About Us Creation Creation
Ten years ago, a small group of people, five Costa Ricans and five citizens of the United States, decided to offer their support to development, collaboration and Costa Rican society, under a new modality of cooperation. Clearly aware of the responsibility they were assuming, as well as the cultural, political and professional challenges and obstacles that lay ahead, they were nevertheless determined to make a difference. Following an agreement between the Governments of Costa Rica and the United States, this newly created institution received an Endowment Fund which has been responsibly invested and has enabled the CRUSA Foundation to gradually consolidate this effort.
Historic Background
Beyond the bleak picture that some people paint – very simplistically – of Costa Rica’s future, there are organizations and individuals in this country that convey a dose of optimism that does not seem to have been planted in this land, but rather transplanted.
One of these organizations, led by a team of intuitive and highly motivated individuals, is the CRUSA Foundation, an institution born in 1996, soon after the US Agency for International Development (USAID) left Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica, USAID left an invaluable imprint on the different approaches and styles adopted to tackle the problems of development. President Kennedy’s visit to Costa Rica in 1963 established a platform so that the aid received from the US Government would serve as an example to the rest of the Central American nations, which were embroiled in violent disputes over how to resolve their social and political contradictions. As a result of these conflicts, Costa Rica emerged as the natural vantage point from which to monitor the impact of USAID’s strategy in a region such as Central America.
Paradoxically, Costa Rica’s economic growth during the seventies, its political stability and the consolidation of a group of institutions of broad social scope, prompted USAID to begin to consider withdrawing from the country. From the Agency’s perspective, Costa Rica had reached a level where it could manage its own affairs without massive international assistance. This, in its view, was an indication that the Central American country had exceeded all the expectations established for the Mesoamerican region as a whole.
In 1996, the Agency for International Development finally left Costa Rica, paving the way for the creation of the CRUSA Foundation.
About the Author
Rodrigo Quesada Monge has been a professor at the National University of Costa Rica since 1975 and was awarded the National Prize (1998) of the Academy of Geography and History of Costa Rica. He holds a Doctorate from the University of London, in England, and has been awarded scholarships by the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation and the DAAD of the Federal German Republic. He is the author of several books on Costa Rican and Latin American history.
