Overseas Chinese

Established in 1909 according to the historical memory of the current members, it probably had been operating since the end of the 19th century. Legal documents of several Chinese business firms operating in Puntarenas since 1880 have been found, indicating early activity. However, it is possibly until the beginning of the 20th century when the Circle of Merchants of the Celestial Empire begins to operate more systematically, when they acquire a property to house the Chinese Club or Wah Seong.

The role of overseas Chinese associations from North and South America was very similar as they were modeled after traditional family clan associations. Thus, their services included mediation in legal disputes, punishment enforcement, banking and insurance agencies, repatriation of remains, and mediations between the Chinese and the rest of the community.

The high degree of organization as perceived in artifacts and documents preserved in the Puntarenas Chinese club suggests that they had the capacity to carry out these tasks. In addition, they made important contributions and were integrated into the community, promoting public works and social outreach and taking part of local commissions and other groups in the community.

Nowadays, they continue to operate through Boards of Directors that supervise the renovation of the club, their work of social action, and the preservation of their cultural heritage.

Since the 1870s, there have been Chinese immigrants in the capital city according to population census data, baptismal, marriage and death records, notarized documents, and complaints and news in periodicals of the time, among others. However, due to governmental control measures and the rejection of the population at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, they found a large niche market in the coastal provinces of Puntarenas, Limón and Guanacaste and from the first two they began to promote benevolence societies modeled after the traditional Chinese family.

Thus, much of the activity of Chinese merchants revolved around their base organizations in Puntarenas or Limón in times when the roads to those provinces were in early stages of development. The opening of the University of Costa Rica and the construction of the Inter-American Highway broadened the horizons of their descendants, and thus began an exodus of, first, students and, then, professionals who settled in the capital city trying to be closer to better opportunities.

These conditions inspired the emergence of a Chinese benevolence society in San José, with members and contributions from Chinese communities throughout the country. They conducted a nationwide fundraising campaign, contacting immigrants and their descendants and explaining the importance of founding the Chinese Association of Costa Rica. With the money raised, they acquired the property located in Barrio Francisco Peralta, where their headquarters are currently located and where large celebrations of Chinese culture and private receptions for members of the community are held.

The first board of directors in 1960 includes immigrants and descendants from the Costa Rican towns of Puntarenas, Miramar, Cañas, Nicoya, Limón, the south and central regions, and from the Cantonese regions of Zhongshan and Enping. Many of them adopted surnames that would characterize that new Chinese Costa Rican imaginary: Alán, Con, Pino, León, Cob, Wachong, Achío, Acón, Ajoy, Sanchún, Chan Amán, Lao, Sánchez. It was a collective effort to renew the original ideals of the first Chinese benevolence societies in Costa Rica and adapt them to the new circumstances with the contributions of the generations born in the country and the constant migratory influx from China.

It is currently made up of descendants of immigrants who lived in Puntarenas, Abangares and other locations in the Guanacaste lowlands such as Sardinal before settling in Nicoya.

Although there have been Chinese immigrants in Nicoya since the end of the 19th century, an organized group did not emerge until probably the 1940s or 1950s. Some of them began doing charity through organizations such as the Lions Club and the Rotary Club, but they also joined a group led by Rafael Ajoy, Odilio Sing, Adán Yong and others to help other Chinese immigrants establish businesses in Nicoya. Ajoy had been an active member of the Board of Directors of the Puntarenas Chinese Benevolence Society and had served on various commissions for public works. The current Board of Directors is made up of descendants with surnames such as Yockchen, Atán, Ajoy, and Chonkang, surnames of immigrants from Zhongshan who tried to mke a living in Las Juntas de Abangares and Puntarenas before finally settling in Nicoya.

This association includes descendants of immigrants established in Nambí de Nicoya, La Mansión and places on the peninsula such as Canjel and Canjelito. Descendants of Chinese families such as the Ajú, the Acón, the Sanchún and the Lí have been associated with their activities to help people in need and keep their cultural heritage alive.

Despite the early presence of Chinese immigrants such as Manuel Lí Cheng and José María Chong in Santa Cruz since the beginning of the 20th century, it was not until the 1940s or 1950s that a community emerged as more immigrants and families settled. The Chinese of Guanacaste maintained strong communication with the Board of Directors at the benevolence society at Puntarenas, so it is likely that this was one reason why, as in other Guanacaste towns with Chinese communities, they did not have the need to form separate societies. It was also a matter of loyalty and hierarchy.

The current Board of Directors is made up of second and third generation members who, like their ancestors, were involved in the same charitable work and preservation of the cultural legacy that characterizes similar groups in other communities. They even had a Chinese ladies' association around the 1970s.

Although there are commercial ties between some Chinese immigrants from Cañas and José Chen Apuy, the society as such was not established until the 1980s under the leadership of José Angel Acón Lí. Chen Apuy was a partner of Man Chong Loy, a grocery store that different documents or testimonies link with José León Apuy, Pedro Achío, Joaquín Tacsan and Juan Acón, immigrants who arrived from the late nineteenth century to the second decade of the twentieth century .

The Benevolence Society at Cañas carries out charitable works for the destitute in their community. They collect funds and sell Chinese food for this purpose. They do not have headquarters like other Guanacaste associations but, as customary since they first arrived, they meet in their businesses or homes to discuss issues about their cultural heritage and provide relief to communities in need.

Its members include Chinese immigrants, Chinese born in Costa Rica and Costa Ricans with some ties to the Chinese community of Cañas.