MIGRATIONS FROM THE PLATEAU

The inhabitants from the Central Valley arrive to the South

The South’s history was characterized by isolation right from the start, as related to the Central Valley, center of political and economic power of the country. During the colony, the Spanish did not establish cities in the South. During the first years of the Republic the national government could not settle towns in that region. El Cerro de la Muerte constituted a difficult barrier to overcome since it was an obstacle to the colonization of that region. It was not before the second half of the nineteenth century when residents of the Central Valley started regarding the South seriously. Various factors motivated the colonization. On one hand, the coffee boom had produced an overload of the Central Valley’s lands. This propitiated a spontaneous advance of meseteños towards the more remote and isolated regions of the country. In second place, the State generated laws for the concession of lands and promoted the creation of roads to integrate the southern zone of the nation. An additional reason was fear for the occupation of the borderline regions by Panama, country with which there were differences in matters of boundaries.

In 1868, the desamparadeño Pedro Calderón, along with Juan López, his son-in-law, finished opening a trail with pickaxe and shovel, uniting Cartago to Térraba, and crossing the Cerro de la Muerte. Its construction was truly a great achievement, to be remembered always by all the Costa Ricans. The opening of this trail marked a new historical phase, breaking the isolation and starting the so-called “fever of the South,” a mixture of avidity for land, wood, gold and huacas (looting ) of the Térraba’s basin. As a result from this, a large number of meseteños migrated to the region.

Pedro Calderón himself, constructor of the mythical trail, founded Buenos Aires, first Costa Rican non-indigenous town in the southern region. Calderón established his ranch for bovines, equines and mules accompanied by Juan López, his son-in-law, and his friend Patricio Granados. They were the first meseteño colonists in the south of Costa Rica. After Buenos Aires, El General was colonized and later el Pozo, today Ciudad Cortés. It is important to remember that the canton of Osa was founded in 1914, with center in Buenos Aires. Later Osa and Buenos Aires are divided (1940), and Puerto Cortés becomes the center of Osa, today Ciudad Cortés.

 The first part of this colonizing period is a slow phase, at the end of the nineteenth century, characterized by subsistence economy. In the second part, especially from the thirties during the twentieth century, some rapid changes are observed and the surge of a market economy.  The construction of the Interamerican highway propitiates the definitive opening of the southern region.   The road opens first in Pérez Zeledón (1945). This release shall extend to the southeast. At the beginning of the 60’s the road reaches Buenos Aires, which is finished in 1963.  In Osa, the bridge over the Térraba river is concluded in 1958. Notwithstanding, everyone agrees that the  opening had begun before, thanks to aviation and  the creation of landing fields in the entire region since the 30’s.  

Cultural aspects

In a beginning the new coming meseteños coexist with indians and Chiricanos, adopting their uses and habits: coconut spoons, wood dishes, guacales (calabashes), clay pots, gourds, etc.  It seems that at the beginning of the twentieth century these three cultural groups exchanged cultural elements, giving identity to the South. The meseteños contributed guitar music, their sometimes melancholic songs, coffee and coffee plantations, when they could grow them, sugar mills, aguadulce (water and molasses), guaro de caña (alcoholic beverage) and carts. It is said that persons of this group were more oriented to the Central Valley, linked to technological changes, and prone to consumption of products and services deemed “modern” (Carmack, 1994). With the arrival of the Banana Company to the South of Costa Rica in 1938, a new meseteño migration (4.2) would come.  

» Chiricano Migrations

» Plateau Migrationes

» Banana Migrations

» Guanacaste Migration

» Nicaragua Migration

» Chinese Migration