Su madre le había enseñado un poco de español, perhaps reading Correo del Atlántico voy a terminar de aprender y a conocer un poco about dis paña people, los costarricenses, por ejemplo aquí dice que se aburren muchísimo en Limón Town porque solo tienen la Retreta los viernes y los martes in Vegas Park con la banda del maestro Barahona,…

I enjoyed reading “Limón Blues” tremendously. As it often happens when I read novels written in Spanish, the language becomes my favorite part. Reading Spanish from a different country with unique mannerisms and colloquialisms is, for me, part of the book’s magic because it transports me to the country, in this case Costa Rica. The novel is about Orlandus, a Jamaican national, that moves to Limón, Costa Rica in the early 1910s. He is young when his mother sends him to Cahuita (a beach near Limón) to tend her finca, plant bananas, sell them and send the money back to his family in Jamaica. When this venture doesn’t turn out, Orlandus moves to Limón, starts his new life, leaving behind his Jamaican ghosts and falling in love with the city.

He soon meets Marcus Garvey, other colleagues, his faithful employer and a beautiful woman from the upper class; both his political and romantic futures start almost at the same time. The story follows Orlandus through time and the changes in Limón’s political and social history, stopping over Jamaica, New York and Africa, while on a quest to find where he belongs. Rossi has a powerful and unique narrative, she switches from first person to third person indistinctively to let readers understand why the characters think as they do. This interaction is especially powerful when she describes Orlandus’s marriage to Irene and their lack of conversation, told from the two points of view. Another interesting characteristic of the novel is that the chapters only has odd numbers; the even number chapters belong to Rossi’s other novel, Limón Reggae.

This novel is a fictional account of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and his pan-African movement to return to Africa, told through Orlandus’s (and his family’s) eyes. It is a story about ethnic identity and nation-building. A most interesting read that made me read Costa Rican history, its ties to the United Stated, the United Fruit Company and the misfortunes of the UNIA. I strongly recommend it.

About Anacristina Rossi

Anacristina, born in San José in 1952, is a novelist and a political activist regarding environmental issues. Her first and most famous novel, María la noche, was written in 1985 and translated into English and French in 1997. She grew up in Limón yet moved to San José for elementary school. She studied dance, theater and languages.

Other books written by Costa Rican women

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Costa Rican initiatives and projects that support and empower girls and women

MUSADE

Musade is a Costa Rican non profit that empowers women and creates aware of the deep gender violence issues that exist in their country. Specifically, they work with women from vulnerable backgrounds for them to understand their value in society and participate as citizens. They hold workshops for women focused on the importance of their role in society and how to achieve equality. Additionally, their research area is constantly working in developing and sharing key findings of gender inequality. Finally, their advocacy area denounces gender violence with their project: Defensoras populares.