Costa Rican Pride

I’ve been thinking about what it means to have national pride nowadays. I am in a class titled ‘Culture and Globalization,’ which discusses the effects of globalization on the world, and specifically in Costa Rica. Globalization encourages an identity different than the identity found naturally in a country.

While a lot of kids walk around sporting their Hollister t-shirts, many people seem to have a Costa Rican pride, though and through. There are certain aspects of the culture here that are distinctly Central American. Before coming to Costa Rica, I assumed it would be similar to Mexico. They do, after all, share the same language. But, as a visiting professor in my Advanced Spanish class pointed out, there is a big misconception that Latin American can be grouped together as one, when really there are so many distinct cultures. For example, spicy food isn’t a big deal in Costa Rica, while it’s famous in Mexico (a quick note on Mexico: I learned while I was here that the official name of Mexico is the United Mexican States. Who knew?).

Many people, when I meet them for the first time, will ask if I like Costa Rica. After answering that yes, it is absolutely beautiful, I ask how they like it. I’ll usually hear a story about how they have been here since they were born and love it. Similar to the individual states in the U.S., Costa Ricans have preferences for provinces within Costa Rica. I had a host mom in Guanacaste for a week at the beginning of the semester, and she marveled at how anyone could live in the Central Valle: it’s so cold, she told me. Once I reached Heredia, a comfortable 75 year round, my host family shared with me that they couldn’t live in Guanacaste: it was so hot. I had to agree with them: I sweated just sitting in Guanacaste.

There’s a pride of province, and a larger pride of country that can be identified in bars and living rooms across the country on the nights of a soccer game. When the U.S. beat Costa Rica in a soccer game (soccer is called futbol here; football here is known as futbol americano), there was a general sadness the next day.

There are a lot of things that Costa Ricans have to be proud of: they conserve about 27% of the landmass that is Costa Rica (Let’s Go Costa Rica: On a Budget), they know how to cook, and they have tons of biodiversity. They are hugged by the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean and have more than 60 volcanoes. How cool!

Some Costa Ricans use a verb form that is an alternative for the informal ‘tú,’ called the voseo. A few other countries (including Guatemala, Paraguay and Honduras) use this as well, but a classmate told me that she uses ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’ because she is Costa Rican. It makes them different, and they like that.