Neighborhood identity and expansion of commerce in the city: the case of Barrio Los Yoses, San Pedro-San José, Costa Rica.

 

Every day more foreigners find a place to establish their residence in the Costa Rican countryside and cities due to the advantages of the country, which are much greater than the few disadvantages, such as the high cost of living. From a series of episodes we are going to dedicate today to the place where we recently moved our office very close to the Chamber of Industries, and the PwC auditing firm in the neighborhood of Los Yoses. 

The Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica is the institution that has represented the country's industrial sector since 1943. His leadership in the business sector has allowed high levels of excellence in search of better conditions not only for the industrial sector but also for thousands of Costa Ricans.

The Los Yoses neighborhood, east of San José, is an open-air museum that exhibits dozens of modernist buildings built in Costa Rica after 1950 by the first generation of "pure architects", since the previous professionals were engineers with an emphasis on architecture.

 Neighborhood Life in Los Yoses San Pedro Montes de Oca COSTA RICA, https://youtu.be/hUqCAl4W27U.

Montealegre family, Mariano Montealegre Bustamante was one of the most enthusiastic pioneers of coffee cultivation in Costa Rica. He was married to Gerónima de los Ángeles Fernández Chacón.

 

Conferencia: Boletos de café de la familia Montealegre Fernández, https://youtu.be/EGCoAoA_H2M.

Every year he planted more blocks of land and invested large sums in warehouses and machinery to pack the grain into sacks. The house of the Montealegre Bustamante Family was located in the center of the Josephine capital, on the south west corner of Ave. Central and Calle 2, the famous former corner of Monumental. His neighbors mistakenly believed that his obsession with coffee would end up ruining him, but the opposite happened, strengthening his fortune.   

Gerónima Montealegre Fernández de Carranza Ramírez was First Lady of Costa Rica and wife of Temporary Head of State Bruno Carranza. She was born in San José on October 30, 1823 to her parents Mariano Montealegre Bustamante and Gerónima Fernández Chacón, and was sister of President José María Montealegre Fernández, Mariano Montealegre Fernández great coffee entrepreneur, Francisco Montealegre Fernández, and 8 more siblings.

Barrio Los Yoses was a coffee farm owned by José Pablo Francisco Montealegre Gallegos grandson of the coffee king Mariano Montealegre Bustamante. It was called that because it was abundant in yos, a kind of tree that was planted there to give shade to the coffee trees. When Mr. Francisco Montealegre died in 1943, his descendants decided to urbanize those ten blocks.  The Montealegre family abandoned politics and focused on business in the 20th century.

The Alonso family is also well known in Los Yoses, Guayabos de Curridabat, and Escazú. Auto Mercado S.A. is a family business with 100% Costa Rican capital. In 1917, Don Guillermo Alonso Rodríguez settled in Costa Rica, from Spain, together with his wife, Doña Victoria Matanzo. During the first decades of that century, Mr. Alonso established several retail businesses in the capital, San José, such as La Vieja Lyra, La Fortuna, La Lonja and, in 1932, the Bar Azul. From offering bar and cafeteria services, it became specialized in the sale of national and imported groceries. Under the innovative concept of the “auto service” era, the first Auto Mercado was opened in Los Yoses in 1960, aimed at a select clientele and with high-quality products. The chain had only one supermarket until 1970, when the second point of sale, known as Auto Mercado Centro, was opened.  

In 1948, Enrique Maroto Montejo (1920-2001) returned to his homeland with a prestigious degree under his arm and a baggage of ideas to build the first modern buildings in the international style, but adapted to the topographical and climatic conditions of Costa Rica. Much of his work and legacy remains in Los Yoses.

In this elegant and central neighborhood of Barrio Los Yoses, several mansions with history are for sale, if you want to see them and a service like you have never experienced before, please contact the Lawyer and Notary Lic. Ulises A. Obregón, a specialist in Title Insurance since 2004, (First Costa Rican Title & Trust S. A) and the Spanish historian Dr. Rafael A. Vilagut, who started Remax and a Dutch company in real estate company in Barcelona in 2003, has also since the 1970s Rafael worked together with his father Emilio on real estate developments in Central and South America. 

Thesis in Spanish, "Identidad barrial y expansión del comercio en la ciudad : el caso del Barrio Los Yoses", https://catalogosiidca.csuca.org/Record/UCR.000023569.

San Jose Costa Rica November 9th, 2022, rafaelvilagut@gmail.com. P.O. Box 925-2050 San Pedro Montes de Oca, San José 11501.