Gil Pérez: The Soldier Transported Across the Ocean

What happened

Gil Pérez is the protagonist of the most famous teleportation story in the Hispanic world: a 16th-century Spanish soldier who, while standing guard at the Governor's Palace in Manila, Philippines, fainted and appeared seconds later in the Plaza Mayor of Mexico City, more than fourteen thousand kilometers (eight thousand seven hundred miles) away across the Pacific Ocean.

The protagonists and the location

The protagonist was Gil Pérez, a private in the Spanish colonial forces in the Philippines, a member of the civil guard in charge of guarding the government palace in Manila. The event began in Manila on October 23, 1593, and concluded on the morning of October 24, 1593, in the Plaza Mayor of Mexico City, then the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

The events

On the night of October 23, 1593, the governor of the Philippines, Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, was assassinated at sea by Chinese mutineers from his crew. In Manila, the troops remained on high alert due to the crisis. Gil Pérez was serving his guard duty leaning against a wall of the government palace. Feeling exhausted and dizzy, he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment. Upon opening them, he found himself in a completely different environment. He did not recognize the buildings or the climate. Soldiers in different uniforms questioned him upon seeing that he wore the uniform of the Manila garrisons and carried a musket of a model not used in Mexico. Pérez explained that he came from the Philippines and that the governor of said colony had been assassinated the night before. The authorities of Mexico City immediately arrested him on charges of desertion and suspicion of witchcraft, handing him over to the tribunal of the Inquisition. Pérez remained in prison in Mexico for two months, firmly maintaining his version of events. In December 1593, a galleon from Manila docked at the port of Acapulco, bringing official news from the islands. The passengers confirmed the death of Governor Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas on the exact date indicated by the soldier. Furthermore, one of the ship's passengers recognized Gil Pérez in Mexico City and testified to having seen him on guard duty in Manila the day before his own departure, confirming that it was impossible for him to have traveled on that ship or by any other means of transportation of the era.

The investigation

The story goes that the Holy Office of the Inquisition analyzed the case, questioned the witnesses arriving from Manila, and took a statement from the soldier himself. Finding no evidence of a pact with the devil or of deceit, they released him and returned him to his post in Manila. Outside of the legend, the story has no documentary support. Its most widespread version is the one published by the Mexican chronicler Luis González Obregón and the American writer Thomas Allibone Janvier, who included it in his book *Legends of the City of Mexico* (1910). Historians have not found any Inquisition file or military record confirming the soldier's existence. What is historical is the event that the legend uses as proof: the assassination of Governor Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas in 1593.

The legacy

The case of Gil Pérez is the most famous historical antecedent of human teleportation. It has inspired mystery novels, science fiction stories, and studies on the nature of space-time. It is directly related to the phenomena of physical apportation, dimensional portals, and bilocation.