The first racial discrimination in Costa Rica
By Hubert Solano

The Indians didn’t want them. The blacks neither. Least of all the Spaniards. They were Ladinos: a cross between Indians and blacks. These victims were the fist sons of an Indian crossed with a negress or negro. The last was more common.

Thus the first class of outcasts was born in Costa Rica, around 400 years ago. These Ladinos suffered all the unpleasantness of colonial racial discrimination and they ended up hiding in the mountains feeling as if they were worth less then a dog.

The blacks were brought to America as slaves by the Spaniards. They were mostly male. The negro women appeared in Central America after the shipwreck of a Portuguese ship carrying slaves of African origin. They were secured in the Caribbean at point close to the frontier in between Nicaragua and Honduras.

One of the first times the difficulties of the new social group were discussed in Costa Rica was in 1751, during the apostle visit of the Bishop of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, which Morel de Santa Cruz was making to Nicoya.

Describing Nicoya, the prelate said the population was reduced to 120 straw huts, of which 100 belonged to Indians and 20 belonged to the Ladinos. “There would be many more if it wasn’t that they were so hated by the others,” he wrote in a letter to the King of Spain.

About 244 years ago in the region of Nicoya alone, there were 590 Ladinos that lived hidden in the mountains, far from God, according to the bishop.

“When the Ladinos attended to their Christian obligations, they worked at inferior jobs, because the Indians didn’t want to give them lodging. Living in the private camps of Christian instruction, they died without last rites (sacrament of the Eucharist administered to a person in danger of dying) and at times without confession, without spiritual counsel and that is how they are buried in those deserts,” he recounted. According to the bishop, when scattering the Ladinos, he said: “The risk of damnation which their souls are exposed to is well known.”

He added that the distance between the Ladinos to the churches was considerable. He also argued that the heavy rains during the winter and the multiple rivers in Nicoya, made the route to the paish much more difficult.

In effect, not even the followers, even in the worst of difficulties, could turn to their priest, nor could he help them.

To remedy the situation the bishop suggested that the Gran Mayor and the Vicar of Nicoya, should construct a church in a more comfortable location so that the ladinos could congregate there.

That way the Ladinos would build their houses near the church and could be administered by the friars that were assigned there.

Bishop Morel de Santa Cruz couldn’t put his wish into practice because it was such a new thought. But he promised to return to Nicoya to help the Ladinos. Unfortunately, he died in Cuba before returning to Costa Rica.

During the first three centuries of the Spanish empire, Cartago was the capital of Costa Rica. The Spaniards wouldn’t allow the Ladinos to enter there either.

The “Cholos” (half-breeds) or the “Pardos” (mulattos) as they also called the Ladinos, had to stay on the outskirts of the city. From there to Cartago, the “The town of the Pardos” was formed.

Little by little, these Ladinos, who were characterized for their sharp wit, shrewdness and easy domination of the Spanish language as well as the languages of the Indians, began incorporating themselves into Costa Rican society, until they were accepted.

Principally identified by their hair, it’s easy to recognize them on the streets of Costa Rica.

Black Ladinos have straight hair; others have curly or frizzy hair with an Indian characteristic.