Marriage
Because Roman Catholicism is the official state religion, only that church’s marriages are legally recognized by the government. Any persons wishing to wed outside of the Catholic church must hire a lawyer who will perform and then register their civil wedding for them. Legal age for marriage in Costa Rica is 18, the age of consent is 15.
Costa Ricans often refer to themselves as tico (masculine) or tica (feminine). “Tico” comes from the popular local usage of “tico” and “tica” as diminutive suffixes (e.g., “momentico” instead of “momentito”). The phrase “Pura Vida” (literally “Pure Life”) is a ubiquitous motto in Costa Rica. Some youth use mae, a contraction of “maje” (mae means “guy/dude”), to refer to each other, although this might be perceived as insulting to those of an older generation; maje was a synonym for “tonto” (stupid).
Costa Rica boasts a varied history. Costa Rica was the point where the Mesoamerican and South American native cultures met. The northwest of the country, the Nicoya peninsula, was the southernmost point of Nahuatl cultural influence when the Spanish conquerors (conquistadores) came in the sixteenth century. The center and southern portions of the country had Chibcha influences.
The Atlantic coast, meanwhile, was populated with African workers during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Most afro Costa Ricans, however, derive from nineteenth-century Jamaican workers, brought in to work on the construction of railroads between the urban populations of the Central Plateau and the port of Limon on the Caribbean coast. Italian and Chinese immigrants also arrived at this time to work on railroad construction.
