By Karen Juanita Carrillo

Among Afro-Latino activists in the Americas, the announcement that Epsy Campbell Barr, the long time Costa Rican politician, grassroots organizer and economist, has begun a campaign for the presidency of Costa Rica is not a surprise. 

The international press is heralding Campbell as a candidate in the vein of U.S. President Barack Obama – a politician of African descent who has more local organizing experience than knowledge of international politics. 

But most of the international press is surprisingly unaware that she has spent years travelling throughout the world and working with grassroots organizers both in her own country and abroad.

The 45 year old Epsy Campbell is the grandchild of Jamaican migrants, part of a wave of workers who came to Costa Rica in the 1900s looking for work on the railroads and on local banana plantations near Limón, Costa Rica.  Afro Costa Ricans share a mix of Jamaican and native Amerindian heritages; they form less than five percent of the population.

 Costa Rican presidential hopeful Epsy Campbell 

While racism has been crushing for the majority of Afro Costa Ricans, Campbell has been able to make a name for herself working with social activist groups on projects that fight for Afro Costa Rican and women’s rights.  She only became a politician after her Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC/Citizen Action Party) – which is a network of community activist groups – came together to form a party in the year 2000.

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