Black and Part-Black Populations in Colonial Costa Rica: Ethnohistorical Resources and Problems

Abstract

Unlike many other Latin American countries, Costa Rica imported few African slaves during the colonial period. Nevertheless, a variety of adaptations resulted creating at least four identifiable populations. The available colonial resources are described, the nature of the organization of the cacao plantations are examined, and the problems of the colonial terminology are analyzed. This article presents an overview of the present state of knowledge about Black and part-Black populations of colonial Costa Rica, an area of Latin America in which African slaves played only a minor role. After briefly reviewing the development of colonial Costa Rica, the major sources of information on the colonial populations are described. The second section discusses the Black and part-Black populations of this time period. The final section discusses some of the advantages of conducting ethnohistorical research on colonial and early Republican Period Blacks and part-Blacks in Costa Rica and some of the problems that such research encounters. Development of Colonial Costa Rica In 1502 Columbus landed on the eastern coast of Costa Rica at Cariay (also called Carian), the present-day site of Puerto Lim6n, to repair his ships. Columbus and his men encountered Amerinds (probably the Huetar) wearing gold necklaces and breastplates. Very shortly thereafter exploration was begun in Costa Rica by the Spanish with the primary objective of discovering the mines that produced the gold of these native ornaments. The rich gold deposits that the Spanish had hoped to find in Costa Rica never materialized. At least some of the gold pieces had been of Panamanian or Colombian origin. Costa Rica was gradually settled by Spanish farm families. The interior Central Plateau (the Meseta Central) was the area favored for colonization by the Whites. Today the Central Plateau remains by far the most densely populated region of the country. A secondary area of White settlement was established on the Pacific coast. ETHNOHISTORY 27/1 (Winter 1980) 13 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.70 on Tue, 06 Sep 2016 06:07:34 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms