"Any Recent Latinamerican Sightings Of GNOMES/Duendes?" Topic

Last "sighting" I heard was this one in Argentina:

To be honest I don't understand the fascination with tales of little forest people ("duendes") in Spain and Latinamerica. I grew up hearing all kinds of crazy stories, but no one could really tell me much about:

1) the origin of the folklore; or
2) the reason duendes captivate people so much (even more than other myths)

Thoughts?

Perhaps horror gamers need to spice up their games with a few like these:

Dan
PS. It's like the stories my grandfather used to tell us of "duendes" during his childhood in northern Spain (near Gijón). He even told us about some red-eyed devil wolf ("vargos"?) that was four or five times the size of a normal wolf (he grew up knowing real wolves and what their eyes looked like at night). :)

On the beaches of Brazil this was seen….

¡Ay, mis ojos! ¡Mis ojos!

Dan

Underwear thieves always fascinate.

And folks want their underpants back without having to pay a ransom.

Utinni!