Strolling by way of the streets of Limón on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, you would be forgiven for considering you had stepped into Kingston. The scent of jerk spices mingles with the salty sea breeze, reggae floats from shopfront radios, and conversations change fluidly between Spanish and the rolling rhythms of patois. That is Jamaica City, a group whose roots stretch again greater than a century and whose cultural heartbeat stays distinctly Caribbean.
From the Atlantic Railroad to Previous Harbour
The origins of Jamaica City lie in certainly one of Costa Rica’s most bold undertakings: the development of the Atlantic Railroad in the late 19th century. Meant to attach the capital San José with the port of Limón, the challenge required huge numbers of employees keen to endure gruelling circumstances.
In 1872, the primary organised group of Jamaican migrants arrived aboard the ship Lizzie, docking in Limón with 123 passengers. Inside a 12 months, greater than a thousand Jamaicans had joined them, and hundreds extra would observe from Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and different islands. Their labour not solely laid the railway tracks but additionally reworked Limón into Costa Rica’s major Caribbean port.
When the work was finished, many selected to remain. Some have been granted small plots of land for farming; others settled alongside the coast in cities resembling Puerto Viejo, identified regionally as Previous Harbour. Their descendants stay the spine of the Afro-Costa Rican group right this moment.
Prejudice & Segregation
Life was by no means easy. The early Jamaican migrants endured tropical illnesses, prejudice, and a sequence of segregation legal guidelines that barred Afro-Caribbeans from transferring past Limón Province till the mid-Twentieth century after the 1948 Civil Warfare. Citizenship rights weren’t granted to many till the Forties.
But, within the face of exclusion, they constructed colleges, church buildings and neighbourhoods of their very own. Their willpower ensured that language, meals, and traditions survived throughout generations. As one interviewee defined within the 2023 documentary The Jamaicans of Costa Rica: “For a time we weren’t Costa Ricans, nor Jamaicans however we’ve at all times tried to protect the tradition, the language and the meals.”
The Language of Identification
In relation to language, the way in which individuals in Limón converse is among the clearest markers of Jamaica City’s heritage. On a regular basis dialog usually flows in Limonese Creole, often known as Mekatelyu (“make I let you know”), a dialect that developed straight from Jamaican patois. First carried throughout the ocean by Nineteenth-century migrants, it retains the rhythms, vocabulary and expressions of the island tongue, reshaped over generations on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.
Linguists estimated that fewer than 60,000 individuals spoke Limonese Creole within the mid-Eighties, and there are rising issues about “decreolisation” as youthful generations flip as an alternative to Spanish or normal English. As defined in The Jamaicans of Costa Rica documentary:
“The language proper now appears to be at risk. With the brand new technology it’s troublesome to protect it as a result of the predominant language is Spanish, and it’s extra snug to talk. They usually [young people] wish to study English, however normal English, so the language is shedding its grasp. In 20 or 40 years, it is going to be an actual problem for the following technology to maintain it alive.”
Nonetheless, the language endures in markets, church buildings, and music. Acquainted Jamaican expressions resembling wapin (“what’s occurring?”) can nonetheless be discovered painted on murals or written on menus all through Jamaica City, serving as on a regular basis reminders of the lasting affect of the early Jamaican migrants.
Meals, Music and Celebration
The Afro-Costa Rican desk nonetheless echoes the island kitchens of their ancestors. Ackee and saltfish, roast breadfruit, oxtail stews, fried plantains, rice and peas, and coconut-based sweets stay staples. These dishes, seasoned with Scotch bonnet peppers and contemporary herbs, should not solely meals however cultural recollections.
Music has additionally lengthy offered a soundtrack to the group. Reggae, calypso and soca dominate festivals and household gatherings, and the annual Carnival in Limón is among the nation’s most vibrant celebrations. Based in 1949 by musician and group chief Alfred Josiah Henry Smith, higher often called “Mister King,” the pageant has grown right into a showcase of Caribbean dance, costume and sound, distinct from different Costa Rican traditions.
Past Tradition
Afro-Costa Ricans performed a central function in shaping Costa Rica’s economic system, extending their affect far past the cultural sphere. After railway development, many turned to cacao and coconut farming. By the mid-Twentieth century, banana exports had overtaken these crops, and generations discovered work in agriculture, transport and the docks of Limón and close by Moín.
Early Jamaican immigrants additionally turned landowners, tradesmen and businesspeople. Households such because the Oranes established outlets and small enterprises, whereas craftsmen like mason and carpenter Wilford Stanford Goulbourne Watson helped construct Caribbean-style housing and church buildings, leaving an architectural stamp nonetheless seen in Limón right this moment. Others, together with pharmacist James Theodore McRae, offered important skilled companies that anchored group life. Newspapers, church buildings and lodges created by Afro-Caribbeans turned important civic areas, making certain their voices carried past the margins. Discover extra info on the contributions of Jamaican immigrants in Costa Rica here.
The group has additionally produced a few of Costa Rica’s most famed footballers, a lot of whom have represented the nation internationally. Sport turned one other path to recognition and satisfaction, additional entwining Jamaican heritage with Costa Rican nationwide id.
Jamaica City Then and Now
On 22 April 1991, Limón was struck by a robust earthquake that claimed dozens of lives and completely altered the town’s seafront, elevating the shoreline by almost two metres. Total blocks have been levelled, together with components of the waterfront as soon as central to the group. Restoration was sluggish, however the catastrophe reshaped each the bodily and social panorama of Jamaica City.
The neighbourhood’s identify itself has additionally been contested over time. Within the Forties, it was renamed Barrio Roosevelt in gratitude to the US authorities for funding a sewer system that eased power flooding within the space, in the course of the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. For many years, residents campaigned for the return of the unique identify, with the native Improvement Affiliation main the cost. After years of lobbying, their efforts have been rewarded when the Caribbean municipality formally reinstated the identify Jamaica City. As affiliation president Eladio Arce confirmed, new signage now welcomes guests on the entrance to the district, reaffirming its Afro-Caribbean heritage.
Right now, guests encounter a metropolis of contrasts. Limón’s popularity as a gritty port—formed by its function in world commerce routes—sits alongside vibrant murals, cultural landmarks and a heat welcome. Indicators proudly studying “Jamaica City” mark the district, whereas close by Puerto Viejo continues to attract vacationers in quest of reggae, rasta tradition, and seashores framed by rainforest. Tourism sustains many households, supplementing agriculture and commerce, even because the group faces the continuing problem of preserving its language, traditions and land towards the pressures of globalisation and alter.
Why It Issues
Jamaica City is a residing testomony to migration, survival and the methods through which cultures take root removed from house. Its story reveals how Afro-Caribbean id helped form Costa Rica, simply because it has in Brazil, Panama, Nicaragua and throughout the Americas.
For travellers, a go to to Limón presents greater than seashores and occasional. It is a chance to see how Jamaican tradition has influenced Costa Rica and carved out an enduring place within the nation’s historical past.
As one native advised visiting filmmakers: “We’re Costa Ricans, sure. However we’re Jamaicans too. Our story is each.”
You may study extra concerning the early Jamaican immigrants to Costa Rica—and even see pictures and data of those that arrived to work on the railway—within the doc Honouring Our Caribbean Ancestors: Commemorating 150 Years of the Second Wave of People of African Descent in Costa Rica.
