About Juan Santamaria Day

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Juan Santamaria is a hero in Costa Rica and throughout Central America.

Mercenary and American pro-slavery advocate William Walker saw that slavery would end soon in the United States. His answer was to overthrow and colonize Central American nations and establish slave-holding states to continue the practice. Walker briefly succeeded in Nicaragua, which was in the midst of a civil war in 1854. In 1855 he arrived with mercenaries, recruited additional men from the local population, and began engaging in the fight as the "Filibusters."

Within a few months, he took control of the country, running a fraudulent election that made him president for nearly ten months. Walker immediately revoked Nicaragua's emancipation act of 1821 and encouraged southern US slaveholders to relocate, with their slaves, to Central America. Next, he set his sights on Costa Rica and Guatemala.
Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala were not willing to play along and mounted a defense led by General José Joaquín Mora Porras and General José María Cañas. The year was 1856, and during the second Battle of Rivas on April 11, 1856, an unlikely hero emerged: Juan Santamaria.

Santamaria was a soldier, a peasant, and a patriot. Born in the village of Alajuela to an unwed mother, he hustled to make a living, selling sweets, working as a day laborer, coffee picker, and finally, as a lead drummer in the Costa Rican army.

On April 11, 1856, General Cañas of El Salvador surrounded Walker's men in a wooden fort. As long as the Filibusters remained in the fort, they held the high ground. Cañas decided to burn them out. Knowing it was likely a suicide mission, Santamaria requested his mother be cared for if he fell. The general agreed, so the young man grabbed a torch and ran toward the fort, setting it ablaze before a bullet found him and killed him.

Santamaria's single action of bravery is believed to have led to the defeat of the Filibusters and assured the independence of Costa Rica. Juan Santamaria Day is a national holiday in Costa Rica.