Tosatti’s World
The story of San José ft. Sibu
San José is the place I was born in. This means a lot in terms in how I create the person I am now. I created my life for myself with the city of San José. — Alejandro Tosatti
As you walked past all these beautiful buildings filled with history, it was hard to ignore the number of beggars and bums that lined the same streets as most prestigious monuments and buildings. Tosatti tells you about how drugs became popular in the 80s and the idea of being homeless came about. To this day, many people still remain on the streets. The people of San José do not care for them, so there is no process for helping them get off the street. Alejandro does not mind the beggars, and even occasionally gives them some pocket change.
Tosatti has introduced us to his world. The world that made him, him. He makes it clear to me that he is not a tour guide, but a story-teller for the city. It is evident how much he cares for the city when he refers to it as “we”. The city of San José and Alejandro Tosatti mold into one as the stories upfold.
Tosatti was was born and spent the majority of his life within the city of San José. A straw panama hat tops his ponytail of pepper-black hair that strings down his back. The brown spots on the back of his hand match his brown eyes. His hooked nose somehow matches his wiry frame. He tells me about his family. Tosatti is a first generation Italian Costa Rican. His family left Italy after WWI. Tosatti has been married to Sila for seven years now. He gained two kids from Sila’s previous marriage, Inta and Noah who are eleven and fourteen. Tosatti also has his own son, Theo, who is five years old.
He attended the French primary school in the heart of the city. After a long career abroad in theatrics and performing Tosatti returned to San José to work for the Ministerio Cultura y Juventud. During his time with the Ministerio, he created many different routes for tour guides to take. Tosatti was perfect for this job because San José is more than just a city to him.
San José is his world.
We turn the corner. A beautiful, antique building appears. This is the Teatro Nacional. Tosatti tells me how the National Theatre gave him a jumpstart in his performance career. He explains that it was not the first theatre he performed in, but it was the theatre that gave him the most confidence and publicity. This theatre was constructed in 1891 in the center of the city. After years of construction, it opened to the public in 1897 with the performance of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust. Now, the theatre serves as a tourist attraction, and also holds a few performances a week from Costa Ricans to foreign composers.
Without the exportation of coffee, the theatre would have never been built. Coffee provided money for just about everything. When it was first discovered that Costa Rica had the prime conditions for growing coffee, the business boomed. The government offered land to anyone willing to grow and harvest this new crop. By the time a few harvests came around, coffee had surpassed the two leading exports(tobacco and sugar) by a mudslide. Coffee brought wealth and wealth brought power. Coffee jumpstarted the city just like the city jumpstarted Tosatti.
Alejandro tells us that now tourism revenue has taken over, and changed many things about San José. Tourism brings in money, and you know money is something for which everyone yearns. Tourism also brings in the multinational corporations: McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, KFC, Popeye’s, and more franchises that surround The National Theatre. You try to soak in this historical sight, but the Golden Arches linger. You try to take a photo of the theatre, but the Levi’s “Made in America” sign infiltrates your frame. You take a step back and grow melancholy. You may even take another step back and end up with a McDouble in hand.
After a few hours touring the city, you load onto a bus for home, but the bus comes to halt at one last stop. You rise from your seats for one last story from Alejandro. He tells the story of how Sibu created the Earth. In a literal nutshell, Sibu wants trees, bat poop creates trees, and the baby tigers blood makes the bat poop. Sibu throws a party to lure the mama tiger away from the baby. When the mama tiger finds out her baby is gone, she goes on a tirade to find her. “WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER?” “WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER?” Before long we were all mothers to a whole island of lost girls and boys.
At a party, there’s a baby tiger, for which the mama tiger reaches. But before her paw reaches the adorable cub, the baby tiger disintegrates. Mama tiger freaks out and curses pretty much everyone who ever makes her mad.(click here for a more indepth story). By now, Tosatti has embodied Noah’s ark and all of living creation, while you wonder what in the heck he is talking about. Imagine Tosatti’s stress, had Theo been born a girl.
By now you're in your bed at the Hotel Don Carlos, and morning time seemed so long ago. You think of the story of Sibu and the stories of San José. You hope you never piss the tiger off, because then you are dead. You think of how a city can do so much for one man, and wonder what your own city has done for you.
