This past week was semana cívica or “Civics Week” in Costa Rica. The week is punctuated by a number of patriotic and independence related traditions. Most of those traditions center around schools. Independence Day itself is celebrated on September 15th, and schools engage universally in actos cívicos or a civic assembly where students perform traditional music and dance and share thoughts about the values of democracy and national pride. The day prior children all over the country carry their faroles or lanterns in remembrance of those who now over 200 years ago walked to share the news of independence. An annual torch run and lighting is also part of the festivities on the night before, again often centered around school communities. The week is filled with a focus on traditional foods, music, and clothing.
What has struck me now that I have been here for 3 years of civics week, is how in many ways independence in Costa Rica is a celebration of children. The majority of events and traditions center around schools. In fact, historically the day was a national holiday for everyone but teachers – who had to work on the 15th to allow for all of the festivities to happen. Teachers then had the 16th as a work holiday. The idea of democracy and freedom is very much tied to the idea of universal education and the need to secure for our children the rights and freedoms that we have enjoyed. There is an innocence and earnestness to the idea of independence, one that seems to focus on the responsibility to teach successive generations that freedom cannot be taken for granted.
At Lincoln, semana cívica was also the week for student government debates and elections in the secondary school. It has always struck me as interesting that in these elections, it is not individual students running for office, but for a team of students who collectively develop and debate a platform. The idea is that governance is not the work of individuals, but of a group that works as a team to implement changes and improvement. It’s a subtle but significant difference in how Costa Ricans orient themselves to public offices and the responsibilities of political leadership. I remember well student council elections of my youth, where campaign and poster signs focused on individual students. You voted for a single candidate. Here, campaign slogans, debates, and even the election itself is focused on the group. Nobody gets into student office by themselves. It’s a team.
It’s a powerful lesson in how culture and tradition can shape democracy and politics in different ways. I remember in the run up to the presidential election earlier this year, that someone sat down to explain to me how political parties worked here in the country. Instead of a spectrum, from left to right like you might find in the United States, they showed me a quadrant. It took me a few minutes to figure it out, but essentially they map both a political spectrum and a social conservativism spectrum. Costa Ricans are generally much more open to political solutions that would be considered left of center in the United States. Universal health care is not debated here, it is embedded in the psyche of what it means to have good government. It would be a mistake, however, to associate a left-leaning party with social liberalism. For example, presidential elections typically include an evangelical party openly campaigning for conservative social values associated with a particular religion. In the United States, it might be strange to have an evangelical political party, and even stranger to have one that supports universal health care. Not so in Costa Rica.
Semana Cívica is definitely a highlight for me here in Costa Rica. While the politics are certainly different, Costa Ricans hold a strong collective commitment to the principles of democracy – principles that they are eager to pass on to the next generation.