Account Given by Manuel Monroy of Jesús Ávila Sánchez, Dolores Casanova Villegas, and Victor Ávila Casanova

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

• Account Given by Manuel Monroy of Jesús Ávila Sánchez, Dolores Casanova Villegas, and Victor Ávila Casanova
• October 15, 2020, and December 15, 2021, interviews with Gary P. Nabhan and Laura Monti, Desemboque del Sur, Sonora

Preface

To place Manuel Monroy's commentaries in context, keep in mind that he was not a direct descendant of Coyote Iguana, but an astute keeper of his own people's oral histories, with some knowledge of Sonoran history from other sources as well. While he was conversant with the history of the entire Ávila family, he was keenly focused on what happened to Lola and their son Victor in the years after the altercation at El Huerfano. He too knew one of four songs attributed to Coyote Iguana, which were passed down across generations. At times, Manuel confounded details in the lives of Jesús and his son, but later corrected himself.

Manuel Monroy's Account

Jésus Ávila was the name that we use for who you call Coyote Iguana, who was 100% from Comcaac bloodlines, even though he spoke some Spanish. We called his son Victor Teepol in our Cmiique Iitom language, [End Page 500] or Liebre Alasan (Winged Jackrabbit) in Spanish. Victor was tall, with long skinny legs that could carry him fast through the desert; both of his parents were tall as well.

Jésus Ávila was born on San Esteban Island among the Cofteecöl Comcaac Large Chuckwallas Island People whom we generally call Xiica Hast Ano Coii (They Who Live in the Mountains). The same people also lived on the mountainous southwest side of Isla Tiburón (Tahejöc), which is where he mostly grew up as a boy.

Lola was the blue-eyed, fair-skinned daughter of a Spaniard who had come to Sonora. Lola's family was not from Mexico but from Spain. Her father had promised her in marriage to a military man named Encinas, maybe Genaro Encinas. She was traveling to be married when the incident occurred.

That was the first time that Jésus Ávila and Lola Casavova encountered one another. She was on her way to Hermosillo in a stagecoach accompanied by older women. Lola was the only young woman aboard. They were in two buckboards or stagecoaches, each one pulled by two horses, perhaps two days out from Hermosillo when they were attacked by a group of what they called "wild Indians" that included young Jésus Ávila. The Seri jumped the guards on horseback and fought them. No other tribes were helping them with the attack. At least one soldier guarding the coaches was killed as well as one Seri warrior. Another civilian man—her father, guardian, or prometido (fiancé)—may have been killed or injured, though some say he escaped.

It seems that Lola herself fainted during the attack and may have lost memory of what actually happened during all the violence. That is when Coyote Iguana saw her and grabbed her to get her out of the way of the conflict. He took her to safety on her horse.

[Q: Was it a kidnapping?] [Regarding her "capture" or her "rescue,"] there is no knowledge of him molesting her, although she did have a child—Victor—by him within about a year's time. In the days after the altercation, they hid in the mangroves below Cerro San Nicolas [on the south side of Laguna de la Cruz near Kino Bay], first making camp at Hueso de Ballena (Place of the Whale Bones) camp, and moving every two or three days to stay undetected. At some point, Jésus Ávila sensed that soldiers sent by her fiancé's family and her father's men were looking for her near Hueso de Ballena. Her fiancé Encinas paid a vaquero who knew many of the Seri camps on the Sonoran coast to search for them. By this time, Jésus Ávila had become known to the Sonorans as Coyote Iguana. [End Page 501]

With the search party near, Coyote Iguana killed their horse, butchered it, taking long strips of horsemeat and a container of fresh spring water with them in a balsa launch, and the...