Whitening via Erasure: Space, Place and the Census in Costa Rica

Abstract

The Costa Rican national imaginary is predicated on a notion of whiteness and homogeneity as defining of the nation. As such, no recasting or expansion of the myth of whiteness can explain an indigenous presence in the nation, for a story predicated on such a foundational myth is fundamentally at odds with the prior existence of a non-white population. This paper asks how the national imaginary of whiteness develops in such a context. I focus on the mechanisms that buttress the process of indigenous erasure, arguing that a combination of racialization of space, use of the census, and contradictory indigenous policies function as critical means of whitening.

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