Juan Rafael Mora Porras

Juan Rafael Mora Porras, known as Don Juanito (San José, February 8, 1814-Puntarenas, September 30, 1860) was a Costa Rican businessman and politician. and the 2nd President of the Republic of Costa Rica for three consecutive terms. He is especially credited with having led the country to victory over the filibusters led by William Walker, in the National Campaign of 1856-1857. Precisely because of this campaign, the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly declared him a "national hero and liberator" on September 16, 2010. He is one of the most recognized and important figures in Costa Rican history.

Life and family

The marriage of Camilo Mora Alvarado and Ana Benita Porras Ulloa – a liberal family that figures among the founders of the current Costa Rican capital – had four children who belonged to the country's political and social elite. Not only Juan would become president; it would also be, in 1849, Miguel and José Joaquín would obtain the rank of general. His sisters Ana María and Guadalupe were wives, respectively, of José María Montealegre Fernández, who would govern Costa Rica from 1859 to 1863, and José María Cañas Escamilla, a general of Salvadoran origin.

Don Juanito married Inés Aguilar de Mora, daughter of [Manuel Aguilar Chacón], head of state from 1837 to 1838, in San José on June 24, 1847. The couple had eight children: Elena, Teresa, Alberto, Amelia, Juan of God, Camilo, Juana and Antonio.

He was sworn in as First Mayor of San José on May 15, 1837. He held other public offices, as a member of the Constituent Assembly of 1846-1847, although his main activities were commerce, the cultivation of coffee, sugarcane, sugar and real estate. In 1842, Juan Rafael Mora, who had no university education, formed a partnership with Vicente Aguilar, which would soon become one of the most powerful commercial firms of the time.

Political life

Juan Rafael Mora Porras, 1859

In 1847 he was elected Vice President of the State, a position he resigned the following year, to occupy that position again the following year. The military coup of General José Manuel Quirós y Blanco, which forced the resignation of President José María Castro Madriz, made him the ruler of the country until the election of his successor was declared, which Don Juanito himself won.

Among the first successes achieved during his government were the recognition of Costa Rican independence by Spain and the creation by Pius IX of the diocese of Costa Rica (March 1, 1850), whose first bishop, Anselmo Llorente y Lafuente, was consecrated the following year in Guatemala.

At a time when the military had great influence on the country's politics and when the existence of a single garrison made it easier for its commander to agree with powerful families to change the president, Mora decided to create a second garrison, which came to mean a distrust towards Quirós, the most powerful military man of that time. This is how he understood it and took up arms on June 3, 1850, but the forces that don Juanito sent to fight him defeated him.

The Constitutional Congress conferred the title of Benemérito de la Patria, by Decree No. LXXXVI of June 25, 1850.

Despite the victory over Quirós, things were not easy for Mora, who was up against an intelligent opposition led by Castro and a largely adversarial Congress. He even submitted his resignation, which was not accepted. Don Juanito then opted to dissolve the chamber and call new elections to obtain a faithful Parliament, which he achieved.

In 1853 he was re-elected. He improved the highway from Cartago to the port of Puntarenas, a road that contributed to accelerating the economic development of the country, and dictated other progressive provisions that were carried out during his term.

War against the filibusters

"Its stature is a small subway with sixty. Contexture thick, fill the face and neck short. Black hair, hair backwards and thick sotabarba. Lightly brown skin. Front clear, clear intelligence. Long eyebrows, penetrating look. Thin upper lip, Roman nose. Slope walk, wear a cane with ivory grip. Speak soft and straight. He sleeps early, he sleeps early and makes nap. Catholic, it's going to mass. In refined ways, you dress the French with patent leather shoes, and sometimes solemn, use a simple black frac. It prefers English pen, ink and paper. Afable by nature, its physiognomy expresses more goodness than energy. By affection, many call it Don Juanito."

Armando Vargas Araya. 2007.

At the beginning of 1856 Costa Rica was forced to face the war known as the National Campaign of 1856-1857 to expel William Walker from Central American territory. In the first phase of the war, in which Mora personally accompanied the troops (he delegated the government to Vice President Francisco Oreamuno Bonilla), the Costa Rican army emerged victorious in the battles of Santa Rosa, Sardinal and the battle of Rivas. But in the days that followed, the cholera plague arose, which began to wreak havoc in the ranks of the army, which, by decision of Mora, abandoned Nicaraguan territory and returned to Costa Rica. The disease then spread through much of the country, killing 10,000 people, almost a tenth of the Costa Rican population at the time.

Once the cholera epidemic closed its cycle in December, preparations began for the 2nd campaign whose main objective was to take the San Juan and the ships that supplied Walker from the United States. The magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, as a way of collaborating in the war, then sent the sailor Sylvanus Spencer, who knew the river, to guide the troops; In reality, what the American millionaire wanted was to recover his ships from the Transit Accessory Company that Walker had given to his competitors (the so-called transit route saved many kilometers and time for those who traveled from the east coast to the west and vice versa at the time of the California Gold Rush). Spencer, who would die on May 29, 1862 at the age of 43, arrived in Costa Rica accompanied by the Englishman William Clifford Webster, who in turn brought a letter of recommendation from the Costa Rican ambassador in Washington, Luis Molina. Webster introduced himself as if Vanderbilt was behind him, which was false, and offered Mora a loan of one million pesos to settle the state debt contracted by the government to finance the war, but Webster was accused of fraud in the United States. States and the contracts were never formalized. In addition, these contracts had a condition: to make them effective, Nicaragua's signature was needed, which it did not do with any of the three contracts.

The war ended in April 1857, after Major Máximo Blanco cut off the supply routes of the filibusters through the San Juan River campaign. Victory in the war against Walker filled Mora with glory; but relations with Nicaragua became complicated.

Walker, after surrendering on May 1, 1857 in Rivas and being taken back to the United States by the commander of the sloop-of-war St. Mary's Charles Henry Davis, begins to prepare another expedition; in Nicaragua, he replaces him in the presidency Tomás Martínez, who demands from Costa Rica the immediate return of Punta Castilla, Castillo Viejo and the San Carlos fort, as well as the ships seized from the filibusters; In addition, the Costa Rican troops had to leave Nicaraguan territory. But Mora, who knew of Walker's plans, ordered the troops to remain on the San Juan to abort a new raid by the filibuster. Martínez then accused Costa Rica of imperialist intentions and declared war on it on October 19, 1857. Cañas was in charge of negotiating, a process that ended with the signing of the Cañas-Jerez Treaty, unfavorable for Costa Rica, which had to recognize Costa Rica. Nicaragua as the absolute owner of the San Juan and settle for only limited access to free navigation in the lower course of the river, losing the patrimonial rights over it.

At the beginning of 1859 he was re-elected for a third term, but on August 14 of that year he was overthrown by the commanders of the San José barracks, Colonel Lorenzo Salazar and the aforementioned Major Blanco. It was Sergeant Sotero Rodríguez who, at half past three in the morning of that day, showed up unexpectedly at Mora's house and took him under arrest to the barracks. In the following hours, his brother José Joaquín, General Cañas, Manuel Argüello –nephew and adviser to the president– and other officials were also captured; later taken to Puntarenas and expelled from the country, they set sail on the steamer Guatemala for El Salvador. The two military coup leaders were promoted to the rank of general by José María Montealegre, the new president who belonged to the family that had been behind the conspiracy to end Mora's government.

In the 1860 elections, supporters of the ousted president nominated his relative Manuel Mora Fernández, who was defeated by Montealegre.

Attempt to regain power and death

Abroad, don Juanito was preparing the invasion to regain power; he traveled to the United States in search of aid and weapons. On September 17, 1860, he disembarked in Puntarenas –accompanied by his brother, General José Joaquín, his brother-in-law, José María Cañas and his nephew Manuel Argüello;– the Moristas took the city and seized a strip of land that reached as far as the Barranca River. The Montealegre government reacted quickly by sending a military force that defeated Mora in the battle of La Angostura. Don Juanito sought asylum with his friend, the British consul Richard Farrer –with Don Ricardo, as he was known in Costa Rica, with whom he had done business; thus, he had sold him a coffee farm located in Guadalupe and in 1854 his government had given him the concession to build and operate a railway between San José and Puntarenas, – but he ended up giving it up.

He was shot in the place called Los Lobos on September 30 of that year together with General Ignacio Arancibia (a Chilean who had left for California at the time of the gold rush, but who had stayed in Costa Rica, settling in in Esparza and who had distinguished himself in the war against the filibusters). Two days later, they also executed Cañas.

Tomb of Mora

A group of friends –the British consuls, Farrer, and French, Juan Bonnefil (Jean Jacques Bonnefil Hydemayra), his sons-in-law, Santiago Costantine and Julio Rosat, plus Captain Francisco Roger– managed to prevent the body from being dumped to the waters and they buried him the same day of his execution in the old cemetery of the estuary in a grave dug by themselves; two days later they also buried Cañas. Almost six years later, on May 20, 1866, Bonnefil returned to the place along with Constantine and four sailors (Carlos Leonara, Enrique Ligoneff, Francisco Hervé and Guillermo Noubée) and exhumed the corpses, which he kept briefly at his residence in Puntarenas for then take them home in San José, located diagonally to the San Juan de Dios Hospital, where they remain for more than 20 years, until January 13, 1885, when they are transferred to the General Cemetery of the Costa Rican capital.

Legacy

History remembers Juan Rafael Mora for his heroic fight against pro-slavery filibusters, achieving victory for Costa Rica and Central America.

Works during the governments of Juan Rafael Mora Porras

National Palace of Costa Rica (1850)

Hacienda Santa Rosa, place of the Battle of Santa Rosa (20 March 1856)

National Monument of Costa Rica, in tribute to the victory in the National Campaign of 1856-1857

Music of the National Anthem of Costa Rica (1852)

Frontier between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, defined by the treaty Cañas-Jerez (1858)

• Strengthened coffee-making
• Inaugurated the public lighting system in 1851
• Built the building of the University of Santo Tomás (Univ. de Costa Rica)
• It built the National Factory of Licores, the Hospital San Juan de Dios, the Hospital San Rafael (Puntarenas) and the National Palace of Costa Rica.
• During his administration, the engineer Nicolás Gallegos raised the foreground of the city of San José.
• During his government, Manuel María Gutiérrez Flores composed the music of the National Anthem of Costa Rica in 1852
• The diocese of Costa Rica was created in 1850
• The Cañas-Jerez treaty was signed in 1858
• Encouraged the establishment of a National Mixed Capital Bank
• Encouraged the development of Guanacaste
• He successfully led the National Campaign of 1856-1857 against the Filibusters

Iconography and recognitions

Monument to Juan Rafael Mora in San José, work of the Italian Pietro Piraino

Streets and parks are named after don Juanito. Thus, in Puntarenas there is the Mora y Cañas Park, in Puntarenas Centro (1st and 3rd avenues, 9th and 11th streets), inaugurated on December 8, 1918 and adorned with busts of both characters, sculptures by Juan Rafael Chacón placed in 1960. for the centenary of his death. Second avenue in San José has been named in his honor, first in 2001 and then in 2014 with the official name of Avenida del Libertador Juan Rafael Mora. Second street also bears his name and is precisely on the corner with second avenue that they have placed the corresponding plate (there are plans to change the name of the street to avoid confusion).

Mora has been portrayed by important painters, starting with Aquiles Bigot, a painting that can be found in the Pinacoteca of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica. The Juan Santamaría Cultural Historical Museum (Alajuela) has a beautiful old painting of don Juanito painted by Tomás Povedano. In addition, there is one in which he appears with his brother José Joaquín and a painting of his execution, both works by Carlos Aguilar. And in the Juan Santamaría Park of that city, a large mural was inaugurated in 2012, also by Aguilar, in which Mora occupies a central place. Gonzalo Morales Alvarado also portrayed the famous president, as did his son Gonzalo Morales Sáurez (a portrait of the latter is in the Hall of Latin American Patriots in the Casa Rosada, seat of the Argentine government).

In the park in front of the San José Post Office and Telegraph building stands the main monument to Mora. It is a sculptural ensemble, the work of the Italian Pietro Piraino, made up of a statue of the former president about 3 m high on a concrete base; On the sides of the base there are two bas-reliefs (N: work of Costa Rican farmers, S: episode of the National Campaign. Two other figures are part of the set: to the east, a woman symbolizing science, and to the west, a man with a torch, symbol of freedom.

The director Rubén Darío Arena created in September 2012 a documentary with analysis by the historian Raúl Arias and the participation of Armando Vargas Araya and Manuel Mora Sala, and illustrations by the aforementioned painter from Alajuela Carlos Aguilar.

In 2013, during the José Merino Music Festival, Dionisio Cabal presented the song Ha llegue la hora de Juanito Mora.

Mora is one of the main characters in Óscar Núñez's novel The Promised War (2015).