Iván Molina Jiménez

Un país, dos electorados.El caso de Costa Rica (1890-1950)

The question that originated this article was a methodological one: how to characterize the national level, demographic, ethnic and cultural terms, an electorate of the past and, in turn, identify key changes experienced long term? the complexity of this issue is best appreciated when one considers that questions such as the above in the case and the voters of the late twentieth century are possible to account for the existence of a wide range of official statistics and unofficial, differentiated geographical coverage, but little or none of such materials to other times, especially before 1950, it is a first obstacle to overcome to try to approach, once, were regularly summoned to attend the polls.

Catolicismo y comunismo en Costa Rica (1931-1940)*

This article analyzes the response given to the foundation of the Communist Party of Costa Rica by the Catholic politicians and the Church in 1931. It demonstrates that even though there were notable social concerns in the discourses of some clergymen, dating back to the late XIX century, those interests were only intensified once the attempts to render illegal the communist party failed.The successful electoral participation of the Communist Party within a context of global economic crisis, and its capacity to reach a broad public audience through its newspaper Trabajo, strengthened a group of clerics and laymen convinced that popular demands caused by unemployment, the rising costs of life and low wages had to be dealt with in institutional ways.

Ateísmo y descreimiento en la ciudad de San José (Costa Rica) a inicios del siglo XX. Una aproximación preliminar

Este artigo discute a extensao do ateismo e a descrenca se espalhou na cidade de San Jose (Costa Rica) no inicio do seculo XX, entre as diferentes categorias profissionais. Este fenomeno e considerado no contexto da expansao da alfabetizacao popular e dos esforcos de intelectuais liberais e radicais para secularizar a educacao, processo fortemente contestado pela Igreja Catolica.

Cultura impresa e identidad nacional en El Salvador a fines del siglo XIX. Una perspectiva comparativa

Abstract This article is inspired on E. Bradford Burns’ study about the Salvadorean “intellectual infrastructure” published in 1985. I argue that such “intellectual infrastructure” was more limited than Burns believed at first. This conclusion is based on a systematic comparison of the Salvadorean printed culture with the Nicaraguan and Costa Rican one, considering also the levels of popular literacy, the role played by the intellectual circles, the cultural policies developed by the state in such countries, and the different processes of the “invention” of nation.