Many years ago now, my daughter took herself to Costa Rica as a teenager to immerse herself in a Spanish speaking country to learn the language and a place of great beauty -- mountains and ocean. She found it in a small seaside town called Tamarindo (which since those years has become a favorite tourist destination, though back then it was surf shops, local dances halls and miles of white surf. I was writing for an online journal of mythic arts at the time and prevailed upon her to write an article on her experience with Costa Rican popular culture and folklore. She sent us back "When My Hair Was Woven With Duendes," and what a wonderful article it is on the duendes of the rain forest and encounters with magical and sometimes dangerous creatures.
"...For weeks I asked Lysia to bring me any storybooks she might have on Costa Rican folklore, mythology, or duendes (faeries). Then, on my last day at the school, she took me aside and quietly suggested that I speak with her after class. Thrilled, I assumed that she had brought a book to loan to me — but what Lysia had in store was not a book. Instead, it was a personal story of her encounter with a creature called La Segua. Sitting in the cool shade of the rancho, the midday sun glistening off the restless sea and white sands, Lysia recalled for me her frightening encounter with Costa Rica's other world..." Read the article.
Midori Snyder is the author of nine books for children and adults, published in English, French, Dutch, and Italian. She won the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati, a novel inspired by early Roman myth and the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte" tradition....
