Artwork: Dry Forest Woman, from the series Guanacaste Wooden Woman.

In this work, the female figure emerges as a personification of Guanacaste: woman, tree and territory converge in a single body. Her presence evokes the wood of the Guanacaste tree, whilst the traditional sabanero hat establishes an immediate link with the province’s cultural identity.

The Guanacaste tree (Enterolobium cyclocarpum), declared Costa Rica’s National Tree on 31 August 1959, takes on a dual symbolic dimension here: it represents the country and, at the same time, honours the province whose name it bears. Its inclusion also refers to the historical memory of the Annexation of the District of Nicoya and to the deep sense of belonging that characterises Guanacaste culture.

The transformation of the female body forms the poetic core of the composition. Her hand ceases to be merely human, extending into a branch of the tree and blurring the boundaries between person and nature. A howler monkey—the ‘congo’, as we call it in Costa Rica—plays upon it, a deeply recognisable presence within the Guanacaste landscape.

In her other hand, the woman holds the fruit of the Guanacaste tree, commonly known as ‘choreja’. Its distinctive curved shape, resembling an ear, alludes to the Nahuatl origin of the word ‘Guanacaste’, derived from ‘cuauhnacaztli’, meaning ‘tree of the ear’. The fruit thus becomes a small key to interpreting the work: resting in the woman’s palm is not only a seed, but also the origin of a name, a memory and the possibility of continuity.

The work suggests a symbiotic relationship between the woman and the land. She does not view the landscape from the outside: she is the landscape. Her body holds the memory of the tree, the tradition of the savannah dweller, the fruit that gives the territory its name, and the wildlife that inhabits it.

Through a restrained palette of earth tones and neutrals, punctuated by greens and reddish accents, the composition constructs a contemporary interpretation of Guanacaste that avoids a merely folkloric representation. Its symbols are transformed and brought together in an imaginary figure that speaks of belonging, memory and deep-rootedness.

Rather than simply representing Guanacaste, the play seeks to express what it means to belong to a place, to the point where we feel that its nature, its history and its symbols are also part of us.