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THE NICARAGUAN BLACK LEGEND: VIOLENCE AND NICARAGUANS IN COSTA RICA, 1821-1956 BY Carlos Enrique Alemán A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY History 2012 ABSTRACT THE NICARAGUAN BLACK LEGEND: VIOLENCE AND NICARAGUANS IN COSTA RICA, 1821-1956 By Carlos Enrique Alemán This dissertation is a transnational history that examines the perception of Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica through their social, political and labor practices from independence to the mid-twentieth century. My dissertation examines the interplay between violence and nation- state formation and its impact on national identities. By analyzing the role of foreign relations, interregional politics and immigration in the construction of national identity, I argue that the deployment of violence by various actors influenced the perception of Nicaraguan immigrants as inherently violent at the turn of the twentieth century, a characterization that affects migration into the contemporary period. Importantly, I argue that Nicaraguans played a critical role in the formation of the modern Costa Rican state in the 1930s and 1940s through their involvement with the Costa Rican Communist Party and the civil war of 1948. I argue that violence, its symbolic and physical manifestations, were not absent in Costa Rica. Costa Rican violence manifested itself in different ways, through repression of labor struggles and opposition groups, the deportation of immigrants and exiles, and war making. Costa Rican violence expressed itself rhetorically against opponents it deemed threats, primarily communists and Nicaraguans, casting them as outsiders of the Costa Rican nation. Costa Ricans have historically defined themselves largely in contrast to Nicaraguans who they stereotyped as violent troublemakers. Finally, the “Nicaraguan” as a category of person was defined as hyper-violent other used to measure Costa Rica’s peaceful character, despite Costa Rica’s acts of violence. The construction of the violent Nicaraguan, thus, reified a peaceful Costa Rica and created a Nicaraguan Black Legend. Copyright by CARLOS ENRIQUE ALEMÁN 2012 To my daughter, Amelia Mercedes Alemán v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation benefited greatly from the support of faculty, colleagues, and family. I would like to begin by thanking my dissertation committee members Peter Beattie, Lisa Fine, Leslie Moch, and Dionisio Valdes. I am very grateful to each of you for your guidance and support. Dr. Peter Beattie, thank you for your mentorship, helpful editing, and especially, for seeing me to the finish line. I would also like to thank Adan Quan and Ben Smith for their insights and encouragement. I would also like to thank the Costa Rican scholars that took the time to discuss my work and invariably made the final product better: Carlos Sandoval García, Carlos Hernández, and David Díaz-Arias. In particular, Carlos Sandoval García for encouraging me to pursue my research topic. This project would have been impossible to complete without the immense help of the staff of the Carlos Melendez Library of the Universidad de Costa Rica, the Archivo Nacional de Nicaragua, the Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua y Centroamerica, and the Archivo Nacional de Costa Rica. I recently moved to Atlanta and was welcomed into the Emory community by Jeffrey Lesser, Glenn Goodman, and Phil MacLeod. Jeffrey Lesser went above and beyond in making sure I had access to the necessary resources to complete my dissertation. Glenn and Phil both read parts of the dissertation and provided invaluable feedback. I would like to thank my fellow graduate students and friends that helped make this journey an enjoyable one. These enduring bonds helped make me a better scholar and provided moments of much needed levity. A debt of gratitude to my fellow historians in Room 8: Heath Bowen, Daniel Dalrymple, Jason Friedman, Joséph Genetin-Pilawa, Lindsay Gish, Jennifer González, Jill Kelly, Jaime McLean-Dalrymple, Brandon Miller, Ted Mitchell, Ben Sawyer, vi Keina Staley, Micalee Sullivan, Andrea Vicente, and Tim Weber. I am grateful to my colleagues in the Society for Latino Scholarship (SOLS): Juan José Bustamante, Maria Dorado, Rudy Hernández, Sonia Robles, Leonard Savala, and Marcelina Treviño Savala. When I first arrived in Michigan, SOLS provided a sense of community that I greatly benefited from. I would also like to thank David Cordova, Alex Gradilla, Paul Hernández, and Cedric Taylor for their friendship and lively debates. I must also thank Luis Guillen for his enduring friendship. My family proved critical to my success. Thank you to my wonderful parents, Carlos Enrique Alemán Morales and Ana Maria Torres. Your unwavering support and commitment, as well as your examples of strength and perseverance, inspired me to continue and finish what I began. You went north so I could go anywhere. I would also like to thank my grandmother, Ana Maria Molina, for showering me with love and support during my research stay in Central America. May she rest in peace. Thank you to my brother, José Luis Alemán, and my sisters, Carla Alemán, Gabriella Alemán, and Melyssa Preza for your love. I would also like to thank my in-laws, José R. Morales and Edlyn Rodríguez, for their kind support. Finally, I would like to thank my amazing wife, Dr. Mercedes M. Morales-Alemán. Your love, intelligence, and kindness have made this journey, our journey, all the more worthwhile. And now, with the birth of our daughter, Amelia Mercedes Alemán, we are complete. I would like to thank the littlest member of my family for being my greatest inspiration. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ x INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE SUSPICIOUS NEIGHBORS: TERRITORIAL DISPUTES AND THE NATIONAL WAR IN CENTRAL AMERICA .......... 23 CHAPTER TWO "TO WORK, THERE IS NOTHING HERE": NICARAGUAN MIGRATION TO COSTA RICA, 1893-1930 ................................................. 39 CHAPTER THREE UNDESIRABLE ELEMENTS: NICARAGUAN LABORERS IN COSTA RICA AND THE STRIKE OF 1934 ....................... 76 CHAPTER FOUR A VIOLENT DICTATORSHIP: SOMOZA AND THE NICARAGUAN OPPOSITION IN EXILE, 1936-1947........................ 146 CHAPTER FIVE STRANGE ALIGNMENTS: NICARAGUANS IN THE COSTA RICAN CIVIL WAR OF 1948......................................... 221 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................... 285 EPILOGUE................................................................................................................................. 292 APPENDIX A MAPS.......................................................................................................................................... 297 APPENDIX B NICARAGUAN IMMIGRANTS IN COSTA RICA, 1963....................................................... 300 APPENDIX C LIST OF ANASTASIO SOMOZA GARCÍA’S ENEMIES (CARIBBEAN LEGION) ........... 303 BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................... 308 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Jamaican and Nicaraguan Migration to Costa Rica by Province, 1864-1892 ................61 Table 2. Nicaraguans and West Indians in Costa Rica, 1864-1950 ……………………………..90 Table 3. Nicaraguan Migration to Costa Rica by Gender and Province, 1950 ...…….………...272 Table 4. Nicaraguans in Costa Rica by Age, 1963 …………………………………………….301 Table 5. Nicaraguans in Costa Rica by Years of Residence, 1963 …………………………….301 Table 6. Nicaraguans in Costa Rica by Gender and Province, 1963 …………………………..302 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Mariachis, as depicted by the Diario de Costa Rica ..………….………………...…234 Figure 2. Map of Nicaragua …………...………………………………………………………298 Figure 3. Map of Costa Rica ……..……...…………………………………………………….299 x INTRODUCTION On August 17, 1935, two gunmen entered the office of Costa Rican businessman Alberto González Lahmann intending to rob him for 20,000 colones. González Lahmann refused and struggled with one of the men. His assailants shot him, killing him instantly. The gunmen attempted to flee, but police officers cornered the assailants in the office building, setting off a gunfight. Unable to escape, the policemen killed the would-be robbers, two brothers named Rodolfo and Rodrigo Sequeira. Beyond the monetary incentive, the Costa Rican media speculated about alternative motivations for the killing and soon rumors that the brothers were communists1 and Nicaraguans spread. Costa Rican newspapers and radio echoed these assumptions despite the lack of evidence that the murderers were either.2 This incident serves as a fascinating introduction to this dissertation that explores how violence shaped and defined 1 Costa Rican Communist leader Manuel Mora was also accused of being responsible for the murder. An alleged accomplice named Sandoval Barahona accused Mora of being the mastermind. See USNADF, 818.00-1492 (1935-08-19), Biblioteca Digital Carlos Meléndez, CIHAC, San José, Costa Rica; USNADF, 818.00B-86 (1935-08-23), Biblioteca Digital Carlos Meléndez, CIHAC, San José, Costa Rica; USNADF, 818.00-1498 (1935-09-24),