The Internal Otherness: Representations of the Caribbean in the Construction of Costa Rican National Identity

Abstract

This essay analyzes the process that produced the imaginary and the articulation of this imaginary to the geographical and racist representations developed in other contexts. It also states the need to link the processes of construction of social representations to the socioeconomic causalities that intervene in the definition of territories and imagined communities. In the construction of Costa Rican national identity some of the regions belonging to country´s territory have traditionally been imagined as alien and exotic. Among them, the Caribbean lowlands are notorious for their ethnic groups and environment that set them apart from the Central Valley, where the mythic birth of the nation took place. The methodology used here includes the study of primary and secondary sources, along with discursive analysis, in order to make a comprehensive interpretation of the process that led to the elaboration of those social representations. The first part defines the main concepts and establishes the theoretical framework, such as nation and identity. The second part describes the process that built Costa Rican society in the context of colonial imperialisms. In the last one, the representations on the Caribbean region are discussed in relation to the context in which they were elaborated.