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PANCHO VIVAS

THEY SAY I WAS BORN IN NICARAGUA

They say I was born in Nicaragua, in Tipitapa. I do not know where that is because they brought me when I was little. My father was Francisco Vivas García and my mother Alicia Juliana, they are both passed. As I can recall I was not yet five years-old. My sister they carried her, goes by the name of Socorro. (…)  I was born in 1934. We arrived to Costa Rica in 1939. We came to Quepos, my father used to work in Pocare, afterwards in Damas; later on in some other place they call Junta de Ríos; from there we came here.  I was fifteen years-old. Papa was working for the Banana Company.

I studied up to third grade. At the time that was usual in the Company. Today there is even college, there is everything.  But I am talking of the 40’s,  we only received until third grade. I was 7  years-old, back in 1941. When my father came to this place… (…) they offered him a position with the company, but they did not give him anything. Well, God knows, right? That was here in Finca 19, right here. But I went to Finca 12, to work there; at 16 years-old, yes, at that age one already worked; I earned 90 colones and 40 cents. Finca 12 is there near Sierpe.

At that time people came from everywhere. People came from Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador… (…) There were very few Cartagos, (from the Central Valley). They liked sparing poison a lot, poison the Company used to apply. They were so happy doing that. They did not like using the machete because back then you had to carry some big bunches on the shoulder. That was life back then here.

There were Guanacastecos also. Guanacastecos and Nicas. (…) Hey, it was really wild! If someone looked at you over the shoulder, they screamed: a guy there and another one here…   and all at once: bam, bam, bam (there was a fight).  The people from San José were scared of all this zone, right?, but the people from Guanacaste were not,  because they were very much like the paisas. Later on things changed, it changed completely.