Jonathan Rodriguez

FIQWS 10103

Professor Aisha Sidibe-Leyva

11/21/18

Costa Rican Identity

        At some point in time for Costa Rican society, Black Costa Ricans were segregated  to Puerto Limon, a city on the east coast of the country. Puerto Limon housed Black Costa Ricans as well as Jamaicans, who sailed to Costa Rica for trading opportunities and work. It wasn’t until around the 1970’s in which they started to migrate to other parts of Costa Rica, such as the capital of the country San Jose. The transition of Black Costa Ricans assimilating into the rest of the country lead to mixed feelings between Costa Ricans. For many people during this point in time, this was their first time seeing or encountering a black person. There were those who discriminated against them, those who supported their citizenship, and those who didn’t know how to think of the situation. Many did not accept them as Costa Ricans because of their different looks, origin, and culture, which is why the government saw them solely as workers or foreigners. Costa Rican society influenced the government, which then in turn affected the treatment of Afro-Costa Ricans.

The beginning treatment of Blacks started in the 1930’s, with the mentality of them being -viewed as workers and were not there as citizens since their main purpose was for the construction of  a railroad. Many Jamaicans sailed to Costa Rica looking for work, which played a part in viewing them as outsiders or non-citizens. As Avi Chomsky mentions, “Between 1900 and 1913 some 20,000 Jamaicans migrated to Costa Rica, attracted by the newly-established United Fruit Company banana plantations. The earliest migrants were single men who lived in Company barracks, but soon families followed and a thriving Jamaican community developed in the Limon area.” (Chomsky 837). Geographically, Puerto limon is a very dry and hot part of Costa Rica, which is why Blacks were seen as perfect for the job, due to their darker melanin which could withstand the heat of the sun better. Afterwards they were confined to Puerto Limon, and were already at the period of time in Costa Rica which was did not even have a great position even for the native people yet. As Natasha Gordon-Chipembre states, “When they arrived in Limon, they faced a nation where by 1921, the Secretary General for La Sociedad Económica de Amigos del Pais, M.A Zumbabdo stated, “West Indians were prone to crime and their presence in the country threated to mongrelize the white race… Therefore, the Costa Rican government must stop all further immigration of people of African descent and sterilize all those already in the country.” (Gordon-Chipembre 119). With the Costa Rican President Leon Cortes who banned Blacks from entry to the rest of the country in 1936. This ban played a role in developing the Afro-Costa Rican and Jamaican culture combination and gave way to a new dialect, which is a mix of Costa Rican Spanish and Jamaican Creole. Then in 1949 after the Costa Rican Civil War, citizenship was granted to them and the spread of Afro-Costa Ricans lead to many different results. Many still viewed them as outcasts and did not accept them as fellow Costa Ricans.

These Costa Ricans were responsible for the difficult assimilation of Afro-Costa Ricans. By grouping the immigrant Jamaicans and already Black Costa Ricans together, it pinned people of two different cultures together because of their race. Since they were perfect for the railroad work because of their pigmentation, it put in place the idea that they were only there for work, and despite living in Costa Rica, were seen as tools. Which is why then the government was influenced, because the citizens did not accept them, it gave no reason for the government to care in letting them into the rest of the country. Gordon-Chipembre states “The community which began to form in Limon comprised of Caribbean workers mostly under “debt peonage”…This community was class conscious, highly literate, skilled, and cosmopolitan because of exposure to the world through the ports. This enclave understood themselves as former British subjects, they spoke English, were Anglican and Baptist and many, “perceived the Hispanic culture and lifestyle as inferior to their own and thus minimized their association with Costa Ricans.”17 Stuck between the ever- tenuous relationship with the American UFC and Hispanic Costa Ricans who were openly hostile to the presence of people of African-descent, these immigrants had to negotiate every aspect of their lives in Limon. The complexity of emerging into an Afro-Costa Rican from a West Indian cultural heritage was a painful transition in a country which legally attempted to violate their human rights in multiple instances.” (Gordon-Chipembre 119).  After the newly granted citizenship it was the first time for many Costa Ricans, especially children who experienced seeing people of African descent for the first time. Those who first witnessed Afro-Costa Ricans also played a part in making it harder for them to be accepted. By not knowing what to think of them made it harder to see them simply as other Costa Ricans, since it alienates them regardless if that specific Costa Rican did not think negative of them. Also it couldn’t benefit supporters of Afro-Costa Rican citizenship if they are being seen as an oddity, innocent thinking or not. What also made the acceptance of blacks harder was also the culture that evolved inside of Puerto Limon. The culture that developed was a major factor in being seen as outsiders. The diction and customs of people from Puerto Limon diverged  from regular Costa Rican culture, and according to Chomsky, “But by 1910 the Jamaican community of Limon had developed a complex social life of churches, newspapers, mutual aid societies, and lodges, all outside of Company control. These provided a strong institutional network for the Artisans and Labourers’ Union,…” (Chomsky 837).  However, it was still Costa Rican culture, only with a twist of Jamaican influence. Despite the small differences, it made Costa Ricans less accepting of them. Yet, in Kendra Hamilton’s entry it states ““It’s (Hispanic) not an identity, it’s not a race, it’s not an ethnicity,” explains Dr. Maria DeGuzman, a Spanish-born conceptual artist and assistant professor of Latina/o Literature(s) and Culture(s) at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. “It’s an umbrella term that’s trying to unite people who share a history, with many fractures and divergences within that history.”” (Hamilton 40). Costa Rican society kept this mentality even into the 1960’s, and the numbers of Afro-Latinos coming from Puerto Limon increased over time. And the efforts were proved fruitful since in Carlos Gradin’s analysis, “ I further investigated the extent to which segregation levels can be accounted for by different factors, such as the impact of black-white inequalities on years of schooling or different age structures of the racial groups that are unevenly distributed across the countries. The results show that Afro-Latinos are generally highly segregated across occupations. However, while a large proportion of this segregation would not exist in Brazil and Ecuador if Afro-Latinos had attained the same education as whites, the proportion of occupational segregation explained by educational inequalities is much lower in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica.” (Gradin 1105).

Costa Ricans in this time showed acts of nativism, yet it is contradictory to the already established mix of being Latino. There were already Afro-Costa Ricans who occupied and shared the same land as the other Latinos with Spaniard and indigenous ancestry. It is not logical to segregate people due to a different genetics if the whole population is mixed up with different genetics. Segregation within an ethnicity is not only morally wrong, but is a mass confusion because it destroys the meaning of ethnicity if racial differences are being made. Costa Rican society can not argue it is justifiable in this situation because of the Jamaican influence not being apart of the Costa Rican culture. If a Spaniard moved to Costa Rica, the society would not care that he speaks Spanish differently, yet cares when it’s an Afro-Latino speaking Spanish differently which proves the discrimination stemmed from racism. Afro-Latinos always get the least of everything, as it is stated in the Mena report, “Afro-descendants are 2.5 times more likely to be chronically poor than whites or mestizos. In Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay combined, Afro-descendants represent 38 percent of the total population, but about half of all the people living in extreme poverty. In addition, they have fewer years of education, they are more often unemployed, and are vastly underrepresented in both public and private decision-making positions.” (Eliminating Afro-Descendant Exclusion in Latin America Is Vital for Development). In order for there to be equality in people, it starts with the society. Afro- Society influences the choices of the government, since it is made up of members from that society and works to improve it. In this case the government segregated Afro-Latinos and Jamaicans to Puerto Limon because society deemed then outcasts, which gave no reason for them to allow Afro-Latinos into the rest of the country.      

 

Works Cited

 Chomsky, Avi. “Afro-Jamaican Traditions and Labor Organizing on United Fruit    

Company Plantations in Costa Rica, 1910.” Journal of Social History, vol. 28, no.

4, 1995, p. 873.

Gordon-Chipembere, Natasha. “Carving Caribbean Spaces in between: the Life of Ruth

Gourzong in 20th Century Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.” Journal of International

Women’s Studies, vol. 17, no. 3, 2016, pp. 117–129.

Gradín, Carlos. “Occupational Segregation of Afro-Latinos.” Vol. 1105, 2011.

Hamilton, Kendra. “Finding a Name That Fits.” Black Issues in Higher Education, vol.

18, no. 16, 2001, pp. 40–41.

“Costa Rica,United States : Eliminating Afro-Descendant Exclusion in Latin America Is

Vital for Development.” Mena Report, 2018, pp. Mena Report, August 30, 2018.