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Did you know? The interesting story of Costa Rica’s National Anthem

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September 13th, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com) Many are unaware of the interesting story behind Costa Rica’s national anthem.

 

The story takes place in either 1852 or 1853 (the actual year is disputed) when ambassadors from Great Britain and the United States arrived in San José.  The president at the time, Juan Rafael Mora Porras, thought the dignitaries should be greeted with the country’s national anthem.

 

The problem was, Costa Rica didn’t have a national anthem.  To overcome this slight hurdle, the president requested that the director of Costa Rica’s National Army Orchestra, Manuel Maria Gutierrez, compose the music for a national anthem.

 

However, when Gutierrez insisted that he knew nothing about musical composition, he was thrown in prison on the condition that he would only be released once he had produced the piece of music.

 

The resulting composition was first performed on June 11th – again either 1852 or 1853 – in the National Assembly in San José.

 

While the veracity of the story has been questioned by some due to the confusion as to which year the events occurred, it has nonetheless been adopted as the “creation story” of Costa Rica’s national anthem.

 

In 1903, a contest was held to compose lyrics for the anthem, which was won by José María Zeledón Brenes. The music and lyrics were officially declared as the national anthem in 1949.

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  • mhogan

    Interesting? There is no story more boring than that which someone tries to convince you otherwise.

  • Ken Morris

    Actually, I’m fascinated by national anthems, and can’t help noting that almost all of them (including Costa Rica’s) date from the heyday of militaristic nation-building. To my ear, most are jarring, and Costa Rica’s is especially ill-suited to its professed pacifism and other humanitarian positions. You can almost see the military brigades when you hear it. Plus, it doesn’t sound to me like it has any Latin influences. Rather, it sounds like an anthem written to mimic those of other traditions. I bet old Manuel thought, “OK, you guys want a national anthem, I’ll give you a bloody anthem,” and then dashed off a formulaic one in satirical protest. To his surprise, the Ticos liked the thing, and he’s probably still scratching his head from the grave wondering how he pulled off this ruse.

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