Account Given by Ernesto Molina, Great-Great-Grandson and Descendant of Jesús Ávila Sánchez and Dolores Casanova Villegas

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• Account Given by Ernesto Molina, Great-Great-Grandson and Descendant of Jesús Ávila Sánchez and Dolores Casanova Villegas
• October 15, 2020, interview with Gary P. Nabhan and Laura Monti, Punta Chueca, Sonora

Preface

Ernesto Molina is a well-known Comcaac elder and an expedition and tour guide who lives in Punta Chueca, Sonora. He has over four decades of experience managing cross-cultural outdoor education programs for the University of Arizona's Southwest Center. In addition to his ancestry from Jesús Ávila (Coyote Iguana), one of his grandfathers was a hunting guide on Isla Tiburón and the mainland for American wildlife writers and naturalists.

Ernesto's Account

Before anything else, I want to remind us that many Mexicans of Spanish blood still express some elements of racism when discussing their views of the history of Coyote Iguana in his relationship with Lola Casanova. He did not have an oppressive or violent relationship with her; it was one based on healthy or respectful behavior. He rescued Lola [End Page 506] when she fainted, as others were being killed by combat or fire in the stagecoach she was in, as it traveled between Hermosillo and Guaymas. He took her away from the scene, to a safer place where she could recuperate.

Now, we know that Lola went back to see her family at least three times over the subsequent years—at least once accompanied by soldiers—but she always returned to the Island, Tiburón, to voluntarily live with Jesús Ávila Sánchez and their child. The third time she returned, however, he did not accept her company. Her continuing affection for him had no effect.

Keep in mind that Jesús Ávila was sometimes called Coyote (Oot) by us, but never Coyote Iguana. Whether the name Coyote Iguana referred to both of them together, or just one of them, I don't know, but it was not used for them in the Seri language, Cmiique Iitom.

What we now know for sure was that her father was Spanish-born, not Mexican. We don't know anything about her mother. Lola was fair-skinned and had light-colored hair. She lived with her father on a ranch outside of Guaymas. Jesús Ávila knew that same area well because he had stayed many months at Tastiota, not too far north up the coast from Guaymas.

Once he had rescued her from the stagecoach where others perished, they lived together for nearly two years in camps on the mainland not far from Tastiota. But when a military expedition was launched to search for her, they went by horseback to Paa Hax, or Chalate [Place of the Wild Fig in Hermosillo municipio]. From near there, they went off in a balsa boat to cross the sea to the islands to escape beyond the reach of the mounted soldiers.

To be clear, Lola voluntarily went with Jesús to the islands, and had a child by him there, that they named Victor. They moved to a place in the interior of Tiburón that was hidden in the rocks, with a rock-walled shelter you can still see there. There remains a large wild fig tree there that has a carving of the rostro pintado (painted facial drawing) design attributed to Lola that was cut into its bark over a century ago.

Later on, at that very place, she was pursued by soldiers, who encountered Jesús while she hid nearby them. When the soldiers looked like they were about to kill him, Lola jumped out of hiding and announced to the soldiers that she would return with them to her family on the mainland if they would spare him. They did so.

She went with a military escort to Guaymas, but soon snuck away to return to Jesús. Again, the soldiers came to the island—this time on [End Page 507] horseback—and they took her away again, while they left her son Victor with Jesús Ávila's sister.

While she was in Guaymas with them, her family accepted her marriage to Jesús as legitimate. But after a while, she stole away in...