User:Mon Gomez

=Pura vida (phrase)=





"Pura Vida" or “pure life” in English, is the most easily recognizable phrase associated with Costa Ricans. It is a symbol of the Costa Rican way of life and encompasses Costa Rican values. “Pura vida” Pura vida summarizes the simplicity of good living, a state of well-being, happiness, satisfaction, conformity and optimism, as well as appreciation for a modest way of life in an abundant and exuberant natural setting. These traits are all associated with appreciating the simple life and the art of good living.

Notable Uses in Popular Culture
People in Costa Rica often greet passersby walking down the street with a “pura vida.” It may be meant as a question or as a greeting, or simply as a farewell. Travel guides often suggest using "pura vida" as the standard reply to "How are you?” Image consultants usually advise visiting artists and public figures to use this phrase whenever they visit Costa Rica to generate an emotional response in the audience.

This phrase seems closely related to Costa Rica's wild, majestic biodiversity, mirrored in expressions such as:“If you just keep standing around, you're going to grow roots.” It is so popular that it is officially used on leading international shows, such as the Technology, Entertainment and Design program “ TEDx Pura Vida.”, or the international level, high-tech production of the 2013 Central American Games opening ceremony, hosted in San José, titled “Pura Vida.” According to Delia Piccirilli, the artistic director, the show sought to reflect the Costa Rican people and nature, as well as their future.

This phrase is also commonly used when advertising Costa Rican products, such as beer or mattresses, in an attempt to highlight local roots, to block international brands in a hostile globalizing environment or to stop multinational trademarks from breaking into the Costa Rican market.

Etymology
In his weekly column entitled “Tribuna del Idioma,” in which Fernando Díez Losada answers questions from readers about the Spanish language, he indicates that one of the definitions for the word “vida” in the 1992 Dictionary of Spanish Language by the Royal Spanish Academy is: “Fig. Anything that generates extreme contentment” and goes on to conclude that “pure life would be a state of complete well-being, of maximum satisfaction and pure contentment.”

He also reminds readers not to forget the old Castiian Spanish saying: “Life and delight, morning, noon and night,” a close equivalent of the Costa Rican saying “pura vida.”

Origin and Positioning
Researchers such as Víctor Manuel Sánchez Corrales, from the University of Costa Rica, suggest that pura vida only became popular in some sectors of Costa Rica in the 1950s, and slowly grew to be the calling card of ticos until finally becoming their catchphrase.

Studies point out that Mexican actor Antonio Espino y Mora, known as Clavillazo, was responsible for introducing this expression into the Costa Rican culture. Although Clavillazo had used this famous phrase in previous movies, most hypotheses claim that his movie ¡Pura Vida!, filmed in 1955 and premiered in Costa Rica a year later, is most likely to have introduced this expression to Costa Rica.

As the 1980s drew near, use of the term in Costa Rican popular culture grew as its population became aware of the country’s peaceful environment —unlike the rest of war torn, turbulent Central America. This, coupled with awareness of the country’s exuberant biodiversity and notorious optimism, stemming from a successful social democratic political model, among many other converging cultural values, furthered the socialization, easy acceptance and popularization of "pura vida" in many colloquial situations.

Sometime in 1990, the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT according to the acronym in Spanish) launched a domestic and international advertising campaign to promote ecotourism using videos, posters and other means of publication, featuring beautiful scenes of everyday life in Costa Rica and the term “pura vida” as a slogan, officially positioning the phrase that had until then only been used locally.

Unlike the use in the Clavillazo movie, where only objects were “pura vida,” starting in the early 1990s, this term was coined in dictionaries of Costa Rican terms as an idiom with more than seven different uses: to greet someone, to say farewell, to thank someone, as well as to qualify or express admiration for a given situation, object or person.

According to Sánchez, "this phrase can now be found as intimately linked to Costa Rican language and culture. It is considered a group and community marker that knows no borders and stands for the particular way Costa Ricans see the world."