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La Corua Lives!

8/7/2011

 
In my community travels, I have found that literally none have heard of La Corua or its legend.

At the Tucson's Birthplace Breakfast, I ran into an old acquaintance, Jesús Garcia; Sonoran native and naturalist at the Sonoran Desert Museum. We discussed the future of the Mission Garden and I gave him my card. He knows of La Corua well, and told me that it indeed is a real snake - not just a mythical animal as I understood it to be. I was thrilled and told him how much keeping Sonoran folk heritage alive means to me. 

So, here is the biology I uncovered about my business' namesake:

The boa constrictor (Boa constrictor) is found from South America to central Sonora. In Sonora, the Mexican boa constrictor or corúa (B. c. imperator) can be a rich dark reddish color in tropical deciduous forest or a paler grayish color in coastal thornscrub. Corúa (also coruba) is a pre-Columbian name. They are often found in canyons and are thought to be guardians of the aguajes (water holes). Unlike other serpents, killing them is thought to be bad luck (the water will dry up).

http://www.desertmuseum.org/programs/alamos_fauna_tdfgallery2.htm
Boa Constrictor
Photo: R. W. Van Devender near Alamos, Sonora
Rosy Boa
"Corua del Desierto", Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

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    Linda

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La Corua-Baboquivari-Mts
*  La Corua  was a large water serpent that lived in springs of water and protected them. It had a cross on its forehead and cleaned the veins of water with its teeth.  According to Sonoran folk beliefs, if one killed the Corua, the spring would dry up.  Vanishing water sources and  economic pressures in Mexico have pushed the folktale of La Corua  to the dustbin of history on both sides of the border.

Serpents have long been sacred to indigenous peoples throughout the Americas and are respected as guardians of water sources and bringers of rain.

* Beliefs and Holy Places - A Spiritual Geography of the Pimeria Alta  -  James S. Griffith, University of Arizona Press, 1992
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