San Jose, Costa Rica

Urbanization and development

Daniel Moore

Macalester College

Spring 1996

Introduction

Costa Rica has found its way into many North American homes recently due to the popularity of eco-tourism. This small Central American country, well known for its coffee and democracy, is now the destination for travelers clad in adventure-wear and large backpacks. San Jose, the capital city, is the starting point for many tours. It is also the center of trade, and transportation. If entering the city looking for rainforest, the tourist will be disappointed; increasing population, and the recent rise in automobile use has made the air polluted and the streets crowded and hazardous. The eco-traveler will be impressed with the 25 National Parks in Costa Rica, but will she be shocked by it holding the second highest deforestation rate in the world? The suburban tourist who was put at ease when reading that Costa Rica abolished its army in 1949, may question the role of the Guardia Civil (Civil Guard), looming in the streets of San Jose with uniforms and sub-machine guns. After some research, a person will realize that Costa Rica does not entirely live up to its egalitarian reputation which comes from its origins as an impoverished Spanish colony. Costa Rica is a unique country, different from its neighbors in so many ways, yet unable to escape many of the problems of Central America.

San Jose today has been shaped by the often turbulent history of Costa Rica. Therefore the first objective of this paper is to put San Jose in perspective by briefly describing the history of Costa Rica. Then take a look at the city itself to examine how it fits with the rest of the country and region, how it looks and what makes it work. Some issues that will be dealt with are transportation, and population growth.

Physical background

With a total area of 51,022 square kilometers, Costa Rica is one of the smallest countries in the Americas, but for its size, is one of the most diverse in terms of biodiversity, climate and topography. Costa Rica is bordered by Nicaragua on the North and Panama on the South, the Caribbean sea on the East, and the Pacific Ocean on the West.

The country can be divided into six major regions. The Central Valley, the Atlantic coast, the Northern Zone, the Guanacaste province, the Central Pacific Zone, and the Southern Zone (Blake, 1993). San Jose is found in the fertile Central Valley also called the Meseta Central. Four mountain ranges running northwest to southeast cover a substantial portion of the country and include five active, or potentially active volcanoes; Volcán Irazú, lying just North of San Jose has wiped out the town several times. To the south of San Jose, lies the Talamanca mountain range, which extends south into Panama. These mountains are the last section of the Andes of South America, and includes the tallest mountain in Southern Central America, Chirripó.

Although Costa Rica lies entirely within the tropics, due to the numerous mountain regions, only the lowlands on the coast are actually tropical in climate. The rest of the country is temperate and in the highest mountains, cool. The majority of the country has distinct rainy and dry seasons, with the exception of the Atlantic coast, which usually receives rain all year round. San Jose receives rain (about 2,000 mm) from about May to October, and has an average temperature of about 14- 20° C.

Historical Context

Pre-Columbian

The first aspect of Costa Rica which sets it apart from most other areas in Central America, is it was sparsely settled during the pre-Columbian era. Five distinct aboriginal groups were noted when the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century, and population was estimated at more than 25,000; however some people push that number up to 100,000. Very little is known about the earliest inhabitants of the country, because they did not develop written languages, as compared to other groups of the time, and artifacts are very rare due to early collectors taking much of the items found. Many of the Indian groups came under strong Mayan influence, and the tribes fought constantly among themselves for control of territory and gold. Indians in Costa Rica were skilled in metallurgy and other objects from gold imported from outside the region. Unlike the powerful Aztec and Inca empires, these small tribes refused initially to submit to Spanish rule, and were a major reason for the slow conquest of Costa Rica.

In 1502, on his fourth and final voyage to the New World, Columbus was caught in a violent storm. Seeking shelter, he anchored in a bay protected by a small island at the site of present day Limón. He and his crew remained there for 18 days and in that time made contact with Carib Indians, and traded with them for the heavy gold discs they wore as penchants. This presentation of great riches remained firm in Spanish minds, even though many attempts were made, very little material wealth was to be found in Costa Rica. Several attempts were made to conquer the region, but due to sickness, hunger, and relentless Indian attacks, most failed.

In 1559, King Philip II ordered that the conquest and settlement of Costa Rica should proceed. He issued a royal license for that purpose to Juan de Cavallón, who planned to colonize the Caribbean coast. Again, this attempt failed, but two years later, he founded the first permanent settlement in Costa Rica near the Golfo Nicoya on the Pacific side. Like his predecessors, Cavallón was most interested in gold, and left the colony after realizing no gold would be found. In 1564, the settlement was relocated to the fertile Central Valley by Juan Vásquez de Coronado, to provide an agricultural base for sustaining further exploration. By 1573, the colony had two towns: Cartago, established as the capital with 40 families, and Aranjuez, which had 15 families.

Colonial period

In contrast to most other Spanish colonies, there was no large exploitable workforce in Costa Rica. The small indigenous population had been decimated early on by war and disease. It had very few riches and was difficult to reach from the seat of Spain's Central American empire, located in Guatemala. As a result, Costa Rica developed slowly and only due to the work of its own people. Early life in Costa Rica was by no means easy, and the population lived in poverty, even resorting to using cacao beans as currency because Spanish money was so scarce.

San Jose, then called Villanueva de la Boca del Monte, was founded in 1737 by tobacco workers exiled from Cartago, near the established towns of Cartago, and Heredia, and near the future site of Alajuela, founded in 1782.

By the late eighteenth century, Heredia was the site for a number of small sugar mills, while San Jose was engaged in processing both cacao and tobacco. By 1782, San Jose was developing as the commercial center, and boasted a population of nearly 5,000.

In 1821, the captain general of Guatemala proclaimed the independence of the Central American provinces. Costa Rica had not been consulted on this and as result it was unclear how to proceed. The four principal towns- Cartago, San Jose, Heredia, and Alajuela- met to determine their future. San Jose and Alajuela favored either union with the other Central American states or separate existence for Costa Rica. Cartago and Heredia, however, registered their approval of the union with Mexico. This disagreement led to a short civil war in 1822. In 1823, Costa Rica formally declared independence with Spain, and the Congress voted to join the United Provinces of Central America.

In early 1830s, issues arose over the permanent location of the capital. Each of the four city states, wanted their's to be the location and a compromise was made to move the seat of government every four years. This was done until the governor of San Jose firmly established the capital there, after a brief rebellion was curtailed.

Around this time, coffee was becoming a major source of foreign revenue. The government openly promoted the cultivation of coffee by offering free land to those that agreed to plant coffee. Transportation to haul this crop to the port town was primarily on primitive trails by ox cart. When trade was begun with England, the coffee industry, and especially the so called "coffee barons" who ran the trade, began to take a significant role in the shaping of the country. This was the first time that any significant amount of wealth existed in Costa Rica, and as a result, the first time there was a division of labor. This was evident in the San Jose, where the majority of the residents were landless farmers.

Democracy and Civil War

Throughout the following 50 years Costa Rica attempted to develop and maintain various systems of democracy. However, this time also included a lot of conflict and several instances of bloodshed. In 1948, the ruling party resisted to give up the presidential seat which it lost, and annuled the election. This resulted in a civil war led by Jose Figueres Ferrer. The war lasted only a few weeks, but was the bloodiest episode in Costa Rican history; some 2,000 people died.

Post civil war

After the civil war had ended, a second republic was begun. One of the first acts was to abolish the army. This republic began with a firm foundation of social programs and public schools. These programs have allowed for a higher standard of living for the average Costa Rican compared to the rest of Central America. These programs are also very costly and have undergone criticism from political candidates and leaders. Also criticism has come from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). During the late seventies and early eighties, Costa Rica's debt was reaching the equivalent to 3 billion U.S. dollars due to lower coffee prices and exports (Rinehart,1983). The IMF offered loans to help bail out the country, but with these loans they made certain demands such as, reducing public sector wages, subsidies, and other public spending. They also wanted lifting of price controls of public utility charges, and Gasoline, and reforming the tax system. These demands went against much of the principles that Costa Rica was founded on, and were not met. It took involvement in Nicaragua for the U.S. to realize the value of this small Latin American democracy, and assistance has been given. Relations with the U.S. are not always happy, but it is clear that Costa Rica is a different place due to their involvement.

People of Costa Rica

Originally the racial distribution in Costa Rica was much more segregated. The people on the Caribbean coast were of West Indian descent, the people on the Nicoya peninsula were Mestizo-American, or a combination of Spanish and Indigenous ancestry, and the Central Valley had very high concentrations of Euro-American (Hall, 1985). Today, due to urban migration, and general mixing of population, San Jose is a mix representing the entire country, and several other countries. Despite the fact that now most Costa Ricans are racially mixed, historically, prejudice dictated a preference for whites.

The national religion of Costa Rica, like most of Latin American, is Roman Catholic. Other religions are tolerated, but the Catholic Church is a big part of the Costa Rican life, and serves as a social center for the micro communities in and around San Jose.

San Jose

San Jose was neither the first city established in Costa Rica, nor the original capital, yet today it is both the primary city of the country, and the capital. This dominance is seen not only its large area, but in its economic prosperity. It is in San Jose that the upper class has lived. During the late colonial times, many of the very small upper class became the coffee barons of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Also concentrated in the capitol city is the middle classes, which greatly expanded in the twentieth century due to the growth of industry, commerce and government. Recently many other cities have begun to grow in population and prosperity, but none have escaped from the shadow that San Jose has shed.

The typical Latin American urban plan is not necessarily visible in San Jose, but it does exist in some ways. San Jose shares its population with three other cities, Heredia, Alajuela, and the original capital, Cartago. With this lay out it is hard to lay the grid of this urban system over the city, plus the demographics of the city have changed over time and this format was not followed. A central business district constitutes much of the downtown area, and the Plaza de Cultúra (Culture Plaza) lies near its center.

Population and urbanization

During the second quarter of the twentieth century, the population of Costa Rica entered a period of natural increase. By the late 50's the rate of growth was almost four percent per year- among the highest in the world. This population increase was first looked upon very highly due to its history of underpopulation, however, very soon Costa Ricans realized the problems associated with rapid population growth, and efforts to curb this increase were started. Between 1959 and 1976 the birth rate fell from 48 to 29 percent.

Nearly one half of the country's population lives in the Valle Central (Central Valley), an area constituting roughly five percent of the country's surface. This concentrated population is evident flying into the country at night, when you see mile after mile of lights before finally touching down at the airport. Between 1973, and 1982, the urban population grew 37.3 percent while the rural population increased only 19.5 percent (Kaplan, 1984). This demonstrates that the economically active population of Costa Rica is becoming increasingly nonagricultural.

Migration from rural areas is a key force in the growth of San Jose. Migration into the urban areas is a spatial readjustment to economic and social opportunities, operating primarily in response to "push" factors in the countryside than to "pull" factors in the towns. Much of this is due to the increasing number of agriculture workers not owning the land that they work on, even though San Jose has always had a high population of landless agricultural workers. There is little pressure to stay to do hard labor on the banana or coffee plantations when there appears to be available wealth in the big city. This migration has proved for rapid urbanization of San Jose, and in turn placed a burden on the city to provide services for these people. These new populations do not necessarily live in San Jose proper, but commonly are found in the numerous, and constantly expanding suburban settlements. Unlike the typical model for Latin American cities, the wealth of the city is not concentrated in the downtown, but rather is spread out in higher class neighborhoods of the suburbs.

The layout of the city has of course been effected by growth. Rather than the original four towns, and the several isolated villages, the Valle Central is now densely populated, and San Jose and its suburbs have absorbed the space in between the four principle towns.

Transportation

Isolation was one of the principal constraints on economic development throughout the colonial period (Hall, 1985). During the nineteenth century, mules and ox carts were the primary transportation on land and sailing vessels were used along the coasts. There was no coordinated effort to develop a transportation network, and most major roads and railways built early on were individual projects designed to link regions to the Valle Central, or with the coast to export agricultural goods.

The closeness of the original settlements imposed a single nucleus on the transportation network present today. Secondly, routes providing outlets to the ocean were desired, so roads were built East-West. These were first built for ox cart, and later railroad. Agricultural areas were linked to these railroads by trails running North-South. Eventually a radial network was established around the interior nucleus, and with the advent of the automobile and all weather roads, this network became interconnected and larger. Aircraft has expanded this radial network even further. Finally, the "main-street" effect emerged with the construction of the Pan- American highway, traversing the country from Nicaragua to Panama.

In San Jose, traffic is a major problem. Cars are more affordable than ever, and people are buying them faster than they are learning how to drive. There is a bumper sticker that is sold to the English speaking population in San Jose that reads: "Save a life, teach a Costa Rican how to drive." The danger to pedestrians is not exaggerated; several times I was not paying attention and my life was almost taken by a speeding car or bus. In spite of the increase in the number automobiles in circulation, there is still a low average number of cars per people. Most Costa Ricans rely on public transport for both urban commuting, and trips to other regions. Almost every town can be reached by a bus departing from downtown San Jose.

Tourism

The great economic hardship of the 80's is being subsided by advances in the tourism industry. People are cashing in all over the country from the rural farmer becoming a tour guide or working at a hotel, to the government selling tickets to enter national parks. There are many tourist agencies, souvenir shops, and hotels in San Jose. This boom in tourism was helped by the unstable countries surrounding Costa Rica. The beauty and treasures of the tropics and of Central America, can be seen with little risk to personal safety. This has brought greater wealth to Costa Rica, and added another dimension to the expanding gap between rich and poor. Whether due to wealth, or simply expanding economic forces in the U. S., San Jose is looking more and more like a North American city; from the Levi's and Chicago Bulls t-shirt, to the Taco Bells, McDonalds, and the 3M factory.

Conclusion

There are several forces making San Jose the unique city that it is today; many historical, many political, and many coincidental. The U.S. "invasion" through tourism and trade has subdued many of the traditional Latin American aspects of this city. Also important is the uniqueness of Costa Rica's history with its roots as a poor agricultural society, where poverty instead of wealth was equally distributed. With the advent of coffee and other agricultural exports, Costa Rica began to be a viable economic force. Although holding on to its ideals of an egalitarian society, the ascendance of San Jose has not always been the result of social or economic equality; inequalities have been evident and rising since the first fortune was made in the nineteenth century. Today there is still a gap between the rich and the poor, as found in the rest of Central America, but the difference is that, thanks to an early emphasis on education and social welfare, even the lowest class have a higher overall standard of living.

Migration from the rural to urban areas is a common cause for the rapid urbanization found throughout Latin America. This is true in Costa Rica, and San Jose has absorbed a large percentage of these migrants. This expanding population has pushed the boundaries of the San Jose area further out, absorbing small towns and meeting the three other colonial towns, Heredia, Alajuela, and Cartago. Transportation, and services has been attempting to compete with this growth, and as a result road construction and other projects are a constant sight in the city. Public transportation, both for local and regional trips, has served the majority of the population until only recently when automobiles have increased rapidly. Congestion and traffic noises are heard throughout the day.

San Jose, is the political, and financial center for Costa Rica, and now the tourism industry is taking its place economically in the city. This new industry is bringing new jobs and wealth to the city, but at the same time changing its appearance. What Costa Rica will look like in five years is impossible to tell, but it has come a long way since its origin, and has a long way to go.

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