Mora Fernández, Juan (1784–1854)

Juan Mora Fernández (b. 12 July 1784; d. 16 December 1854), first president of Costa Rica (1824–1833). He was chosen head of state of Costa Rica by the Constituent Assembly of 1824 and reelected in 1829. His major achievement was survival amid the turbulence of the Central American Federation civil wars. His administrations kept as much distance as possible from Guatemalan authorities while seeking British commercial and political support.

Mora was able to convince Central American Federation leaders to provisionally accept the annexation of Guanacaste province (1825) over Nicaraguan opposition. Costa Rica's first formal constitution was enacted under his rule in 1825. Mora's ability to negotiate compromises on the conflict-laden issue of the location of the nation's capital helped prevent the collapse of constitutional authority locally, despite the repeated civil wars in the rest of Central America.

The son of San José residents Mateo Mora Valverde and Lucía Encarnación Fernández Umaña, Mora studied in Léon, Nicaragua, before returning to Costa Rica in 1806. He married Juana Castillo Palacios in 1819. He continued to be active in politics throughout his life, serving as a member of Congress eleven times between 1821 and 1848, representing San José and outlying Pacific coast districts of Boruca/Térraba. He served as vice president in the brief presidency of Manuel Aguilar and was exiled along with Aguilar by the revolt of 27 May 1838 led by Carrillo. He returned to political life after Carrillo's fall, as a congressman (1842–1848).

See alsoCosta Rica, Constitutions .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carlos Monge Alfaro, Historia de Costa Rica, 16th ed. (1980), pp. 178-191.

Carmen Lila Gómez, Los gobiernos constitucionales de don Juan Mora Fernández (1825–1833) (1974).

Niní De Mora, Obras de Juan Mora Fernández (1970).

Jorge Sáenz Carbonell, El despertar constitucional de Costa Rica (1985).

Carlos Jinesta, Juan Mora Fernández (1938).

Additional Bibliography

Gudmundson, Lowell, and Héctor Lindo-Fuentes. Central America, 1821–1871: Liberalism before Liberal Reform. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995.

Villalobos, José Hilario, Luz Alba Chacón de Umaña, and Jorge Francisco Sáenz Carbonell. Braulio Carrillo. San José, Costa Rica: s.n., 1998.

                                              Lowell Gudmundson