off.
The point is that the Futre appears on winter nights, when the wind and the cold are raging. And he appears before unsuspecting travelers or drunks going back home.
He approaches wearing his flawless suit, with a sure step cutting through the fog. He carries his head in one of his hands. According to the legend, he asks what is the way back to the city of Mendoza, where he says he has to report he's been robbed.
Then, he begins to fade into the thick of the night, without waiting for answers. He will continue wandering for eternity, condemned to repeat the same question over and over.
The actual Mr. Foster died at the hands of criminals who robbed him in his apartment in the mountain village of Las Cuevas. And there is a tomb with his name in the old cemetery of Uspallata.
Translation and VO: Fernando Farías
Sound Edition: Fabián Panizzi
Web Production: Julián Cortez
Content Production: Silvana Avellaneda