José María Figueroa Oreamuno

José María Figueroa Oreamuno (Alajuela, December 17, 1820 – Cartago, August 18, 1900) was a Costa Rican writer, cartographer, explorer, merchant, genealogist, poet, caricaturist, ethnographer, and draftsman. The Figueroa Album – composed of a series of drawings, maps, family trees, photographs, caricatures, manuscripts – is considered an important document in the history of Costa Rica.

Biography Figueroa was born in Alajuela in 1820 to Ramona Estéfana Oreamuno Jiménez and Antonio Figueroa Oreamuno; the latter an émigrée merchant from Tenerife, who arrived in Costa Rica in 1806 and served as Political Chief of Cartago during the government of Braulio Carrillo Colina.

The National Archive also holds four other notebooks by the author, known as the Figueroa Notebooks, which are not part of the Album. These were discovered in 2007 in the personal library of President Rafael Yglesias. It is presumed that the author worked on them between 1870 and 1890. Based on their content, the notebooks have been titled as follows:

The Green Notebook, which contains poems, songs, and satirical verses about political events in the country, such as Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez's coup d'état in 1870, the border dispute with Colombia, and the opposition to liberal politicians and Freemasons. In this notebook, Figueroa satirizes and caricatures Tomás Guardia. It also contains a fictional story about the adventures of a character on the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica. The Red Notebook contains drawings, texts, poems, and satirical phrases directed at rulers, ministers, representatives, and political figures. In this notebook, Figueroa mocks political flattery, liberal politicians, and the double standards of the time. It also describes the Cartago of the author's childhood. The Animal Notebook contains sketches about animals, as well as texts describing building materials, ornaments, and decorative moldings. The Alphabet Notebook contains sketches and drawing exercises of human figures and animals, coats of arms of American countries, and drawings of letters made with human figures. A fifth notebook, the Violet Book, disappeared during the transfer of the notebooks to the National Archives.