Three Days Apart: How Costa Rica and Chile Remember Independence
Costa Rica and Chile celebrate independence three days apart, but the dates remember two very different political histories, a contrast that becomes even more complex when Chile extends west to Rapa Nui.
Passed before the September 15 declaration signed in Guatemala reached Costa Rica on October 13, 1821.
Separate Chile's First Government Junta in 1810 from its formal independence proclamation in 1818.
Separate Rapa Nui from continental Chile, placing a Polynesian homeland within Chile's national borders.
Three Days in September
In short: Costa Rica's September 15 commemorates a Central American declaration signed in Guatemala in 1821. Chile's September 18 marks the First Government Junta of 1810, the beginning of an independence process completed years later.
At six in the evening on September 14, children across Costa Rica step into the dark carrying handmade lanterns. Three nights later, Chile celebrates el Dieciocho with fondas, cueca and tables crowded with food.
Only three days separate the celebrations. Their histories are far less alike: Costa Rica remembers a declaration whose news took nearly a month to arrive, while Chile celebrates the start of a political transformation rather than the date of formal independence.
Latin America may be one region on a map. It has never been one story.
The national anthem and evening faroles.
The 1821 Central American declaration is commemorated.
The First Government Junta of 1810 is commemorated.
The News That Took 28 Days to Arrive
On September 15, 1821, political leaders in Guatemala City signed the Act of Independence of Central America. Today, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua all commemorate that date. Costa Rica did not receive the news until October 13, 28 days after the declaration was signed.
The delay mattered. Communities still had to decide what independence meant and what political arrangement should follow. On October 29, representatives meeting in Cartago signed a local act declaring independence from the Spanish government, creating a lasting distinction between the regional declaration Costa Rica celebrates and the local decision that followed.
Modern Costa Rica turned that slow-moving news into ritual. Each September, the Independence Torch travels south through Central America, and on September 14 children carry faroles through towns and schoolyards.
News that once took 28 days to arrive is now carried hand to hand as light.
Chile Celebrates the Beginning, Not the End
Chile's September 18 celebration does not mark formal independence. It commemorates the First Government Junta, formed in Santiago in 1810 while Napoleon's invasion had thrown Spain into crisis and King Ferdinand VII remained captive.
The break was not yet complete. The junta still professed loyalty to the Spanish king, and Chile then entered years of political fracture, royalist reconquest, and war. Bernardo O'Higgins proclaimed independence on February 12, 1818.
Yet September 18 became the country's great national celebration because public memory often settles on the moment a different future first became possible, not the day the process formally ended.
Today's Fiestas Patrias fill the country with fondas, ramadas, cueca, empanadas, and anticuchos. September 19 adds the Day of the Glories of the Army and the national military parade.
What “Latin America” Conceals
“Latin America” is useful because it names real connections: histories of Iberian colonization, Indigenous survival, African diaspora, republican independence, migration and exchange. But it is a historical and cultural framework, not a single geography.
Costa Rica's place on the Central American isthmus tied it to the former Captaincy General of Guatemala and shaped the route by which the 1821 declaration traveled south. Continental Chile developed along another axis entirely, on the Pacific edge of South America between the Andes and the ocean.
The distinction matters because shared regional history becomes more legible, not less, when those different geographic worlds remain visible.
Its September 15 history belongs to the political geography of Central America and the former Captaincy General of Guatemala.
Its independence process unfolded within an Andean-Pacific world shaped by the mountains, the ocean and the continent’s western edge.
A Polynesian homeland within the borders of a South American state, complicating any simple continental account of Chile.
But Chile Doesn't End in South America
Look at a conventional map of Chile and the eye follows the country south: Atacama, Santiago, Patagonia, Cape Horn. Then move approximately 3,700 kilometers west into the Pacific.
There is Rapa Nui.
Rapa Nui, often called Easter Island, is politically part of Chile but geographically and culturally Polynesian. Its first settlers crossed the Pacific from Eastern Polynesia, and their descendants developed a distinct society, language and monumental tradition expressed in the island's ahu and moai.
In 1888, the Agreement of Wills established a political relationship between Rapa Nui and Chile whose meaning and implementation remain contested.
Geography places Rapa Nui in Polynesia. Political history placed it within Chile.
Before There Were Republics
Independence is only one layer of these places. The National Museum of Costa Rica traces human presence in the territory back more than 12,000 years; around San Pedro de Atacama, archaeological sites reach back more than two millennia within a living Lickanantay world; and on Rapa Nui, Polynesian language, families and cultural memory remain alive. Independence created modern states. It did not create the peoples, languages, or relationships to land those states came to contain.
What a Border Cannot Tell You
Three days separate Costa Rica's and Chile's national celebrations. Behind them lie two different paths to independence, two geographic regions and, within Chile's borders, a Polynesian homeland far out in the Pacific.
“Latin America” connects these histories, but national borders and regional labels cannot explain every people, language, or cultural world they contain.
The better question is what worlds a map leaves out.
Costa Rica and Chile Independence Days
When is Costa Rica's Independence Day?+
Why does Costa Rica celebrate September 15 if news of independence arrived in October?+
When is Chile's Independence Day?+
Is Costa Rica in Central America or South America?+
Is Easter Island part of Chile?+
Is September fall in Costa Rica and Chile?+
Albert Ghitis
Digital Marketing · Nayara Resorts
Albert Ghitis leads digital marketing at Nayara Resorts, overseeing editorial and newsletter strategy, search and AI discovery, and paid digital media. He is also the host of Nayara Horizons: Beyond Travel, a podcast exploring the people, places and ideas shaping travel today.
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Discover the distinct landscapes, histories and living cultures within the countries Nayara calls home.
- Museo Nacional de Costa Rica: Grandes Aniversarios
- Costa Rica Ministry of Education: Independence Torch
- Costa Rica Ministry of Education: Lantern Parade
- Museo Nacional de Costa Rica: Historia Profunda
- Biblioteca Nacional de Chile: First Government Junta
- Biblioteca Nacional de Chile: Revolution and War of Independence
- Archivo Nacional de Chile: Fiestas Patrias Tradition
- Chile Travel: Fiestas Patrias Culture and Food
- Chile Travel: Lickanantay Experiences in San Pedro de Atacama
- Chile National Cultural Heritage Service: The 1888 Agreement of Wills
- UNESCO: Rapa Nui National Park
- National Geographic Society: North America and Central America
- IWGIA: The Indigenous World 2025, Rapa Nui
