The Legacy of the Filibuster War: National Identity and Collective Memory in Central America

The Legacy of the Filibuster War: National Identity and Collective Memory in Central America analyzes the development of the Filibuster War as a symbol of Costa Rican national identity and presents several challenges to traditional theories of modernization and the creation of nationalism. By focusing on the development of cultural features defined by the transformation of collective memory, Marco Cabrera Geserick argues that national identity is a dynamic process defined according to local, national, and international contexts. Modernization theories connect the creation of symbols of official nationalism with the period of consolidation of the nation-state, yet the Filibuster War started its rise to Costa Rican national identity years later. Cabrera Geserick analyzes the threats to sovereignty and imperialist advances that served to promote the memory of the Filibuster War, while local social transformations-such as the abolition of the army, the rise of popular forces, and internal political conflict-have continued to force drastic changes on the interpretation of the war.