As if Easter Week (Semana Santa) were not long enough, we have another holiday to celebrate today. It was actually supposed to be April 11th, but because that date landed in the middle of Semana Santa, we’re celebrating it today – making the holiday yet one day longer. As I read this morning on a blog by my friend, Empress Maruja, Semana Santa – in the Philippines and here in Costa Rica –  is like the Spring Break of our countries. Everyone is off to the beach, except the thieves who are smart enough to stay behind.


So just who is Juan Santamaria? He is a national hero here in Costa Rica. As the story goes, he was born poor, fought and died for his country. Supposedly anyhow. As the story goes, Costa Rica had been threatened by William Walker, a Southerner who planned to enslave whole Central American countries in the name of a Southern Confederacy.

Walker had managed to take over the Nicaraguan government in 1855 and to name himself “President” of this nation. Next, he looked towards Costa Rica in order to add it to his growing “empire.” Costa Rica’s president at the time, Juan Rafael Mora, gathered a makeshift army of peasants and set off to fight the enemy. The filibusters invaded the Guanacaste province, but the Tico army expelled and followed them into Rivas, Nicaragua. Here, they sought protection in a wooden fort.

This is where Juan Santamaria comes into play. He bravely volunteered to burn the fort, thus forcing Walker and his cronies outside. Walker was eventually caught in Honduras in 1860 and promptly shot, since he kept making attempts to take over the region over and over again. The legend tells that Juan Santamaria ran towards the fort carrying a torch, and although he was shot repeatedly, he managed to throw it and to burn the fort down.

Or so the story goes. There seems to be a bit of discussion about just how much of a hero he was.

About forty years later (1891), the unrecognized Juan Santamaria’s
memory was dug out from a blury past and glorified to the point of
becoming Costa Rica’s hero. A statue depicting a strong and handsome
soldier carrying a torch was placed in Alajuela, thus immortalizing
Santamaria. Today, all kids in school learn about this hero. Some even
act as filibusters and a small Juan Santamaria “burns” the fort down.

It turns out,  according to Steven Palmer, a Canadian researcher that
has studied many issues in Costa Rica dealing with history and national
identity, Juan Santamaria was partly invented by the Liberalist
government. Palmer’s fascinating study proposes that the government of
the late nineteenth century needed to consolidate a national identity
in order to gain support and to unify the disorganized country.
Legends, heroes and battles are all necessary ingredients in the
creation of a national identity, so the government set out to find
people and events that would serve their purpose.

Since Costa Rica has always lacked a history of warfare, the Liberalist
government chose one of the few significant battles- the Battle of 1856
against William Walker. Choosing this battle was also necessary because
the nation’s independence in 1821 didn’t have to be fought for, and
most Costa Ricans ignored the importance of this event. The logical
step after choosing the famous battle, was to select a hero that acted
bravely during this fight. In this way, Palmer says, Juan Santamaria
was “born” or reborn after being dead for many decades. Furthermore,
Juan Santamaria was chosen because he was a member of the lower
classes, and as such, he inspired them with a sense of belonging to a
nation that was starting to emerge. Other researchers have found
evidence that point to the fact of Santamarias death as a victim of
cholera, and not of the bullets shot by the filibusters.

Even though the researcher’s accounts might seem a little cynical to
most Costa Ricans who have been raised to believe in the heroic nature
of Juan Santamaria, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle of
both stories. Either way, one can safely say that Juan Santamaria does
exist today as Costa Rica’s national hero – just ask any Costa Rican,
young or old and you’ll be convinced of his existence and of his
immortality.