His name is Jonathan Elizondo Orozco (also known as Jonás in town), he is Costa Rican and has lived in Santa Teresa for more than half his life. He is a lawyer, writer, has a PhD in Philosophy and for many years he worked for the Supreme Court of Justice. He also writes the “Alive and Kicking” section of this magazine, in which he reviews books by active Costa Rican writers.
When he worked at the Court, he was assigned to Los Chiles, the worst canton to live in in Costa Rica according to indexes of human development, inequality, poverty, etc. and during his experience in this place in the north of Costa Rica, so exuberant in nature but with a contrasting social reality, he was inspired to write his first novel “El Gaspar” in which he deals with various topics such as migration and sexist violence, all with shades of social criticism while narrated with a very elaborate literary style.
Jonathan Elizondo Orozco self-published “El Gaspar” a year ago and in 2024 he has released its versions in English and Portuguese, with which he will participate in the International Book Festival held from August 29th to September 1st at the National Stadium, in San José. The stand where it will be located is D10 and he will also participate in two activities.
The first of the activities, “The B side of Costa Rica” will take place on Thursday, August 29th at 5pm in the Sibú room and will consist of the screening of the documentary “Bachero” directed by Roberto de la Ossa and co-produced by Jonathan Elizondo Orozco. After the screening, Roberto and Jonathan will be commenting on the motivations for filming the documentary and its relationship with the novel “El Gaspar.” You can learn more about “Bachero” and Roberto de la Ossa in the interview that he gave to Santa Teresa Hoy last year.
The next activity will take place on Sunday, September 1st at 11am in the same Sibú room and on this occasion Jonathan will delve deeper into the context of “El Gaspar”.
Without a doubt, it is an important event for the country's literature and for the district of Cóbano, which has great artists in different disciplines and it is always good news to know that they participate in great international events such as the International Book Festival.
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