Getting to Know the Unknown Soldier: Official Nationalism in Liberal Costa Rica, 1880–1900

Abstract

On 28 February 1885 Guatemala's Liberal dictator, Justo Rufino Barrios, declared the Union of Central America, and made it plain that this would be achieved through force of arms if the four other Central American Republics did not consent to his decree. On 5 and 6 March, as Costa Rica's Liberal state began to plan a popular mobilisation against the Guatemalan threat, an article appeared in the pages of El Diario de Costa Rica, written by a resident Honduran man of letters, Alvaro Contreras. It was called ‘Un héroe annómino’. Curiously, though, this hero is not anonymous at all. The article soon reveals that his name is Juan Santamaría, a humble footsoldier who, during the Battle of Rivas in 1856, had volunteered to burn down the Mesón de Guerra from where William Walker's filibusters were decimating Costa Rican troops with rifle fire. The attempt was successful, but Santamaría sacrificed his life in the process. The invention of Costa Rica's ‘almost unknown soldier’ had begun.

Transgenic‐free territories in Costa Rica: Networks, place, and the politics of life

“…Throughout much of Central America, the defeat of William Walker is a well‐known story of independence and anti‐imperialist struggle. Stories about Juan Rafael Mora leading Central American forces in battle, and about a solider named Juan Santamaría sacrificing his life to burn down a fort where Walker's troops took refuge, operate as key elements in Costa Rican narratives of national belonging (Palmer 1993).…”

Re/Making La Negrita: Culture as an Aesthetic System in Costa Rica

“…6 The proliferation of printed accounts of the apparition during the 19th century was part of a much-wider process of legitimization produced by the organic intellectuals of the new nationalist political movement. Steven Palmer (1993) has convincingly demonstrated that the resistance in Costa Rica to federalist movements in Central America was fought as much by cultural production as by military mobilization, as evidenced by the apotheosis of Juan Santamaria. Santamaria, a mulato foot soldier, was said to have helped flush out William Walker in a decisive battle against the U.S.backed pirate in 1856.…”

Usos políticos de las batallas de Santa Rosa de 1856 y 1955: o, cómo fallar al inventar tradiciones

“…Los valores de resistencia y defensa de la soberanía han sido usados por los diferentes gobiernos en varias ocasiones, pero también por la oposición, incluyendo grupos de derecha y de izquierda, así como agrupaciones no partidarias y movimientos sociales. El estudio de este fenómeno se ha enriquecido con las propuestas de académicos costarricenses y extranjeros (Amoretti, 1987;Díaz-Arias, 2006Enríquez, 2000;Fumero, 1998;Molina y Palmer, 2004Palmer, 1993;Ríos, 2012) basados en aspectos teóricos desarrollados por Benedict Anderson (1983), Maurice Halbwachs (1992), Pierre Nora (1996) y Eric Hobsbawm (1990), entre otros. Este último acuñó el concepto de tradiciones inventadas, que explica la creación de festividades, objetos de culto, estatuas, conmemoraciones, desfiles y otros elementos, que buscan rescatar valores asociados con eventos históricos, especialmente en términos de promoción de una identidad nacional.…”