Caribbean mythological creatures

[animus_nocendi]

I'm turning to you, little_details, for my Google-fu is stuck.

I have a character in mind, a Santeria priestess (santera) and I want to make her be an immortal or something along those lines.  I don't want to do the stereotypical, expected thing where she's an Orisha in hiding.  I want something more magical but not in the god realm.  I was just wondering what

Comments

[michalyn]

My only thought is you probably want to separate out traditions from the Spanish speaking Caribbean from the English Speaking (or those with French influence, as in the case of Haiti, St. Lucia, Martinique) because they will be quite different. As someone from the English speaking Caribbean I know it would be weird to me to read about a Santeria priestess (which is not common to our culture) gaining immortality by becoming something like a soucouyant or la diablesse which i know more about

[animus_nocendi]

My problems start right away because I didn't even realize there were two separate traditions with the English and Spanish speaking. I knew about the French influences and obviously the Spanish ones.

As far my priestess goes, I was actually thinking she was one of these creatures first and then, when she gained a human form (I have no idea how or if that's even possible), she would eventually, over the centuries become a Santeria priestess. It was mostly an idea to give her multiple levels and to create some mystery where other (non-Santeria practicing) characters would wonder "is she really a witch", "is her magic real", "has she really been alive that long".

In my research on Santeria in general, I saw that it's Cuban mostly, but does it expand into all the Spanish speaking areas? And which places are those exactly?

[michalyn]

Hmm that is a tough one. I don't know much about Santeria at all. Only that it is predominantly Cuban. Wiki says that it is practiced in the Dominican Republic, Mexico,Panama and Nicaragua among others. Most of them seem to be Spanish speaking so perhaps looking up some mythology from say, Mexico or one of the other Spanish-speaking countries listed would get you more natural connections:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santeria#History

Sorry i can't be of more help.

[animus_nocendi]

Thanks very much.

[entelodont]

Not Cuban, but Dominican myth has the ciguapa, a seductive female creature.

[ext_2108842]

Michalyn is right you are confusing the Caribbean, I am feeling to lazy to explain on this website, please all you guys add me on fb, plus my friend has a group about mythical creatures add me and ad you, we do and study all of them thanks. The Caribbean is definitely confused to people who are not from the Caribbean. The Caribbean consists of Dutch speaking, English, French and Spanish. It goes way from Bahamas to Trinidad, Lesser to Greater Antilles. Plus Guyana and Suriname in Latin America and Belize near to Mexico, a common trend I see with people who study the Caribbean is they think that the Spanish speaking country is exactly similar to Latin America no it isn't. Because the Latin American mythologies are deeply rooted int heir native tribal religions, the Caribbean don't have a strong influence on them because they were killed out by the Europeans however, the mythologies are deeply rooted within their religion and no not all Caribbean countries have voodoo, it is present partially within the English one but heavy in the