When Costa Rica voted for Epsy Campbell in 2018 as the first Black woman vice president of the country and of Latin America, I knew that Costa Rica was heading towards the right direction. Colombia did the same years later.
By the way, until 1949, Black Costa Ricans faced travel restrictions that prohibited them from moving freely outside the Atlantic coastal region of Limón the capital city. This to me sounds like Palestinian travel and movement restrictions by the Israeli authorities or South Africa's apartheid travel restrictions for Blacks where they were legally required to carry pass documents.
In fact Racism and discrimination in Costa Rica are rooted in a historical "myth of whiteness" that marginalized Afro-descendant and Indigenous populations, though of course the country has increasingly acknowledged and worked to address these issues. Now waiting for Morocco to do the same as Costa Rica.
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Puerto Viejo is in the province of Limon, a very diverse area of Costa Rica. I have had many friends from our group CASC (Central America's Solidarity Coalition) which always stopped there after spending time helping out in Nicaragua and El Salvador during the war years of the 70's and 8o's. I'll bet some of them ate at that restaurateur's place. As he complained about racism in Costa Rica, i could not help scan his customers eating at his place- many of whom were white. LOL!!! Of course there is racism there, but anecdotal, one person or two persons commenting on it is a bit of oversimplification; it is a little more nuanced. Costa Rica has done much to fight racism.
On August 5, 2016, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis signed Law 9558, by which Costa Rica becomes the first State in the region to ratify the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Related Forms of Intolerance – a Convention approved by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Antigua, Guatemala in 2013.
President Solis apologized to the Afro-descendant, indigenous, Jewish, Chinese, Lebanese and Palestinian communities living in the country, “for the forms of discrimination to which they’ve been subjected throughout history.”
I believe it was in 1949 that they outlawed segregation.
In 2018, Epsy Campbell Barr became the first Black female to serve as vice president in Latin American history bringing national attention to civil rights.
Yes, like all of their neighbors, their Black population suffers from high poverty rates, poor housing and high unemployment, but government efforts in recent years to lower these numbers is commendable.
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Costa Rica really has the image of a peaceful and democratic nation. And I intented to go visit this small beautiful country that I like so much. I was almost sure that Costa Rica is not Argentina or Paraguay or even Brazil for this matter,.. at least I thought Costa Rica is better than Panama, Columbia, Peru, Chile and Ecuador including Mexico, Venezuela and Puerto Rico in terms of race relations with our brown brothers and sisters down there in Central and Latin America.
I was wrong, Costa Rica too is NOT free from Kris. Lawwwd!!! Anyway, I may as well stay in Belgium(Europe)forever.
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