SIGN UP FOR OUR By Wendy Anders
Facebook post denouncing xenophobic attitudes in wake of the Education Ministry’s inclusion of Nicaragua’s culture in independence day festivities.
On September 15, Costa Rica’s Education Ministry issued a memo indicating that schools in San Jose with a high percentage of Nicaraguan students could sing the Nicaraguan national anthem at the close of this month’s celebrations of Central America’s independence from Spain.
Days later, a rash of xenophobic rants and groups popped up on social media in response to the measure, reported several media in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. One group went so far as to promote a protest by not sending their kids to school on Friday, Sept. 30 for the celebrations.
The memo, which was sent by Wilber Flores, San Jose regional education director, explains that the inclusion of Nicaragua’s anthem and cultural activities relating to Nicaragua be included in schools where immigrants are a significant portion of the student body in order to foster “intercultural” understanding.
According to the Ministry of Education, there are 24,900 Nicaraguan students enrolled in the public school system throughout the country. In the western San José school district, the area where the inclusive cultural celebration is proposed, which comprises La Uruca, Escazú, Tibás, Pavas and Santa Ana, there are over 4,500 Nicaraguan students.
Sonia Martha Mora, Costa Rica’s Education Minister, said there is no official position by the ministry to include the anthem in schools, rather the memo indicated that some Nicaraguan students wished to sing there anthem and that therefore it could be included in those schools’ programs for the Sept. 30 festivities, reported Nicaragua’s La Prensa Libre.
Mora said that, “I agree that the students should be free to sing; the Costa Rican patriotic sentiment is compatible with the patriotic feeling of other nationalities living with us, so the memo clarified that Nicaraguan students have the right to sing their anthem in some of these schools.”
According to the Costa Rican census bureau, about 10 percent of Costa Rica’s 4.7 million inhabitants are immigrants. Nicaraguans are the largest immigrant group in the country, and by and large come “in search of work, and for a better quality of life and economic progress” stated Nicaragua’s La Prensa Libre.
Mora expressed concern about the xenophobic sentiments expressed on social networks as a result of her Ministry’s decision, “We really care about working against xenophobia and respect for all nationalities in Costa Rica, for the right of all children to education, and their own cultural identity. This phenomenon (of discrimination) tells us that we must work a little harder in these efforts,” said Mora to Nicaragua’s La Prensa Libre.
