Hombre Gato

What it is

The Hombre Gato, rendered in English as Catman, is a creature of South American legend built from two bodies at once, feline and human. His story is told most in Argentina, and it holds its ground chiefly in the countryside and in districts where neighbours are few. After dark, so the tale runs, he leaves shelter and moves through inhabited streets, hunting people and animals without distinction. Listeners part ways over him: a minority treat him as a real presence and some report hearings or meetings, while most who carry the story forward hand it on as an invention. Writers in Spanish have also adopted him, giving the character a life in short fiction and in science fiction.

Where it comes from

The tale is at home in South America, with Argentina as its centre of gravity, and it is strongest in open, thinly peopled country where the telling stays close to everyday talk. From that rural ground the character has travelled into print. Authors writing in Spanish have made him the subject of a large number of short stories, and he has stepped into science fiction as well. In the family tree of legend he is set beside the werewolf, whose nightly habits he shares, and with the werecat, a related creature of legend.

Peoples and places

Argentina is the story's strongest home, and within the country it is the countryside and the districts with few inhabitants that keep it going. Among those who tell it, opinion divides. Some hold that the creature really exists; of these, a few say they have heard him moving about in the dark, and others claim to have met him. The larger number of tellers present him as a made-up being, a story rather than a sighting. The legend has also gathered a wider Spanish-language public through fiction, and one country town, Navarro in the province of Buenos Aires, now has a film about the creature to its name.

What people believe

The story supposes a being that is neither beast nor person but both, keeping to the hours of darkness. In this picture the catman behaves as the werewolf is said to: he emerges after dark, moves through lived-in streets, and takes people and animals as prey. For those who accept him, he is not a character but a possible encounter, and the claims offered are of sounds heard in the night and of meetings with the creature himself. Around that core sits a larger audience that passes the tale on as fiction, a frightening story told for its own sake rather than a report of events.

Compare and confuse

The werewolf is the creature's obvious cousin: both are said to walk at night in part-human form and to attack people and animals. The difference lies in the animal half, cat rather than wolf. Legend's wider shelf for such beings is the werecat, and English tellings often settle for the plain name Catman.

Today

The figure remains in circulation rather than a memory. In the Argentine countryside the tale continues to be told, split between hearers who take it as fact and those who enjoy it as story. Print keeps him in work: Hispanic writers have built science-fiction pieces and short stories around the character. On screen, a documentary about him carries the title La Leyenda del Hombre Gato; it was shot in Navarro, a country town in Buenos Aires province.

Questions people ask about Hombre Gato

Good reading and sources

• Hombre Gato on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data