Senate Resolution No. 2798

BY: Senator PERALTA

COMMEMORATING 196 years of Costa Rican
Independence from Spain on September 15, 2017

WHEREAS, Pre-Columbian Costa Rica is where Mesoamerican and South
American native cultures met; Columbus first reached Costa Rica in 1502;
and

WHEREAS, Costa Rica was named with great optimism on part of the
Spanish, expecting to soon be exporting gold, silver and minerals -
though it developed and remained an isolated agricultural zone; and

WHEREAS, Unlike many Spanish colonies, Costa Rican settlers
developed their land by their own means and largely without the use of
indigenous people as forced labor; this led to less economic outputs and
future inability to share in the prosperity like the rest of the Spanish
colonies - but left a lasting legacy of egalitarianism and an unmatched
index of local wealth; and

WHEREAS, Spanish settlers operated large farms in rich soils of
Costa Rica's hills yielding bananas and coffee - allowing these isolated
independent farmers to accumulate great and unaccounted wealth; and

WHEREAS, Costa Rica joined other Central American provinces on
September 15, 1821, in a joint declaration of independence from Spain;
after a brief time in the Mexican Empire of Agustin de Iturbide, Costa
Rica became a state in the Federal Republic of Central America from 1823
to 1839; and

WHEREAS, Costa Rica has since enjoyed a legacy of great freedom and
equality, wealth and prosperity; and

WHEREAS, Many Costa Ricans have made New York their home, and this
Legislative Body is justly proud to thank the Costa Rican people for
their contributions to this great Empire State; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate 196 years of Costa Rican Independence from Spain on
September 15, 2017.