ON Monday, businesses shut their doors, parades and celebrations filled the streets in northern Pacific towns, and President Abel Pacheco promised to build a museum in honor of the day the country was celebrating: July 25, 1824, when the northwestern province of Guanacaste voted to go Tico.
It was the 181st anniversary of the decision, and, as in years past, it was a national holiday, a time to remember when those golden beaches and cowboy towns were not always within Costa Rica’s border, but formed part of Nicaragua.
The province has become one of the country’s primary claims to a distinct culture. Guanacaste is rich with traditions, dance, costume, and color of many kinds, placing it among the regions that carry the country’s cultural banner.
Pacheco traveled to Nicoya, a city on the Pacific coast peninsula of the same name, to announce the imminent construction of the Guanacaste Museum, wire service EFE reported. According to the decree he signed, the museum will foment the “research, promotion, publicity and conservation of the province’s cultural and natural heritage,” in the hopes of “stimulating its people’s regional identity.”
A statement from the office of legislator Ligia Zúñiga of Guanacaste said the day of her province’s annexation represents “the most important contribution Costa Rica has ever received to date, not only in territory, but also in natural and cultural treasures. The annexation has meant a commitment of labor, loyalty and honor from people who, by their own will, decided to live as Costa Ricans.”
