If you have never seen an old-fashioned Costa Rican “mascarada” I can tell you it is quite an experience.  We have some great restaurants where you can go and see this unique Costa Rican tradition in action.  Those are restaurants like Cacique Aserri and Ram Luna, that both offer such shows on certain nights.  But who is responsible for creating these funny and sometimes hideous masks?  In Cartago the “mascarero” Guillermo Martínez Solano has been working this craft for many years.  He recently received the National Award for Popular Traditional Culture for his longstanding work towards preserving the old Costa Rica tradition.  Guillermo is 82 years old and he and his brother (who recently passed) have worked to preserve this traditional art form that was started by their father many decades ago.  Guillermo has been involved with the production of these masks since the age of 8.  But it was the decade of the 40′s when thing got really serious.   For a brief history of the tradition, however, one must go back to the year 1887 when the brothers Martínez of the cantón of Oreamuno purchased the rights to create the mask of the style that this section of Costa Rica is famous for.  During the decade of the 50′s the masks of the Martínez brothers appeared in many traditional festivals.  Such caricatures as the “policía de la esquina” that the Martínez adapted to become “Poligordo” became fixtures at all Costa Rican traditional mascaradas.  Likewise were the giants “Julito and Julita” that were inspired by a couple in Oreamuno who never missed a parade and were always seen in the rear holding hands.  Guillermo maintains the tradition in the truest since using the same materials of the Martínez brothers, a tradition Don Guillermo says “must not die.”