Reading and education of Costa Rican workers through Hoja Obrera, 1909-1912

Abstract

The article reconstructs the reading interests and of worker education, just as the writing texts by the workers through Hoja Obrera, a weekly newspaper that belonged to the Sociedad de Trabajadores in the period between 1909 and 1912. It details which the writers were read, what readings the workers read, which were their concerns for the worker education and the reading, who wrote and what they wrote about. The methodology was based on in depth study of Hoja Obrera, between Octuber 17th, 1909 and April 8th, 1912 with an amount of 94 analyzed newspapers. It concludes three fundamental aspects; first, the given importance by the workers to the education and to the reading as a way to promote their intellectual education and be able to understand the social and cultural conditions of the Costa Rican society. Second, the influence of the writers like Émile Zola, Joaquín Dicenta, Victor Hugo, Lev Tolstói, Félix Matos Bernier and others to understand the human relationships. Third, the contribution of the writing as a way of complaint of these conditions through the poetry as artistic expression mainly.