Documentary features
plight of Nicaraguans
 
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
 

The plight of the Nicaraguan immigrant in Costa Rican society has been turned into a documentary directed by a North American.

The film title “NICA/ragüense” puts the emphasis on the word Nica, a disrespectful term for a Nicaraguan.

The 55-minute film will be shown free Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Sala Gómez Miralles of the Centro Costarricense de Producción Cinematográfica. The centro is a unit of the Ministerio de la Cultura, Juventud y Deportes.

The director, Judy Fleming, and her Nicaraguan co-director Carlos Solís have produced a work that has been called provocative in the Spanish-language press. The stars are the thousands of Nicaraguans who migrate to Costa Rica to work or to have a better life.

The film notes that poverty and unemployment are the main reasons the Nicaraguans leave home.

More than 50 percent of the coffee harvested in Costa Rica is done with the hands of Nicaraguans, the film said, and in shots of daily life the film shows Nicaraguans talking about their fear of being in public places and saying that they have to pay blackmail to police.

Schoolchildren say that their teachers mock their accents in the classroom, and that they are ashamed of being Nicaraguans.

The documentary also takes viewers to La Carpio, the informal settlement where police detained many of the Nicaraguan residents in an immigration check Jan. 30, 2004. The check and subsequent detentions became an international incident.

The film also cites Costa Ricans who have helped Nicaraguans, including finca owners, musicians and legislative deputies.

The deep prejudice toward Nicaraguans is a sensitive topic in Costa Rica and the documentary is sure to become a major point of discussion.

The centro is in a turn-of-the century building on Avenida 9 on its northwest corner with Calle 11. The location is north of and across Avenida 9 from the parking area attached to the towering Instituto National de Seguros building.