Source: National Archives & Historic Records of Costa Rica
Politics • Historical Archive • 🇨🇷 Costa Rica • 0 views

Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia 🇨🇷

Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia (Known as "El Doctor Calderón")
President of Costa Rica (1940–1944), Physician, Social Reformer
Born 1900-03-10 🇨🇷 San José, Costa Rica
Passed Away 1970-06-09 San José, Costa Rica
Lifespan 70 years old
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"Social justice is not a luxury of prosperous nations, but the sacred right of every working human being."

Archival Overview

Transformative President and physician who enacted Costa Rica's Social Guarantees, established the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), and re-established the University of Costa Rica.

Biographical Record

Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia was born in San José on March 10, 1900. After medical studies in Belgium at the universities of Louvain and Brussels where he absorbed Christian social doctrine, Calderón returned to Costa Rica as a surgeon at Hospital San Juan de Dios.

Elected President in 1940, he forged an alliance with Catholic Archbishop Víctor Manuel Sanabria and communist leader Manuel Mora to enact historic reforms: the founding of the University of Costa Rica (1940), the Social Security Institute (CCSS, 1941), the Labor Code (1943), and the constitutional chapter on Social Guarantees, laying the bedrock of modern Costa Rican social welfare.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
General Cemetery of San José (Cementerio General)
San José, Costa Rica
GPS: 9.9320, -84.0880
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