1 See Philippe Bourgois, Ethnicity at Work: divided labor on a Central American banana plantation (Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
2.
2 See Stacy Mayet al., Costa Rica: a study in economic development (New York, The Twentieth Century Fund, 1952).
3.
3 The Costa Rican government only began extending official recognition to Native people in 1976 when a small number of ‘indigenous reserves’ were established. In 1991, Native people were allowed to apply for identification cards which extended citizenship rights to them. However, their participation in politics remained limited because Native people were assigned only the same number of cards as naturalised citizens.
4.
4 Keith had married into a powerful Costa Rican family and therefore enjoyed the privileges of the ruling elite.
5.
5 Government of Costa Rica, Anuario Estadístico, corresponding years.
6.
6 Within months of coming to power for the first time in 1910, Jiménez had signed into law the contract that set the modest taxation levels that prevailed until 1930.
7.
7 While soil exhaustion contributed to the decline of the banana industry, the spread of Sigatoka and Panama disease was the company’s chief cause of concern, causing abandonment of plantations.
8.
8 Government of Costa Rica, Indice Completo de Opciones, Inscipciones y Naturalizaciones: 1824-1927.
9.
9 Government of Costa Rica, Congreso series, No. 15400, p. 18.
10.
10 Joaquín García Monge was also a prominent figure in the Liga Civica de Costa Rica, a nationalistic organisation founded in 1927 that lobbied against foreign companies and their control over the country’s resources.
11.
11 Government of Costa Rica, Congreso Series, No. 15400, p. 21.
12.
12 La Gaceta Oficial (1 February 1927).
13.
13 José Guerrero, ‘Como se quiere que sea Costa Rica, blanca o negra? El problema racial del negro y las actuales contrataciones bananeras’, Reportorio Americano (13 August 1930).
14.
14 Ibid., p. 150.
15.
15 La Tribuna (30 August 1930), signed by Rafael Calderón Muñoz, Otilio Ulate Blanco, Adriano Urbina, Carlos Manuel Echandi, Ramón Bedoya, José Rafael Cascante Vargas, Juan Guido Matamoros, Manuel Antonio Cordero, Francisco Mayorga Rivas, Victor Manuel Villalobos B., Marcial Rodríguez Conejo and J. Manuel Peralta.
16.
16 The Searchlight (28 June 1930).
17.
17 Government of Costa Rica, Congreso Series, No. 16358.
18.
18 Of note is the signature of one José Guerrero, who may have been the same person who was the Director of the Census Bureau, member of La Sociedad Económica Amigos del País, and the author of articles attacking the West Indian presence.
19.
19 Government of Costa Rica, Congreso Series, No. 16753
20.
20 A circular issued by the Universal Negro Improvement Association, reprinted by The Voice of the Atlantic during the 1934 banana plantation strike, also mentioned repeated petitions against West Indians that had been made since 1925.
21.
21 The Times (28 April 1911).
22.
22 Diario de Costa Rica (8 February 1920), p. 4. See also Victor Hugo Acuña Ortega, Los origenes de la clase obrera en Costa Rica: las huelgas de 1920 por la jornada de ocho horas (San José, CENAP-CEPAS, 1986), for the context of the strike action.
23.
23 The Voice of the Atlantic (18 August 1934).
24.
24 Ibid.
25.
25 The Voice of the Atlantic (25 August 1934).
26.
26 Ibid.
27.
27 Ibid.
28.
See also Arnaldo Ferreto, La Huelga Bananera 1934, pamphlet, n.d.
29.
29 The data is taken from the original forms of the 1927 census. The two communities were Cahuita on the Atlantic coast and Siquirres, located inland from Limón.
30.
30 La Tribuna (25 August 1934).
31.
31 Trabajo (4 November 1934).
32.
32 The Voice of the Atlantic (3 November 1934).
33.
33 Government of Costa Rica, Congreso Series, No. 17004, pp. 83-4 and pp. 126-34.
34.
34 See R. Harpelle, ‘The social and political integration of West Indians in Costa Rica: 1930-1950’, Journal of Latin American Studies (Vol. 25, no. 1, February 1993), pp. 103-120, for a complete discussion of the period.
35.
35 Government of Costa Rica, Censo de Población de Costa Rica: (11 de mayo de 1927) and Government of Costa Rica, Censo de Población de Costa Rica: (22 de mayo de 1950).
