Costa Rica (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Matthew Firestone [25]
Return to beginning of chapter
WOMEN IN COSTA RICA
Women are traditionally respected in Costa Rica (Mother’s Day is a national holiday), and since 1974, the Costa Rican family code has stipulated that husband and wife have equal duties and rights. In addition, women can draw up contracts, assume loans and inherit property; sexual harassment and sex discrimination are against the law. In 1996, Costa Rica passed a landmark law against domestic violence, one of the most progressive in Latin America.
But only recently have women made gains in the workplace, with growing roles in political, legal, scientific and medical fields. In 1993, Margarita Penon (Oscar Arias Sánchez’ wife) ran as a presidential candidate. In 1998, both vice presidents (Costa Rica has two) were women: Astrid Fischel and Elizabeth Odio. In February 2010 Arias Sánchez’ former Vice President Laura Chinchilla won the elections and became the first female president in Costa Rica’s history.
Despite some advances, machismo is not a thing of the past in Costa Rica. Antidiscrimination laws are rarely enforced and women are generally lower-paid and are less likely to be considered for high-level jobs. They also have more difficulty getting loans, even though their repayment record is better than that of men. In the countryside, many women maintain traditional roles: raising children, cooking and running the home.
Return to beginning of chapter
ARTS
Literature
Few works of Costa Rican writers or novelists are available in translation and, unfortunately, much of what is written about Costa Rica and available in English (fiction or otherwise) is written by foreigners.
Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion, edited by Barbara Ras, is a fine collection of 26 short stories by modern Costa Rican writers, offering a valuable glimpse of society from Ticos themselves.
Carlos Luis Fallas (1909–66) is widely known for the Mamita Yunai (1940), an influential novel that took the banana companies to task for their labor practices, and he remains very popular among the Latin American left.
Carmen Naranjo (1928–) is one of the few contemporary Costa Rican writers who has risen to international acclaim. She is a novelist, poet and short-story writer who also served as ambassador to India in the 1970s, and a few years later as Minister of Culture. In 1996, she was awarded the prestigious Gabriela Mistral medal from the Chilean government. Her collection of short stories, There Never Was a Once Upon a Time, is widely available in English. Two of her stories can also be found in Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion.
Tatiana Lobo (1939–) was actually born in Chile, but since 1967 she has lived in Costa Rica, where her many books are set. She received the note-worthy Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz for Latin American women novelists for her novel Asalto al paraíso (Assault on Paradise).
José León Sánchez (1930–) is an internationally renowned memoirist. Of Huetar descent and from the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, he was convicted for stealing from the famous Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (Click here) in Cartago, and sentenced to serve his term at Isla San Lucas, one of Latin America’s most notorious jails. Illiterate when he was incarcerated, Sánchez taught himself how to read and write, and clandestinely authored one of the continent’s most poignant books: La isla de los hombres solos (called God Was Looking the Other Way in the translated version). This fictionalized account is based on the 20 years he served out of his original 45-year sentence. He later went on to produce 14 other novels and serve in several high-level public appointments.
Return to beginning of chapter
Theater
The most famous theater in the country is the Teatro Nacional (Click