The painter and the novelist and First Lady were both Theosophists who dreamed to make Costa Rica into the first country officially acknowledging Krishnamurti as the World Teacher.
by Massimo Introvigne
Scholars of nationalism in Costa Rica have often focused on its Catholic version, but an alternative one based on Theosophy and Freemasonry had an important role in the history of Costa Rican culture. For a short time, during and immediately after World War I, Theosophy was also a dominant influence in Costa Rican politics, and some believed that the country would be the first to put itself under the patronage of Krishnamurti as the coming Theosophical World Teacher. Art and literature played a significant role in these dreams.
From its foundation in 1865, although somewhat less anti-Catholic than in the neighboring countries, Costa Rican Freemasonry also sought an alternative basis for nationalism. Rather than as quintessentially Catholic, the nation was celebrated as eminently peace-loving and democratic, based on a long tradition of direct democracy through municipal councils. The myth of the “Switzerland of Central America” was thus created.
Not without connections (nor without some contrasts) with Freemasonry, a specific esoteric basis for this alternative Costa Rican nationalism was offered by the Theosophical Society. In 1896, the (largely Masonic) Costa Rican government asked the Spanish academic painter Tomás Povedano de Arcos (1847–1943), a Freemason and Theosophist who lived at that time in Ecuador, to settle permanently in the country. He became the principal of the newly established National School of Fine Arts, a position he maintained for more than forty years.
On June 1, 1904, the Virya Lodge of the Theosophical Society was established in Costa Rica’s capital San José, with Povedano as president. In 1908, the first issue of the journal “Virya” was published. In 1911, there were three Theosophical lodges in San José (others will follow outside the capital). The second lodge was Dharana, presided by the distinguished intellectual Roberto Brenes Mesén (1874–1947), who would later also serve as Deputy Grand Master of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Costa Rica in 1918–1919.
Povedano himself had a very distinguished Masonic career and served repeatedly as the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Costa Rica. He also became one of the national painters. His painting “Domingueando,” now at the Museum of Costa Rican art in San José, an idyllic rendering of Costa Rican peasants on Sunday, may well be the most beloved work of art in the country. Povedano also contributed to the decoration of the National Theater of Costa Rica in San José, inaugurated in 1897, which quickly became a center for the promotion of a secular national identity.
In his capacity as principal of the National School of Fine Arts, Povedano was the mentor of many Costa Rican artists, and some of them were Theosophists, including Gilberto Huertas and Lily Artavia (1905–1982). A distinguished sculptor, Artavia lost a leg in a shark attack in 1928 and had to survive precariously with a small pension from the government.
The main competitor of Povedano for the title of national painter of Costa Rica was Enrique Echandi (1866–1959). While not a Theosophist, he was a Freemason and the president of the leading Costa Rican Spiritualist group, the Centro Espiritista Claros de Luna. Although this was theoretically forbidden by the Theosophical Society, some Costa Rican Theosophists (but not most)—and a number of politicians of the Belle Époque—were also Spiritualists.
Povedano’s artistic contribution to Costa Rican nationalism included paintings about national history. One of the most famous, and one of several works by him later reproduced on Costa Rican banknotes, was “The Rescue of Dulcehe,” showing the Spanish conquistador Juan Vásquez de Coronado (1523–1565) paying the ransom for rescuing the beautiful Native American Dulcehe, who had been kidnapped by a rival tribe.
Povedano also illustrated the different editions of the “Cartilla Historica de Costa Rica” by local historian Ricardo Fernández Guardia (1867–1950), a popular book that powerfully contributed to shaping national identity and pride.
Povedano also illustrated “Zulai,” a novel written in 1907 and published in 1909 by María Fernández Le Cappellain (1877–1961) under the pseudonym of Apaikán. She was one of the first members of the lodge Virya, and “Zulai” was a crucial book for defining the Theosophical version of Costa Rican nationalism. The third Theosophical lodge of San José was also named Zulai.
The “legend” of Zulai, as the author called it, is at first sight just another “indigenist” tale. Two young Native Americans, Ivdo and Zulai, love each other, but their love is contrasted by the evil ruler of the tribe, who wants Zulai as his fourth wife. He threatens to kill the mother of Zulai if she refuses, and Zulai accepts to marry him. Before the marriage is celebrated, however, the chief is killed by a viper. Zulai escapes the marriage but should die in a fire on the ruler’s pyre with his other three wives, a costume Costa Rican tribes had (allegedly) in common with India.
María Fernández did not conclude her novel with a happy ending. The new ruler of the land talks to Ivdo and tells him that things have changed, and he wants to be Ivdo’s and Zulai’s friend. She saves Zulai from the immolation, but it comes out he also wants her for himself, and treacherously kills Ivdo. Zulai refuses to marry the ruler and throws herself (or falls) into the fire.
In an epilogue, Fernández explains the esoteric (Theosophical) meaning of the story. Native Americans came to the American continent from India and the old enemies of the Indians, the Mongolians, also eventually came to America. The cruel rulers represent the Mongolian race, Ivdo the Indian race, while Zulai’s mother, Mamita Cuaré, came from Atlantis. Zulai, Fernández explains, represents Costa Rica, and she is purified by the fire (a symbol of spirituality and Theosophy) in view of future reincarnations. The ruler’s other wives represent the other Central American countries, and the evil rulers the United States. Anti-Americanism was common in Costa Rica, despite the fraternal relations between Costa Rican and American Freemasons. A shaman represents a corrupt and dogmatic religion. And a queen invading Central America represents Spain, whose coming and fusion with the old races is regarded as ultimately beneficial.
In a prequel novel called “Yontá” (also illustrated by Povedano), Fernández told the story of the birth of Ivdo, whose mother represents the old Costa Rican tribes, while his father came from India and his teachers from Egypt through Atlantis.
“Zulai” and “Yontá” revealed the secret history of Costa Rica. Since the Spanish conquest absorbed the old Native American blood maintaining all its virtues, the new Costa Rican nationalism presented the local race as a synthesis of Egypt, Europe, India, and Atlantis. Fernández maintained that the content of “Zulai” and “Yontá” was not invented but came to her in dreams and revelations after the archeological excavations she performed in various regions of Costa Rica.
A surprising number of Costa Rican girls received (and still receive) Zulai as their first name. Fernández’s novels effectively created an alternative Costa Rican nationalism, which did incorporate Christianity through the role of Spain but insisted much more on esoteric lore about Atlantis, Egypt, and Native Americans, and on the Theosophical evolution of root races.
The connection between Costa Rica and Atlantis was later reinforced in 1928 by another novel, “Arausi,” by Diego Povedano Amores (1883–1949), Tomás Povedano’s son and yet another member of the Theosophical Society. The novel, less original than Fernández’s, was largely inspired by “Zulai.”
The success of “Zulai” was also due to the personality of María Fernández. She was the daughter of Mauro Fernández Acuña (1843–1905), appointed as Minister of Education in 1885 and regarded as the father of Costa Rican culture. In 1898, María had married Federico Alberto Tinoco Granados (1868–1931) who was president of Costa Rica from 1917 to 1919, duly elected but later behaving as a dictator. While Tinoco was controversial, Fernández was a popular First Lady.
The short-lived presidential adventure of Tinoco was deeply connected with the announcement by the Theosophical Society that Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) was the coming World Teacher. The president and his wife were prominent members of Krishnamurti’s Order of the Star in the East, of which Tomás Povedano became one of the international leaders. They believed that, through a benign dictatorship, Costa Rica would become the model for the new world Krishnamurti would eventually create. In these years, as Costa Rican historian of esotericism Ricardo Martínez Esquivel wrote, “it was normal for distinguished politicians and intellectuals of Costa Rica to wear the symbolic star [of the Order of the Star in the East] on their suits, even for the President of the Republic.”
In the day of Vesak of 1917, the Theosophical Society celebrated the new President with a gala in Povedano’s home, where the portraits of Madame Blavatsky and Krishnamurti painted by the host presided over speeches by the President, his wife, and the leaders of the Order of the Star in the East. A new world seemed at hand.
The dream was, however, short-lived. Tinoco was accused of having his opponents ruthlessly killed and of mismanaging public finances. He was deposed by a revolution led by Julio Acosta García (1872–1954), ironically himself a member of the Theosophical Society and of the Order of the Star in the East. Tinoco died in exile in Paris, and some of his closest friends escaped to United States, including Tomás Povedano’s nephew, Sidney Field Povedano (1906–1988), who continued as an intimate friend of Krishnamurti and wrote an important memoir about him.
Both Tomás Povedano and María Fernández—who returned to Costa Rica after Tinoco’s death—remained, however, very influential intellectuals. In 2012, a documentary film by Mercedes Ramírez financed by the Costa Rican Parliament, “La Ocarina de Cuesta de Moras,” told the story of Fernández and celebrated the role of her novels in shaping the nation’s identity. In 2014–2015, the Museums of the National Bank of Costa Rica organized a well visited and widely reviewed exhibition on Povedano and how his paintings were repeatedly used for Costa Rican banknotes.
The continuing presence of esoteric and Theosophical nationalism in Costa Rica does not mean that Catholic nationalism had disappeared. What seems somewhat defused today is the conflict between the two nationalisms, the Catholic and the esoteric. In the past, it went through acute confrontations, and in 1913 a Catholic fanatic set fire to San José’s Theosophical Center. With a letter of 1912, republished as a booklet in 1917, the third Catholic Bishop of Costa Rica, the German prelate Juan Gaspar Stork Werth (1856–1920) excommunicated all members of the Theosophical Society.
Other conflicts with the Catholic Bishops concerned the alleged teaching of Theosophy at the female Colegio Superior de Señoritas, whose faculty included several Theosophists, and the presence in Costa Rica of the Theosophically oriented Liberal Catholic Church, of which the distinguished local poet and Theosophist, José Basileo Acuña Zeledón (1897–1992), was consecrated as Bishop in 1922. He explained the history and doctrines of the Liberal Catholic Church in a book he published in 1927, much to the annoyance of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.
Although Catholic nationalism, never went away, Theosophical esoteric nationalism, with key intellectuals such as Povedano and María Fernández was a significant component of Costa Rican culture for decades and contributed in its own way to shape the country’s national identity.