by Rod Hughes
Actor/director Mel Gibson met informally yesterday for an hour with President Oscar Arias at the president’s home in Rohrmoser. But the chat was more than a casual social visit.
Gibson offered personal economic aid to indiginous people in isolated areas of Costa Rica. Needs for this cash-starved segment of Costa Ricans are many, such as housing, rural schools and piped, potable water. Most live in remote, mountainous areas where they cultivate traditional crops for their own consumption, using techniques that differ little from their pre-Columbian ancestors.
The Gibson visit did not produce any immediate concrete public commitment but the actor was very frank in stating his intentions. He also said he was looking for an opportunity to use Costa Rica as the location of a movie.
The most recent Gibson-directed movie was shot in southern Mexico. (He speaks rudamentary Spanish but his conversations with Arias were in English, a language the president speaks well.) The movie’s scenario revolved around indiginous American themes, sparking his interest in the subject.
Meanwhile, the government’s housing plan continues to expand into these remote sectors. Saturday, 300 indiginous persons on the Ujarras Indigious Reserve at Buenos Aires, Puntarenas province, exchanged their ramshackle huts, made of odds and ends of wood, for 69 brand new homes under the National Indiginous Housing Program, thanks to Family Housing Bonds.