Juan Santamaría (August 29, 1831 - April 11, 1856), is officially recognized as the national hero of the Republic of Costa Rica.

Santamaría was born in the city of Alajuela. When U.S. adventurer William Walker overthrew the government of Nicaragua and attempted to conquer the other nations in Central America, including Costa Rica, in order to form a private slave-holding empire, Costa Rican president Juan Rafael Mora Porras called upon the general population to take up arms and march north to Nicaragua to fight against the foreign invader. Santamaría, a poor laborer and the illegitimate son of a single mother, joined the army as a drummer boy. The troops nicknamed him el erizo ("the hedgehog") on account of his spiked hair.

After routing a small contingent of Walker's soldiers at Santa Rosa, Guanacaste, the Costa Rican troops continued marching north and reached the city of Rivas, Nicaragua, on April 8, 1856. Combat was fierce and the Costa Ricans were not able to drive Walker's men out of a hostel near the town center from which they commanded an advantageous firing position.

According to the traditional account, on April 11 Costa Rican General José María Cañas suggested that one of the soldiers advance towards the hostel with a torch and set it on fire. Santamaría volunteered on the condition that, in the event of his death, some other soldier would look after his mother. He then advanced and was mortally wounded by enemy fire. Before expiring he succeeded, however, in setting fire to the hostel, thus contributing decisively to the Costa Rican victory at Rivas.

This account is apparently supported by a petition for a state pension filed on November of 1857 by Santamaría's mother, as well as by government documents showing that the pension was granted. Various historians, however, have questioned whether the account is accurate. At any rate, towards the end of the 19th century, Costa Rican intellectuals and politicians seized on the war against Walker and on the figure of Juan Santamaría for nationalist purposes.

Juan Santamaría is honored by a statue in the central square of Alajuela, and by a small musem in the same city. The main international airport in Costa Rica is named after him.

External links

• Museo Histórico Juan Santamaría (http://www.mhcjs.go.cr/) (in Spanish)