COSTA RICA:
Cultural or Nationalism?
Edward Robles
As I traveled the beautiful
country of Costa Rica, as a
tourist and an employee of a
Costa Rica company, I was
fortunate to experience the
beauty, not only of the country
but of the Costa Rican people
and its culture. As a
Mexican/American or as I like to
be identified, Chicano, born in
East Los Angeles I saw it and
felt it from a different
prospective.
Seeing the acceptance,
integration, and assimilation of
the Mexican and American
cultures was really a gift for
me. Seeing Mariachi’s play in
different parts of the country;
from San José to Santa Rosa de
Pocosol onto Guapiles and
hearing the 'rancheras' of
Vicente Fernandez while seeing
the younger generations enjoying
the music of the Black Eyed Peas
and more; it made me feel like I
was taking a tour of any of the
Southwestern Cities in the
United States.
I was most impressed with focus
and commitment to education.
While driving from Santa Rosa to
Los Chiles it seemed to me that
there was a school in every
little community, no matter the
size. And the opportunity for
learning was everywhere for the
Costa Rican children. This
should be the standard for the
rest of the Latin America
Countries.
However, I was saddened by the
racism, discrimination, and
isolation that exist towards the
Nicaraguan communities from the
Costa Rican people. I could not
understand how it was so freely
demonstrated and accepted. Is
this Cultural or Nationalism in
Costa Rica?
It brought back some real bad
memories for me of Los Angeles
in the early 1970’s when Mexican
Americans were so badly
mistreated and outright abuses
were common. I, personally,
remember seeing a sign at a
restaurant that read “No Dogs or
Mexicans Allowed.”
We, the Latino community in the
United States have come a long
way in fighting this type of
discrimination and it is our
responsibility to call people on
it and assist in the overcoming
this epidemic.
With expanding globalization,
the demands for skilled or
unskilled workers, especially in
North America and elsewhere will
lead to increased efforts to
attract foreign workers — or
because poor conditions in some
countries will lead to an
increase in undocumented
immigration, additionally, those
trying to escape authoritarian
regimes as we have seen in
Central America in the early
80’s.
Immigrants face numerous
criticisms and challenges; It is
difficult enough often, to get
into another nation.
If one succeeds, then additional
struggles (some to naturally be
expected, of course) are faced:
• Living in a new country can be
daunting, especially when the
cultural differences are great.
• As a result it can be expected
that an immigrant would try to
maintain some semblance of their
own culture in their new country
of stay.
• Or, due to fears of racism or
due to the culture shock it
would be expected that immigrant
communities would form as a way
to deal with this and as a means
to help each other through.
• By doing this, sometimes they
face criticism of not
integrating and of “sticking
with their own kind”;
• Yet, on the other hand, if
they do integrate in some way,
they face critique from certain
types of environmentalists and
others of contributing to
environmental degradation by
increasing their consumption to
the high levels typical of the
host nation.
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o (And if environmental
degradation is the
concern, then it would
make sense that one of
the main issues at hand
to address would be the
consumption itself and
its roots, regardless of
who is doing it — in
this context
That is, if the host
nation had different
modes of consumptions,
immigrants would likely
follow those too.
o Hence, singling out
immigrants for being a
factor in environmental
degradation is often
unfair, and itself hints
of prejudice and of
attitudes — intentional
or not — almost like
“stay out; we want to
maintain and not share
our lifestyle and
standards of living; we
recognize it is wasteful
but if not too many are
doing it, then it is ok”
etc.)
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Celebrating diversity and
differences is what makes a
truly melting pot and what gives
a country a unique flavor of
real humanity. Differences are
scary, but one should challenge
them to turn that fear into
understanding and acceptance.
Life is really beautiful when
acceptance is the rule and not
the exception.
Edward Robles lives in Los
Angeles, California and can be
reached by
email at:
[email protected]
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