Nope. Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has not become godmother of a Jewish baby to stop him from becoming a werewolf – despite what you may have read in multiple news reports.

Over the past few days, the story has been reported and unquestioningly re-reported across the echo chamber of the internet, picked up by news organisations around the world including Haaretz, Buzzfeed, The Independent and The Huffington Post.

Like all good urban myths, the articles were based on a grain of truth: by tradition, the seventh son (or daughter) born to an Argentine family is eligible to become the godson (or daughter) of the president. Until this month, the honour had only been bestowed on Christian babies, but on Wednesday, Iair Tawil – not a baby, but the strapping 21-year old son of a rabbi – became the country’s first Jewish presidential godson.

In her Twitter account, Kirchner described Tawil, 21, as “completely sweet” and lit Hanukkah candles with his family.

Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) Tenía razón. Me trajeron de regalo un candelabro de Israel. Me pidieron que encendiera las velas… pic.twitter.com/DVWewmZera

Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) Yo no lo sabía, pero su visita coincidía con la celebración de Hanukkah. El papá, decía que no era una casualidad… pic.twitter.com/o3y5E17Gew

But somehow, the story became entangled with the ancient legend of the lobizón (Argentina’s equivalent to the European werewolf). According to some versions of the myth, the seventh son of the seventh son is particularly prone to fall victim to the curse.

Evidently, the chance meeting of a Latin American president with a colourful myth too good to fact-check proved irresistible – confirming as it did any number of stereotypes about erratic behaviour from national leaders in the continent of magical realism.

But according to Argentine historian Daniel Balmaceda, there is no link between the two traditions. “The local myth of the lobizón is not in any way connected to the custom that began over 100 years ago by which every seventh son (or seventh daughter) born in Argentina becomes godchild to the president,” he said.

That custom began in 1907, when Enrique Brost and Apolonia Holmann, Volga German emigrés from south-eastern Russia asked then-president José Figueroa Alcorta to become godfather to their seventh son, said the historian.

“The couple wanted to maintain a custom from Czarist Russia, where the Tsar was said to become godfather to seventh sons, and Argentina’s president accepted.”

The practice soon became tradition and was passed into law in 1974 by Isabel Perón, the widow of Argentina’s political strongman General Juan Perón, once she succeeded him in the presidential seat after his death in office. As Argentina’s first woman president, Mrs Perón extended the benefit to seventh daughters as well.



“The unconnected myth of the lobizón began among Argentina’s “gauchos,” the cowboys of Argentina’s vast cattle-raising Pampas, adapted from the older European werewolf legends,” said Balmaceda.



In the Argentinian version, the lobizón transforms into a mixture of pig and dog every Tuesday and Friday night – not just once every full moon. Unlikely other werewolves of myth, the lobizón transmits its curse not through its bite but by passing between the legs of its unfortunate victims.

In Catholic Argentina, large familes are not uncommon: over 120,000 families had seven of more children at last count in 2006. Not all qualify to become presidential god-children as the honour is only given to those in which seven sons are born consecutively, with no daughters in between.

The president with most godsons was Juan Perón, who had 1,982 over three terms in office. He is followed by another Peronist former president, Carlos Menem, who had 1,136 during the 1990s. Fernández has become presidential godmother to some 700 children since taking office in 2007. Earlier this year, she set another precedent, by making the the daughter of a lesbian couple the first presidential godchild.