Ecological Imaginations in Latin American Fiction

3. Paradise for Sale, or Fictions of Costa Rica

Chapter 3 Paradise for Sale, or Fictions of Costa Rica The tropical isthmus of Central America is a region notorious for dictatorship , civil war, and endemic poverty during the twentieth century. Surrounded by more politically troubled neighbors, Costa Rica is a country often presented as the exceptional case in Central America, a land of democratic traditons and breathtaking natural wonder. Indeed, Costa Rica is famous for environmental leadership in the developing world. Politicians and tour operators cite those facts to distinguish Costa Rica from Nicaragua and other nations. Nevertheless, Costa Rica shares much in common with its neighbors , especially when it comes to economic development and environmental transformation. Costa Rica has an agricultural export economy closely tied to markets in the United States. It boasts great biodiversity, but it also has a high rate of deforestation. The three Costa Rican novels I consider here probe a common, regional, economic and environmental history, and they also explore the advent of the ecotourism industry in which Costa Rica excels. Each of the novels also depicts a struggle over identity and the environment in Costa Rica. Costa Rican authors bring culture, land use, and politics into the foreground of their stories. They also draw attention to the ways powerful economic forces shape reality in a small Latin American country. These novels include the earliest novel of ecological imagination in the present study, Murámonos, Federico (1973) by Joaquín Gutiérrez, as well as Calypso (1996) by Tatiana Lobo, and La loca de Gandoca (1995) by Anacristina Rossi. All the novels were published in Costa Rica by authors who have enjoyed edito- 100 • Ecological Imaginations in Latin American Fiction rial success and whose works have been influential in literary circles in the country and beyond. Temporally, the stories span the latter half of the twentieth century, overlapping in time the diegesis of the Amazonian novels and pushing forward to the end of the twentieth century. All turn to a comparatively marginal landscape in Costa Rican national politics, the Atlantic coastal region. In my estimation, the contested Atlantic coast is the vehicle by which authors critique neoliberal economic models and indict the corruption and racism by which they are implemented domestically. Like the texts about Tierra del Fuego and the Amazon, the Costa Rican novels share an interest in the way Latin America fits into the world economy . Murámonos, Federico brings to the fore issues associated with the cultivation of tropical crops for export markets in the United States and Europe. Calypso fictionalizes the entire history of the Atlantic coast by taking a small community as a microcosm of change and the process of transculturation that accompanies modernity.1 La loca de Gandoca mounts an ecofeminist critique of the “green” reputation of Costa Rica as an ecotourism destination. Each novel also gives insight into gender politics and the dynamics of power within Costa Rica. Contextualizing the Novels In terms of both biodiversity and politics, Central America is unique as the crossroads between two continents. Astounding biodiversity in the form of unique species of flora and fauna fills the narrow isthmus. Extensive coastlines , volcanic mountain ranges, and dramatic variations in elevation and rainfall make for a wide range of ecosystems, from mangroves to tropical dry forests. Geographic position has meant that Central America not only boasts incredible biodiversity but also routinely faces numerous challenges of a geopolitical nature. Further complicating the environmental landscape, endemic poverty means that both individuals and governments frequently pin their hopes on natural resources for personal and national economic survival. In the geopolitical realm, Central American countries have always felt the influence of more powerful nations, from the era of canal politics to the Cold War.2 From the earliest European fantasies of an interoceanic route through Paradise for Sale, or Fictions of Costa Rica • 101 the isthmus, canal construction captured the imaginations of Central American politicians and local and foreign speculators. As canal politics indicate, the government of the United States hovered importantly over politics and economies in Central America throughout the twentieth century. The fear of communism became a pretext for interventions and invasions that secured U.S. business interests in the isthmus. The most notorious, direct interventions were in Guatemala in 1954 and in Nicaragua, first during the Sandino rebellion of the 1930s and then, during the contra war in the 1980s. The CIAbacked coup in Guatemala in 1954 was deeply connected to the U...