Jose Maria Castro Madriz

José María Castro Madriz (San José, September 1, 1818 − ib., April 4, 1892) was a Costa Rican politician, lawyer, philosopher, and diplomat., founder of the Republic of Costa Rica, who served as the second and last head of the State of Costa Rica from 1847 to 1848, as well as its first president from 1848 to 1849 and again from 1866 to 1868. Liberal in thought, he was a deep believer in the virtues of the Enlightenment and freedom of the press. He was the first person decorated as a meritorious of the country, in 1847.

Castro played an indispensable role in the transition of Costa Rica to a Republic after its independence from the Federal Republic of Central America, however, it had to lead to a series of movements against him, which culminated in his resignation from the presidency in 1849. He was a strong critic of his successor Juan Rafael Mora Porras, who would expel him from the country twice, in 1852 and 1856, for which reason he had to go into temporary exile in Guatemala on both occasions. With the arrival of his brother-in-law José María Montealegre Fernández to the presidency, Castro managed to gain support among various sectors of the country, which allowed him to assume, in 1859, the presidency of the Constituent Assembly and, in 1865, his second term in the presidency. His second term, which was distinguished by his relative stability, culminated in a coup in 1868.

He was a member of Freemasonry, and throughout his career advocated for the abolition of the death penalty, anti-militarism and free and compulsory education. In 1844 he founded the University of Santo Tomás, the first university in Costa Rica, of which he was its first director and rector on several occasions. Castro was the first Costa Rican to obtain a doctorate in civil law and the first professor to teach this subject in the country. In 1843 he married Pacífica Fernández Oreamuno, who was in charge of designing the Costa Rican flag during his tenure as chief of State, in 1848.

He was sentenced to prison by the government of President Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez in 1874, since, despite not having had a trial, he was accused of having helped his brother-in-law, Federico Fernández Oreamuno, to organize a movement to capture the president by force during a visit. During his imprisonment, Castro was tortured and publicly displayed outside the prison, half-naked and chained, until his release the following year. Upon his death, he was eulogized by the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Dario as "patrician, father of the Republic".

Early Years

Childhood and Family: 1818−1838

Castro was born on September 1, 1818 in San José, in the province of Costa Rica, Captaincy General of Guatemala, and was the only son of Ramón Castro y Ramírez and María Lorenza Madriz y Cervantes, who had married only five months before his birth, on April 1, 1818. He was baptized the day after his birth and his godfather was José Francisco Madriz, his maternal grandfather. His father held various public positions such as captain of the port of Puntarenas, judge of first instance in San José and Heredia, magistrate of the Superior Court of Justice, president of the Judicial Chamber and senator for the province of San José. His mother was the sister of the priest and doctor Juan de los Santos Madriz y Cervantes, who, In addition to holding various civil and ecclesiastical positions, he was the first rector of the University of Santo Tomás, in 1844. His maternal grandfather also held various public positions during the separation of Costa Rica from Spain, since he was the first mayor of San José in 1822, vice president of the Superior Government Board in 1823 and magistrate of the Superior Court of Justice from 1826 to 1827.

Castro began his primary studies under the tutorship of Rafael Ramírez Hidalgo. Later he studied with the Nicaraguan doctor and lawyer Rosalío Cortés Sánchez, the lawyer Manuel Aguilar Chacón and with the Guatemalan doctor Nazario Toledo Murga, who taught him about philosophy and grammar However, it was not until during his adolescence that he acquired an appreciable academic training through his maternal uncle Juan de los Santos Madriz y Cervantes, since during his university studies Castro would refer to him as his main mentor.

College Studies and Engagement: 1838−1842

Castro traveled to Nicaragua in 1838, at the age of nineteen, and entered the University of León, where he took a series of tests to obtain a bachelor's degree in philosophy by sufficiency. He was awarded the degree in a ceremony on December 23, 1838, taking advantage of the occasion to present a speech on various topics alluding to the then recent process of disintegration of the Federal Republic of Central America. Castro spoke in favor of a union between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, as well as formulated several censures to the Political Constitution of the Federal Republic of 1824. At the age of twenty-two, on November 1, 1841, he obtained a doctorate in civil law, becoming the first Costa Rican to obtain this university degree.

After completing this part of his university studies, Castro returned to Costa Rica and became engaged to Pacífica Fernández Oreamuno, who was the daughter of Manuel Fernández Chacón, provisional head of state between March and May 1835, and sister of Próspero Fernández Oreamuno, who would serve as President of the Republic between 1882 and 1885. In 1842, he returned to Nicaragua to continue his studies and, on May 12 of the same year, he obtained the title of master of arts and on May 22 that of doctorate in philosophy. His professional training in the city of León would be worth his ideological training in liberalism and the Enlightenment, inspired by authors such as the Swiss Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui and the German Samuel Pufendorf.

Political career

First public office and marriage: 1842−1846

José María married Pacífica Fernández Oreamuno on June 29, 1843.

After returning to the country, on June 26, 1842, he was appointed General Auditor of War by the then Head of State Francisco Morazán Quesada as part of the ruler's plans to reunify Central America by force of arms. September of the same year, Morazán was removed from power through an insurrection led by the military Antonio Pinto Soares, who was Castro's uncle by marriage on his mother's side. Pinto would serve as head of state between September 11 and 27. of 1842, and during his short term he appointed Castro Madriz as commissioner in Puntarenas in order to negotiate the surrender of a local group linked to Morazanism, headed by General Isidore Saget Machado. Pinto's successor José María Alfaro Zamora sent on October 9, 1842 Castro Madriz again as diplomatic commissioner to Nicaragua in order to reestablish ties between the two governments after Morazán's mandate, and upon his return on October 26, he was appointed as Minister General of State, a position he held until April 1844. During his tenure as Minister General, he was in charge of creating the newspaper El Mentor Costarricense on December 31, 1842, in order to establish a medium of opinion and cultural projection of the country, and of founding in 1844 the University of Santo Tomás, the first university in Costa Rica. The government of Castro Madriz appointed his uncle Juan de los Santos Madriz y Cervantes as the institution's first rector and José María as first director. Castro also taught civil law classes starting in 1844, thus becoming the first professor of jurisprudence in the country.

On June 29, 1843, at the age of 24, Castro Madriz married his fiancée Pacífica Fernández Oreamuno, who was 18 years old. The couple conceived their first daughter, María Eudoxia de Jesús Castro Fernández, the December 18, 1844, and he built his first house in 1851, which was located between the first avenue and the second street of the city of San José, and was designed by the architect Nicolás Gallegos Castro. As part of the Pacífica family inheritance, the couple owned three coffee farms in Desamparados, named La Quesera, La Pacífica, and La Constancia, as well as a cattle ranch in Guanacaste named Paso Hondo.

Through the promulgation of the Political Constitution of April 9, 1844, the General Ministry of the State was divided into two ministries: the Ministry of the Interior and Interior and Foreign Relations and the Ministry of Finance and War. Pursuant to this, Castro Madriz assumed the position of Minister of the Interior and Interior and Foreign Relations two days later. However, he resigned from the position two months later to become a member of the House of Representatives for Desamparados. In office, Castro developed and presented a bill to build a general hospital in San José under the name of Hospital San Juan de Dios. His project was approved on July 3, 1845, and construction of the hospital began in 1852. Castro was elected as the first secretary of the Board of Directors of the House of Representatives and, in July 1845, as its president. In 1846 he left office. as a member of the House of Representatives, declining the possibility of being re-elected to the position.

Vice-headship and vice-presidency of the State: 1846−1847

After interim head of state José Rafael Gallegos Alvarado was overthrown in a coup on June 7, 1846, former head of state José María Alfaro Zamora resumed office and appointed Castro Madriz as deputy head of State, as well as Minister of the Interior and Interior and Foreign Relations for the second time. Initially, Castro rejected Alfaro's proposal to assume as Vice Head of State, but ended up accepting the proposal on the following September 15. Subsequently, through the promulgation of the Political Constitution of January 21, 1847, the position of Vice-Head of State was replaced by that of Vice-President of State, for which reason Castro assumed this position.

In March 1847, on the eve of the elections of that year in April, José María Alfaro Zamora became seriously ill, for which reason Castro Madriz, as vice president, temporarily assumed the head of state due to Alfaro's impossibility of performing in the position. During his tenure as interim head of state, the elections for the position were held; Castro decided to take part in the elections after agreeing with Alfaro that, given the victory of one of the two in the elections, the loser would assume the vice presidency. Castro also witnessed a growth of opinions in his favor in certain parts of the country, especially in San José, which also motivated him to participate in the election; However, other parties such as Alajuela or Heredia continued to favor Alfaro's continuity in office.Castro and his wife Pacífica contracted their second daughter in March 1847, who was named María Angelina de Jesús.

Head of State: 1847−1848

Photograph by José María Castro Madriz.

The second degree elections were held between April 11 and 18, 1847. Castro Madriz faced the head of State José María Alfaro Zamora, as well as the magistrate Paulino Ortiz Campos and the businessman Rafael Moya Murillo; however, the election was defined between the main leadership groups of Castro and Alfaro. After the recount, Castro managed to obtain, out of a total of 154 authorized voters, 64.27% of the votes, which represented a total of 99 votes, over 33.77% for Alfaro, thus achieving victory. The votes received in favor of Castro were mainly concentrated in San José, as well as in the provinces of Cartago and Guanacaste, the latter in which he obtained the support of all the voters. Given the result and the agreement between the two main candidates prior to the elections, José María Alfaro Zamora was elected vice president. After recovering from his illness, Alfaro resumed as head of state on May 1, and, on the following May 8, Castro took over for the period between 1847 and 1853, at the age of twenty-eight. He was accompanied by his wife Pacífica Fernández, who became first lady at just 19 years of age.

During his administration, Castro Madriz officially recognized the right to education for women by issuing Decree No. 14 of May 19, 1847, through which he created the Girls' High School, located in San José. At the beginning of his term as head of state, he faced strong political turbulence as a result of the difficult economic situation that the country was going through, having to endure several demonstrations against him at the end of 1847, which were mainly concentrated in Alajuela. The demonstrations were quickly contained, however, later his government would discover other movements against him. The Supreme Court of Justice sentenced to death on several occasions the leaders of the movements that had the objective of forcibly removing Castro Madriz from office, to which he opposed. On the other hand, on October 2, Congress decorated him with the distinction of Benemérito de la Patria, thus becoming the first person to receive it.

At the beginning of 1848, the difficult economic situation that the country was going through worsened as a consequence of a decrease in the price of coffee in Europe, for which the movements against it increased. Castro Madriz resigned from the position of head of State on July 13, 1848, however, this was rejected by Congress, so he remained in office. In 1848 his government also established Costa Rica's first permanent diplomatic mission abroad, in the United Kingdom, and its holder was Felipe Molina y Bedoya, who became the first accredited diplomat to perform functions outside of Central America. His government also decreed, on September 29, the creation of the current national flag and the national shield, then called as coat of arms. The design of the flag corresponded to Pacífica Fernández, first lady, who was inspired by the French flag in its execution. On November 12, the national flag was raised for the first time in the Plaza Mayor in San José.

Presidencies

Foundation of the Republic and presidency: 1848−1849

Although a total of nine different political constitutions were proclaimed in Costa Rica between 1821 and 1848, none of them formally established a break between the former Federal Republic of Central America and the State of Costa Rica. In response to several requests that the Constitutional Congress received from various municipalities in the country in 1848, on August 30 it approved a law that reformed the Political Constitution of 1847 in order to proclaim the State of Costa Rica as a republic, as well as to grant it greater powers. to the Executive Branch, especially in matters of public appointments and administrative decisions. On August 31, through Decree No. CXXXIV, José María Castro Madriz endorsed the law and declared Costa Rica a "free, sovereign and independent republic& #3. 4;. In this way, Castro Madriz formally assumed the position of President of the Republic.

Between July and October 1849, despite various attempts to generate sympathy among his opponents, Castro Madriz's government discovered new movements against him. Finally, on November 15, 1849, before an insurrection carried out by the commander of the San José barracks, José Manuel Quirós y Blanco, and the imminence of a military coup to remove him from office, he had to hand over power. Because the then vice president, Manuel Carazo Bonilla, had previously resigned and the president of the Constitutional Congress was not a Costa Rican by birth, the Congress had to appoint the deputy Miguel Mora Porras as his interim successor and the next day made his resignation official. Congress immediately accepted it and awarded him the honorary title of Founder of the Republic.

Distancing from politics and exile: 1849−1858

After leaving the presidency, Castro Madriz remained in San José dedicating himself to the administration of his assets, but the new government of Juan Rafael Mora Porras always looked at him hostilely, to the point where, in May 1850, he was just of being expelled from the country. Although this did not happen, on June 16 of that year he left the country for Europe. He visited several European countries and in France he was decorated by President Luis Napoleón Bonaparte with the Order of the Legion of Honor on October 8. In Paris, Castro also had the opportunity to learn about the operation of the Bank of France, and bankers The French granted him authorization to establish a similar institution in Costa Rica. In December 1850, Castro returned to the country, and in July 1851 he presented a project to the Constitutional Congress to establish a French-owned bank in the country that would be called Banco Nacional. of Costa Rica, however, the project was not accepted either by the Government or by the congressmen.

Although he stayed away from politics, Castro clashed with President Juan Rafael Mora Porras on several occasions. He carried out several political maneuvers against his government, especially from the official weekly La Gaceta, directed by his brother-in-law Mauro Aguilar Cueto, and on several occasions President Mora spoke out against him. 1851, both met and agreed to cease their confrontations, and, the next day, Castro withdrew to his La Pacífica hacienda to avoid further confrontations. Despite the above, on January 28, 1852, President Mora unconstitutionally dissolved Congress in protest of the opposition carried out by some of the opposition deputies, including some close to former President Castro Madriz. Opposition congressmen were detained by the government, which also took the opportunity to arrest Castro and ordered him to leave the capital for Puntarenas. It also removed him from his teaching position at the University of Santo Tomás.

On February 6, 1852, the Mora government expelled him from the country. Castro went into exile in Guatemala, but a few months later he was allowed to return to Costa Rica. Upon his return, he dedicated himself mainly to working on his farms and ranches.Four years later, in 1856, Castro Madriz was once again expelled from the country by the Mora government after the discovery of a conspiracy against him.. Although the government took this action without knowing Castro's criteria, he had to go into exile again in Guatemala, to return to the country a few months later.

Return to Politics: 1858−1865

Photograph by Castro Madriz.

After Lorenzo Montúfar y Rivera refused to take office, in September 1858 Castro Madriz was elected magistrate and president of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice. In this way, Castro assumed for the first time, after nine years, a political position. His performance in this position was not exempt from the rejection of the Mora government and his detractor group; on one occasion he was on the verge of being expelled from the country again for having annulled a lower court ruling that the group considered inadmissible.

On August 14, 1859, President Juan Rafael Mora Porras was overthrown from office in a coup against him. Replacing Mora, José María Montealegre Fernández, who was the cousin of Pacífica Fernández Oreamuno, wife of Castro Madriz, took over as de facto president. When Montealegre assumed the presidency, Castro resumed his participation in government politics, being appointed Minister of Foreign Relations and Public Instruction by the president.On August 23, Montealegre called elections to elect the deputies for a Constituent Assembly; the second degree elections were held on October 2 and, through them, Castro was elected as deputy. On the first day of his functions, on October 16, he was elected president of the Assembly. It should be noted that Castro, during his tenure as a constituent deputy, made two important proposals: the abolition of the death penalty and the prohibition that the military could assume the presidency of the Republic, however, neither of them was accepted by the rest of the deputies of the Assembly.

After completing his work as constituent deputy, on January 19, 1860, he took office as rector of the University of Santo Tomás, which he himself founded in 1844 and where he was a professor until 1852 when the government of Juan Rafael Mora Porras He was removed from office. Subsequently, on April 24, he was elected as a member of the Supreme Court of Justice, to be elected as president of the same for the second time on April 29. In the second year of management of the first administration of Jesús Jiménez Zamora, Castro was appointed by Congress as the first presidential appointee for the period between 1864 and 1865. At the end of 1864, he was finally selected by the Jiménez government to carry out a plenipotentiary mission to Colombia: the first mission mission sent by Costa Rica to that country. During this mission, he signed the Castro-Valenzuela treaty, in order to resolve the lack of definition of the border line between the two countries.

Second Presidency: 1865−1868

Portrait of José María Castroby Thomas Povedano of Arcos.

In mid-1865, politicians Manuel Argüello Mora, Eusebio Figueroa Oreamuno and Pedro García Oreamuno, all close friends of Castro Madriz, launched a campaign to bring him back to the presidential chair. As part of the presidential campaign, his friends organized a series of dances held in the cities of Cartago, San José, Heredia and Alajuela, in which Castro would deliver a series of speeches in order to attract those voters who were not necessarily his sympathizers. The second-degree elections were held on April 1, 1866 and a total of 255 voters voted, out of the 312 authorized. Finally, Castro managed to obtain the support of 250 of the 255 voters, while his opponents former president José María Montealegre Fernández, lawyer Julián Volio Llorente and doctor Cruz Alvarado Velazco obtained the support of only 2, 1 and 1 voters, respectively. He was declared by the Constitutional Congress as President of the Republic on May 2, thus assuming office for the second time.

During his second administration he carried out a series of important projects. In terms of infrastructure, his government installed the first plumbing system in the capital, ordered the construction of the Presidential Palace and established the first telegraph line between Cartago and Puntarenas, by contract; likewise, it tried to build a railway line between the Pacific and the Atlantic, however, this project did not materialize. In education, the government established a trade school and tried to establish a normal school for teacher training, but neither was materialized. He also proposed declaring primary education free and compulsory, but political circumstances did not allow it. Finally, the government decreed the opening of Limón Bay as a port open to foreign trade and founded the National Bank of Costa Rica.

Unlike his first administration, this one was characterized by an environment of greater political stability. An organized movement to overthrow him from power, coordinated by the military man Zenón Castro Rodríguez, was only registered in October 1867, but this was frustrated. On April 13, 1867, his daughter María del Rosario died, at the age of eight, and on May 27 his father, Ramón Castro y Ramírez, due to cancer. In 1868, the political stability that until then had characterized his management was weakened by the presidential elections that were approaching in 1869. Castro gave him his support. his colleague Julián Volio Llorente, however, the opposition group (coordinated by soldiers Lorenzo Salazar Alvarado and Máximo Blanco Rodríguez) that supported the candidacy of Jesús Jiménez Zamora organized a military coup against him, which took place on November 1868, without being able to finish his constitutional period.

Post-presidency and incarceration: 1868−1877

After leaving office, former President Castro Madriz kept his distance from politics. Like the government of Juan Rafael Mora Porras, the government of Jesús Jiménez Zamora viewed him with distrust at various periods of time, and in June 1869 forced him to isolate himself on his Paso Hondo cattle ranch, in Guanacaste. His mother María Lorenza Madriz Cervantes died in April 1870. On October 18, 1870, after President Jiménez Zamora was overthrown from power in April, the now provisional president Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez appointed him as president of the Court Supreme Court, assuming this position for the third time and thus resuming his political work. Castro Madriz formally assumed office on October 21. Later, in the presidential elections held on April 2, 1872, he received one vote, coming from a suffragette who opposed the candidacy of Guardia Gutiérrez. In September he was appointed for a second time as rector of the University of Santo Tomás, a position he held until April 1875.

President Guardia Gutiérrez temporarily separated from power in November 1873, so the first presidential appointee, Salvador González Ramírez, took office in his absence. The interim president reorganized the Guardia cabinet, and through him appointed Castro Madriz as Secretary of Foreign Relations and related portfolios on November 25. After taking office, Castro had to resign as president of the Supreme Court of Justice, however, he would only remain in this position for a few days, as Tomás Guardia decided to retake power after opposing some of the appointments made by Salvador González, including the appointment of Castro, whom he considered a political rival. resigning from office on December 1, Castro was not allowed to resume the presidency of the Supreme Court of Justice, so he only continued in his duties as university rector.

In early May 1874, the Guardia Gutiérrez government discovered an organized plan to capture the president by force during a visit scheduled to take place in Desamparados on the 15th. The government discovered that Federico Fernández Oreamuno, brother of Pacífica Fernández, was the organizer of the event. Therefore, the police authorities took severe measures to dispel the conspiracy, so Guardia continued with the visit without incident Several people were detained, including former President Castro and his friend Salvador Jiménez Blanco, whose detentions lasted more than a week.. Despite not having a trial, Castro Madriz was sentenced to prison and sent to the dungeons of the Artillery Barracks, where he was subjected to torture and publicly exposed outside the barracks, half-naked and chained. of his son José Ricardo, on November 14, when he was seven years old. In May 1875, after Salvador Jiménez left the country for his participation in an attempted military coup against Tomás Guardia, former President Castro replied to his action and left the country for Europe in the company of his wife and daughter María Cristina. The family returned to Costa Rica in 1876, after President Guardia left office. Guardia was briefly succeeded by Aniceto Esquivel Sáenz, since who was overthrown in a coup, and this was succeeded by Vicente Herrera Zeledón, close to former President Guardia. Despite such closeness, Herrera maintained a cordial relationship with Castro Madriz. In 1877, Castro resumed his functions as rector of the University of Santo Tomás.

In the early morning of July 29, 1877, Zenón Castro Rodríguez, Rafael Orozco González and Federico Fernández Oreamuno, the latter who was the brother of Pacífica Fernández, undertook an assault on the Main Headquarters of San José. Due to the proximity of Castro with his brother-in-law Federico Fernández, the Herrera government maintained some suspicion of his actions, however, these were attenuated after a break between him and his now former colleague Tomás Guardia. On September 23, Herrera left office and he was succeeded Guardia in the presidency, since he had previously been named by Herrera as the first designee to the presidency.

Last years

Diplomatic and plenipotentiary posts: 1877-1892

Painting by former President José María Castro Madriz, at the Cultural Historical Museum Juan Santamaría.

On September 23, 1877, upon assuming power again as president, and despite their political rivalry, Tomás Guardia offered Castro to form part of his cabinet as Secretary of Foreign Relations and attached portfolios. Castro Madriz put a series of conditions to join his government, which were included in the so-called Law of Guarantees, among them the abolition of the death penalty, torture and defamatory sentences or that violate the dignity of the citizens, the formation of a Council of State with attributions close to the legislative, the convocation of a Constituent Assembly and other measures that sought to improve the political situation of the country, reduce authoritarianism and guarantee fundamental rights. Accepted these conditions by Guardia, On October 9, Castro took office as Secretary of Foreign Relations and attached portfolios, for the fifth time, for the period between 1877 and 1883. During that period, there was notable progress in the improvement of secondary education and in the growth of the number of women who attend primary school, among other advances.

On October 27, 1879, he was appointed Plenipotentiary Minister for Nicaragua in order to approach his government in the framework of hostilities between Costa Rica and Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. His mission ended on November 18. In mid-1880, he was elected as a deputy for the province of San José before the Constituent Assembly of that year, however, on September 9 he left his work to focus on border tensions with Colombia and Nicaragua. On April 23 In 1881 he was named as the third presidential nominee, a position he held until April 1882.

After Guardia's death in office, on July 6, 1882, Próspero Fernández Oreamuno, assumed the presidency and confirmed Castro Madriz, who was his brother-in-law, in the same portfolios, in which he remained until the middle of the year following when he was forced to resign to be appointed as plenipotentiary minister in several European countries. After a brief period, that same year Castro Madriz resumed as Secretary of Foreign Relations and related portfolios, remaining until the end of the presidency of Fernández, who he died on March 12, 1885, the month in which Castro Madriz's wife, Pacífica Fernández Oreamuno, also died on March 31. During his tenure in office, Castro spoke out in favor of Central American reunification, which would have generated friction with the Fernández government and, for this reason, he had to resign his position as Secretary of Foreign Relations, as well as participated in the expulsion of Bishop Bernardo Augusto Thiel from the country, which drew him criticism; however, and despite As a result, Castro managed to establish himself as one of the most influential figures during the presidency of Próspero Fernández. He continued for a few more months during the successor government of Bernardo Soto Alfaro and finally resigned that year. From then on, he dedicated himself to an intense diplomatic life as Costa Rica's plenipotentiary and extraordinary minister in various European nations and in other Central American countries, where he became a key figure in easing tensions between the countries in the area and managing a possible intervention. of Costa Rica in the Intentona de Barrios.

Death

On May 1, 1891, his daughter María Pacífica died suddenly on a farm in Juan Viñas, at the age of thirty. During his stay in Nicaragua in 1892, where he carried out plenipotentiary duties, former President Castro contracted an illness that got worse in no time. After several days of severe ailments, Castro died in the city of San José at 7 p.m. m. on Monday, April 4, 1892, at the age of 73. The day after his death, the government of then-President José Joaquín Rodríguez Zeledón announced that it would hold official funerals, which were held on April 6 in the Cathedral Metropolitan, in San Jose. The then Secretary of the Interior and related departments, Pedro León-Páez Brown, was in charge of giving the official speech. His body was buried the same day in the San José General Cemetery.

After his death, several national newspapers dedicated publications in memory of Castro, and in an article published in the Revista de Costa Rica, the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío praised him and referred to him as "patricio, father of the Republic".

Personal life

Portrait of Castro Madriz in an official print of 1907.

In his mission as plenipotentiary minister to Colombia, during the first government of Jesús Jiménez Zamora in 1864, Castro Madriz entered freemasonry. The organization was formally established in Costa Rica by his cousin Francisco Cipriano Calvo in 1865, and Castro held important positions in it. During Castro's second presidency, at the beginning of 1868, different Nicaraguan and Costa Rican liberal personalities met in San José to organize and promote a Freemason secret society. After his association with the organization, Castro was accused of promoting anti-clerical positions, however, he always maintained a courteous attitude towards the ecclesiastical authorities. It should also be noted that, despite his affiliation with the organization, Castro did not abandon his religious activities. On several occasions he was accused of wanting to destroy the Metropolitan Cathedral and change the country's official religion by building a Masonic Temple in its place.

Although he did not publish any books, Castro wrote with ease and elegance, and was noted for his oratory. He was the second Costa Rican to be named corresponding academic of the Royal Spanish Academy, on November 16, 1882, after Manuel María de Peralta y Alfaro. In 1883 he was elected a member of the board of directors of the Bar Association, which that year was chaired by his colleague and former minister Julián Volio Llorente.

Legacy

• Bus of José María Castro Madriz (1949), by Rafael Sáenz González, San José.
• Plazoleta Dr. José María Castro Madriz, San José.
• National highway José María Castro Madriz, section of the National Route No. 27, between Ciudad Colón and Orotina.
• Dr. School. José María Castro Madriz, San José.
• Liceo Dr. José María Castro Madriz, San José.
• Dr. School. José María Castro Madriz, Jiménez.