Limón: Black workers held in one province until 1949, barred from the Pacific in 1934 (Costa Rica, 1872–1949)

SUMMARYLimón: Black workers held in one province until 1949, barred from the Pacific in 1934 (Costa Rica, 1872–1949) [Connections: Latin America & Caribbean, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDThe steamer Lizzie reached Limón on 20 December 1872 with 123 workers for the railway; by 1873 more than 1,000 Jamaican workers were in the port (Wikipedia). Wikipedia: "Until 1949 Costa Rica had segregation laws where Black people lived exclusively in the Caribbean Province of Puerto Limón." Face2Face Africa (2018) reports that the 1949 constitution gave Afro-Costa Ricans the same rights as other citizens. Anthropologist Ariana Fernández (Delfino.cr, 2025) writes that Law No. 31 of 10 December 1934, article 5, barred the banana industry from employing "gente 'de color'" on its Pacific plantations. Wikipedia also notes "zambos," people of Amerindian and Black descent, in colonial Costa Rica. Scholar: Ronald Harpelle, "The Social and Political Integration of West Indians in Costa Rica: 1930–50," Journal of Latin American Studies 25:1 (1993)

PATTERN"Of color" was a legal category that set where people could live and work. This card is mostly about West Indian migrants, so its Indigenous link is thin

LENS (WW9)A color word drew a border inside a country

OPENRead Law 31 of 1934 in the Costa Rican legislative archive (SCIJ) for the exact text; Afro-Indigenous ties in Talamanca (Bribri, Cabécar) need deep research

SOURCEWikipedia, "Afro-Costa Ricans"; Delfino.cr, "Un 10 de diciembre de 1934 y otro de 1948"; Face2Face Africa, 2018; Harpelle 1993.