Costa Rica has a population of about 4 million inhabitants. Costa Rica is not only diverse as for its flora and fauna but very much for the diversity in cultures. Most of the population is of European, mainly Spanish descent, mainly in the Caribbean part of the country where many of their ancestors where brought to work on the railroad and later in the banana plantations. About 2% is African descent and less than 1% is of indigenous descent.
Ticos as Costa Rican are known as, this nickname come from the love of using diminutives such as chiquitito but in the Costa Rican version would be chiquitico (even smaller), this is not incorrect but most of the Latin American countries do not use them, hence why they were known for this aspect of their speech. Today less and less people use it, but still you hear it everywhere in the country. Ticos are friendly and helpful people; visitors are constantly surprise of the warmth of the Costa Rican people.
Spanish is the official language but English is spoken in many of the tourist areas. Blacks speak a dialect of English known as Patua. Indian languages are also spoken but in very remote and isolated areas. Because of the great European influence in this country there are also other languages that are spoken as well, German, Italian and French. Chinese were also brought in to work in the railroad system and like the African descent they are mainly concentrated in the Caribbean side of the country.
About 90% of the population is Roman Catholic, but there are other religions are practice there is even a Jewish community in San José and many protestant churches through out the country.
Every village no matter how small have a church and its own saint's day, albeit celebrated with secular fervor. Every taxi, bus, government office, and home has its token religious icons. The Catholic marriage ceremony is the only church marriage granted state recognition.
Virtually everyone shares a so-called middle-class mentality, a firm belief in the Costa Rican equivalent of "the American Dream"--a conviction that through individual effort and sacrifice and a faith in schooling every Costa Rican can climb the social ladder and better him- or herself.
The majority of Costa Ricans keep their proud little bungalows spick and span and bordered by flowers, and even the poorest Costa Ricans are generally well groomed and neatly.
History
Christopher Columbus in his fourth and final voyage in 1502 was the first European explorer that visited Cost Rica. Thousands of years before this visit, civilization existed in Costa Rica evidence of human occupation dates 10,000 year back. Perfectly spherical granite balls were found near the west coast, these are among the cultural mysteries left by the pre-Columbian times. Some are very small like a golf ball and some are huge like the size of a Volkswagen bus.
At the time the Spaniards arrive there were four main tribes living in the east and southwest. Most of them died after the arrival of the Spaniards mainly because of diseases like the smallpox and the common cold. Others worked as slaves and flee to the high elevation mountains in the southwest where their descendents live until today.
Due to the lack of labor force and resources Costa Rica was not a very popular place to the Spaniard to settled, the lush vegetation made it very difficult for them to move inland. Mexico, Peru and Guatemala were much more preferred by the Spanish, where a lot of gold, silver and jade were obtained by thousands upon thousands of indigenous slaves. The first settlers were left here, practically on their own. The first colonial city was established in 1563, when Juan Vasquez de Coronado funded Cartago that was later the Capital. He treated the remaining indigenous with more respect and humanity that the first settlers. Later guided by an ecclesiastical order that prompted resettle around the churches that is the way most of the cities in the Central Valley and other regions of the country were established. Heredia (Cubujuquie) in 1717, San José (Villa de la Boca del Monte) in 1737 and Alajuela (Villa Hermosa) 1782.
September 15th, 1821 Costa Rica like the rest of Central America became independent from Spain. This did not have very much effect in Costa Rica, since they were not really connected with the government plans of Mexico, hence Costa Rica did not know the news of its independence until a month later.
After the declaration, effective power lay in the hands of the separate towns of the isthmus, and it took several years for a stable pattern of political alignment to emerge. The four leading cities of Costa Rica felt as independent as had the city-states of ancient Greece and the conservative and aristocratic leaders of Cartago and Heredia soon found themselves at odds with the more progressive republican leaders of San José and Alajuela. The local quarrels quickly developed into civic unrest and, in 1823, to civil war. After a brief battle in the Ochomogo Hills, the republican forces of San José were victorious. They rejected Mexico, and Costa Rica joined the federation with full autonomy for its own affairs. Guanacaste voted to secede from Nicaragua and join Costa Rica the following year.
Juan Rafael Mora was elected the first head of state in 1824. He made several reforms like the first judicial system, first newspaper, and expanded public education. He encouraged the economy by giving free land to those that would grow coffee. This is when the economy really boosted that Costa Rica was placed in the map to the rest of the world as it started to export this product. José Maria Castro, the first president, founded a high school for girls and sponsor freedom of press but was overthrown by the coffee elite barons. Who put Juan Rafael Mora in power; he was remembered for a remarkable economical growth and for fighting against American adventurer William Walker in 1856. The elites were horrified when Mora moved to establish a national bank, which would have undermined their control of credit to the coffee producers; he was executed.
In 1870 Thomas Guardia overthrew the government; he shaped the modern liberal-democracy state. He abolished the death penalty and managed the power of the coffee elite. The use the money from coffee and taxation for roads and public buildings and made a reform to the constitution that made primary education for both sexes, mandatory, free and subsidized by the government. After Guardia several other presidents were in power but did very little for more dra-matic changes until Calderon Guardia in the 1940's. Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia made many changes in the government. His legacy included a stab at land "reform" (the landless could gain title to unused land by cultivating it), establishment of a guaranteed minimum wage, paid vacations, unemployment compensation, progressive taxation, plus a series of constitutional amendments codifying workers' rights. Calderón also founded the University of Costa Rica.
Elections were held in 1948, Calderon lost against Ulate and the government declared fraud. 10 days later on March 10th, 1948 the Civil War erupted. José María ("Don Pepe") Figueres Ferrer--42-year-old coffee farmer, engineer, economist, and philosopher overthrew the government. He became head of the Founding Junta of the Second Republic of Costa Rica.
Making many reforms among them banned the press and the Communist Party, consolidated Calderon's social reforms, gave women and black the right to vote, establish presidential term limits to 4 and no consecutive terms, created the Tribunal Electoral to guarantee elections, nationalized banks and insurance companies, and most importantly he revised the Constitution with the abolishing of the army.
After 18 months he gave the power back to Ulate, but the Costa Rican's rewarded hi by electing him president in two separate occasions. 1953-57 and 1970-1974.
Economic crisis hit Costa Rica in the 1980's. In 1986, Oscar Arias Sanchez was elected president, socialist and economist lawyer. He worked toward peace in Central America and in 1987 he got the 5 presidents in Central America to sign his peace treaty. For this achievement he was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1990 Rafael Angel Calderon Furnier was elected president 50 years after his father was. He did a lot for the economy and gave Costa Rica economic stability. And history repeats after Calderon came Jose Maria Figueres Olsen elected 1994-1998 son of Jose Maria Figueres Ferrer. After him Miguel Angel Rodriguez 1998-2002 followed by the actual President of Costa Rica Abel Pacheco de la Espriella 2002-2006. In 2004 the country was shaken up for charges against Calderon and Rodriguez had received illegal from government contracts and that Figueres had received large amounts of money for consulting fee related to government contracts.
