From the Copra Plantation to Living by the Salina Lake Before Tourism: Interview with Doña Aurelia Nájera
This is excerpted from an interview published by our town historian, Fidel Villanueva Madrid, with islander Doña Aurelia Nájera, who tells some of the local tales from pre-tourism times, when the isle had a fairly stable population of ~600 people. It is titled Del cocal a la salina/ From the Coco farm to the Salina Lake Part II of II The complete interview in Spanish is below. The first story is about her maternal grandfather & is collaborated by another islander. They say a bad spirit was involved with his death. ("Huaypach", who the older people describe as having an enormous body similar to that of an iguana). He liked to party and leave the house without warning, which greatly angered his wife. Once he came back drunk and took an eye out of the wooden image of Saint Prudencio, owned by Doña Candelaria. The people say he paid for his wickedness because he was found dead at el riíto of Playa Norte ( that...