This dissertation is a transnational history that examines the perception of Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica through their social, political and labor practices from independence to the mid-twentieth century. My dissertation examines the interplay between violence and nation-state formation and its impact on national identities. By analyzing the role of foreign relations, interregional politics and immigration in the construction of national identity, I argue that the deployment of violence by various actors influenced the perception of Nicaraguan immigrants as inherently violent at the turn of the twentieth century, a characterization that affects migration into the contemporary period. Importantly, I argue that Nicaraguans played a critical role in the formation of the modern Costa Rican state in the 1930s and 1940s through their involvement with the Costa Rican Communist Party and the civil war of 1948. I argue that violence, its symbolic and physical manifestations, were not absent in Costa Rica. Costa Rican violence manifested itself in different ways, through repression of labor struggles and opposition groups, the deportation of immigrants and exiles, and war making. Costa Rican violence expressed itself rhetorically against opponents it deemed threats, primarily communists and Nicaraguans, casting them as outsiders of the Costa Rican nation. Costa Ricans have historically defined themselves largely in contrast to Nicaraguans who they stereotyped as violent troublemakers. Finally, the "Nicaraguan" as a category of person was defined as hyper-violent other used to measure Costa Rica's peaceful character, despite Costa Rica's acts of violence. The construction of the violent Nicaraguan, thus, reified a peaceful Costa Rica and created a Nicaraguan Black Legend.
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