By Leland Baxter-Neal
Tico Times Staff

As a part of the ongoing expansion of the private Clínica Bíblica Hospital in downtown San José, administrators dedicated a new building to two brothers hospital officials said saved the hospital from closure in 1968.

“Today, we are celebrating. We have a new building,” said Jorge Cortés, the hospital’s Medical Director, in his welcoming speech July 20.

Though the entire seven-story, 18,000-square-meter building is not yet finished, some floors have been opened and integrated into the hospital’s functions. According to Susana Guzmán, spokeswoman for the hospital, the $25 million building is being opened in phases, which should conclude next year. The fourth and fifth floors have already been opened, and consist of state-of-the-art hospital rooms.

“You could say that it is an intelligent building, built with the highest standards of quality, to international standards,” Guzmán said, adding that when the building is completed, it will add 95 patient rooms to the Clínica Bíblica’s capacity.

“The new building represents Clínica Bíblica’s leadership as a institution of health, not only in Costa Rica, but in the Central American and Latin American region,” Cortés told The Tico Times. “It is the most modern, the most secure, and the most technologically advanced.”

The doctor added that Clínica Bíblica is currently in the process of applying for certification from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, which he said certifies 80% of the hospitals in the United States. Costa Rica is the second country in Latin America to enter the process behind Brazil, Cortés said.

“This guarantees quality and security for our patients, and is a guarantee that we comply with international quality standards,” he said.

The new building was officially named the Cabezas López Building, after the Cabezas López brothers who stepped up to take over the hospital when the original founding organization was planning to close it in 1968.

Founded in 1929 by Christian missionaries Henry and Susan Strachner, a Scottish-Irish couple, the hospital was slated to close when the missionaries decided to move on to more needy countries in 1968.

Enríque Cabezas, 82, a U.S.-educated Costa Rican engineer and architect, approached the missionaries with a group of investors and asked for permission to form an association to continue the administration of the hospital. With the mission’s permission, they founded the Association of Costa Rican Medical Services (ASEMECO) – which owns of the hospital – and Enrique served as the president of the association’s board of directors. He also designed most of the hospital’s buildings.

His brother, Dr. Arturo Cabezas, 84, who studied medicine at various universities in the United States before returning to Costa Rica in 1956, began working at Clínica Bíblica in 1957 and took over as the hospital’s medical director in 1968.

“If it weren’t for them, the Clínica Bíblica would not have been available for the thousands of people who have needed it,” said Dr. Roberto Rodríguez, a member of the ASEMECO board of directors.

“Of course it is an honor,” Enrique Cabezas told The Tico Times following the dedication. “But like I have been told, these kind of honors should be for the deceased, so what can I say to that? It is an honor, nothing more, and I am very thankful.”

The three-day weekend stimulated hundreds of pilgrims to start their walk to Cartago a little earlier this year.

A steady stream of walkers was arriving at the Basilica de los Ángeles Sunday under partly cloudy skies, 90 percent humidity and temperatures that reached 32.5 Celsius or about 90.5 Fahrenheit.

Wednesday is the feast day of the Virgen de los Ángeles, the patroness of the country, and a legal holiday. Nearly two million persons are expected to have paid their respects by then. So some walkers expressed the desire to avoid the crowds by making their pilgrimage Sunday.

The annual religious event already has been marred with one death. A walker, Cristian Rodríguez Alvarez, 27, died when he was hit by a vehicle in Curridabat Sunday morning. The driver fled. A companion of the victim was hospitalized.

Police and emergency personnel were out in force. Not everyone was traveling by foot, and neither are the police. In addition to motor vehicles, there are police along the routes on bicycles, horses and motorcycles. Some pilgrims or romeros, as they are called in Spanish, were on horseback Sunday, too.

Although other roads lead to Cartago from the east and south, the principal route for walkers is the Autopista Florencio del Castillo between that city and San José.

The Fuerza Pública is being joined by the Policía de Tránsito, the Comisión Nacional de Emergencias, the Cruz Roja Costarricense and the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia, the child welfare agency.

The Cruz Roja has three aid stations set up along the autopista. The major complaints are blisters and cramps. More than 100 had been treated by Sunday night.

Also involved in providing security for the romeros are the Ministerio de Salud, the Instituto Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad , the Policía Municipal, Seguridad Presidencial, la Municipalidad de Cartago, Hospital Max Peralta, the Cuerpo de Bomberos, the Junta Administrativa de Servicios Eléctricos and the Comisión del Santuario de Cartago.

Security will be cranked up Wednesday when national officials, including President Óscar Arias Sánchez, show up for a 9:30 a.m. Catholic Mass at the basilica. By that time, the plaza in front of the church will be filled with hundreds of thousands of the faithful. The event will be televised.

The statute of the Virgin itself has new security. Three bungling crooks tried to hijack the statue, known lovingly as La Negrita. So basilica officials had what amounts to a small safe constructed. The small statue still is above the main altar of the basilica, but the heavy steel in which it is now contained can be closed to secure the statue of the Virgin during off hours.

Wednesday the Virgin will be taken down from the lofty perch and carried through the faithful.

Many Catholics here consider the Black Virgin, La Negrita, to be the Costa Rican manifestation of the Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe. A youngster in 1635 found the dark stone statue said to be of the Virgin Mary. The statue mysteriously kept returning by  unknown means to the site where the basilica stands now in Cartago some 23 kms. (about 14 miles) east of San José, according to legend.

The actions of the statue were interpreted by church leaders as a desire of the Virgin Mary to have a church built on the Cartago site, and one was.

There also is a spring just south of the church where the faithful descend to obtain bottles of the water. The statue was found close to the spring.

Both the police and the weather bureau have suggestions for the romeros. The Mininsterio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública suggested that walkers bring nothing of value, including cell phones, to tempt thieves. The pilgrimage also attracts the less religious.

Nevertheless, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad said it was beefing up the cell stations in  Curridabat, Tres Ríos, Ochomogo and Cartago in anticipation of a lot of cell phone use. The telecommunications giant said it moved in mobile switching stations.

The Instituto Meteorológical Nacional said that the best time to walk is in the mornings because afternoon thunderstorms are likely this time of year.

The weather bureau issued a special report for the romería Friday in which it said temperatures can dip to 16 degrees Celsius or 61 degrees Fahrenheit overnight in Cartago at the basilica grounds where many persons camp out. That’s cold for Costa Ricans.

The instituto also warned of sunburn danger, heat stroke and lightning. The rains swept in Sunday around 2 p.m. and continued off and on through the night. Sunday was better for pilgrims than Saturday that had heavy rain all day.

The institute said that low pressure areas exist on both sides of the country and that moisture is pouring in from the Pacific. The afternoon and evening showers are likely in all parts of the country.

There is probably no phenomenon like the annual pilgrimage in Costa Rica. There is no real organization. It just happens. Some persons walk from Panamá or Nicaragua, Each either is fulfilling a promise made to the Virgin or has a request. One man, a fireman, was walking to Cartago Sunday in full, heavy gear, including helmet. He said he was completing a promise he had made. Others were disabled and in wheelchairs or on crutches.

For some, the romería is an outing. Young men and women holding hands can be seen in the mass of people.

To be invited by a young man to join him on the romería is equivalent to being a prom date elsewhere, a prom with spiritual overtones.

Today is the relocated anniversary of the Annexation of the Partido de Nicoya, the time in 1824 when residents of Guanacaste decided to join with Costa Rica. The ceremony marking the event took place Tuesday, the actual date, July 25. The three-day weekend is a creation of a new law.

With Wednesday being a national holiday, too, thanks to the Virgin, not much official activity will take place Tuesday. In fact, Tuesday will be the day that pilgrims change from a stream to a flood headed to Cartago to be there in time for the Wednesday morning ceremonies.

The board of directors of Radiográfica Costarricense S.A., the government Internet company, has authorized a cut in rates and an increase in the speed of connection, the company said.

The company did not specify the rate cuts, but the cable modem rate for 256 download and 64 kilobits per second upload that is now $25 a month is expected to fall to $17. There will be similar cuts in higher speeds. The company is expected to outline the full rate structure this week as well as new options.

The company known as RACSA is in competition now with its parent, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, which is supplying high-speed Internet via the company’s telephone lines. The RACSA cable modem rate is only half the monthly cost. Private cable companies also charge a rate that also includes cable television services.

Some organic food producers fear the free trade treaty with the United States and consider it the kiss of death for their business.

They made themselves visible Sunday at the Feria Agroecológica at the Museo Nacional.

The event was billed as a time to share information on organic farming methods and to sell organic produce. But some shirts carried buttons seeking a no vote on the free trade treaty. In fact, the buttons were for sale there at a small stand that also featured buttons carrying the face of Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the architect of Fidel Castor’s victory in Cuba.

Although larger agricultural producers lust after the free trade treaty, some of the smaller operators working Sunday said that the treaty would put them out of business. They fear a flood of produce from the north.

The fears may not be misplaced. U.S. pork producers said Costa Rican marketers have told them that more money can be made here simply by reselling U.S. pork. The efficient U.S. techniques produce a product that is even cheaper when transportation is considered.

There were no pork producers at the fair Sunday, but nearly all products of small-scale agriculture were represented, including some, like the fruit jocotes, typical of Costa Rica. There also were displays of seed specimens from dozens of tropical plants.

Everything there from the products to the tourists was organic, but the word has come to mean products raised without chemical fertilizers and insecticides.

One small booth offered information on an insecticide made from citrus rinds.

The event was organized by the Movimiento de Agricultura Orgánica with the support of the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica and other agencies.

The organic organizers also are concerned with transgenic products, that is products that have been subjected to genes inserted artificially. For example, a corn variety has been developed that produces its own insecticide via a gene from a bacterium. A video outlined in Spanish a mock trial at a Brazilian university where the defendant was transgenic plants.

Opponents fear polluting the gene pool of certain crops and effects on humans when the transgenic food is eaten.

Some of the producers need not worry about the free trade agreement. The United States is not a big producer of ayote or star fruit or bananas.

One free trade opponent agreed that the key to success under the treaty is marketing, something she did not feel small producers could accomplish.

Those who missed the annual organic fair have a chance to visit a similar event every Saturday from 6 a.m. to noon in Barrio Carmen, Paso Ancho. The Centro Ferial el Trueque features organically grown products there. The location is two blocks north of the Circumvalacion’s Paso Ancho traffic circle and one block north of the Catholic church there.