Name:  Dorothy Mosby, PhD.

Age: 36

Home: From Arlington, VA, now living in Hartford, Ct.

We met Dorothy in San Jose, Costa Rica, while staying at a funky little bed and breakfast called KAPS Place. 

Work:  Professor of Latin American Literature at Mt. Holyoke College

What makes her interesting?:  Dorothy is a scholar in the study of Black writers from Central America.  Her first book, entitled Place, Language, and Identity in Afro-Costa Rican Literature (University of Missouri Press. Available on Amazon.com), was published in 2003.  When we visited with her, she was on a sabbatical expanding the studies she began in 1997. 

Important event in her life:  In 1997-98, Dorothy was named a Fulbright Scholar and lived eleven months in Costa Rica.  Her research began there and in 2001 she received her PhD. in Central American Literature from the University of Missouri.  Since then, she has come to Costa Rica every two years to continue her work.

What she taught us:  Dr. Mosby has devoted a decade of her academic life to exploring the folklore and customs of the Afro-Costa Rican.  Like most alternative histories (the ones not found in mainstream chronicles), the story manifests itself initially in oral tradition.  Not until the 20th century did a small cadre of authors and poets emerge to convey the rich heritage of these people to the larger audience. 

There are reasons for the latency.  Blacks of West Indian descent were not even granted citizenship in Costa Rica until after the six-week War of Liberation in 1948.  But, the black presence and influence date back to colonial times.

There were actually three distinct influxes of blacks into Costa Rica.  During Colonial times, they were brought as slaves and settled in the Guanacaste region.  Following that, the black Miskitos from neighboring Nicaragua formed an alliance with the British to raid the cacao (cocoa) plantations on the Caribbean coastline.  Most of the plantations were owned by wealthy Costa Ricans who lived inland.  The Miskitos stole everything from cacao and materials to people.  They ultimately congregated on the land and settled it for themselves.

For contemporary history, the most significant wave occurred in 1872 with the construction of a transcontinental railroad beginning at Puerto Limon and moving inland.  The contractor for the project was an American who passed for English named Minor Keith.  He demanded a sufficient workforce that spoke English. Labor was in short supply in Costa Rica, but at the time, there was a surplus in Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica.  Slavery had ended in the British colonies in 1838 and many Blacks, once freed, found it difficult to gain meaningful work.  Labor contracts for the railroad were let for a two year period with pay and return passage.  Oftentimes the pay and passage didn’t happen.  The laborers, mostly from Jamaica, found themselves involuntary and permanent residents of Costa Rica.

Even though these West Indian workers were literate, no proliferation of literature occurred.  They simply didn’t have time to write.  Most recollections came in the form of Jamaican folk stories handed down through generations.  Only in isolated incidences would something like a poem make it to the page of a newspaper, church bulletins, or civic celebrations. Poems dedicated to Queen Victoria are an example of this.

The beginning of the 20th century brought some alleviation of the conditions for Afro-Costa Ricans. Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association founded in 1914 was inspired to begin organization after witnessing the exploitation of laborers in Costa Rica while he was a timekeeper for the United Fruit Company.  He traveled back to Costa Rica between 1919 and 1922 to promote the Black Star Line steamship company which, although a miserable business failure, gave people hope for self-reliance in the transportation of goods and people between the Americas and Africa.

This new fledgling improvement in status allowed an environment that fostered more open and formal expression. Alderman Johnson Roden, born in Jamaica and editor of one of the English-language newspapers in the first decades of the 20th century penned eloquent and nostalgic poems in English about his youth in Jamaica.

In more modern times, several noteworthy authors have surfaced to advance the Afro-Costa Rican identity and prominence within the overall history of the country.  Dr. Mosby recommends the following for anyone interested in learning more.

- Quince Duncan - author of six novels and four collections of short stories – published on the Afro-Costa Rican identity and noted for his general criticism of Costa Rica’s vision for democracy.

- Eulalia Bernard – poet who writes in English, Spanish and Creole – best represents the West Indianness of Afro- Costa Ricans.

- Shirley Campbell – gifted poet who speaks of the anxiety of her generation – wanting to be recognized as a true Costa Rican but being appreciated for her African heritage.

- Delia McDonald – a new author very much like Shirley Campbell – very talented and trying to publish her first novel. 

Philosophy of Life:  “You have to go into things humbly, yet fearlessly.  When you’re working with people, must be humble and always give something back.  Have to be patient, have to accept.”