In Costa Rica, the adjective precario – meaning precarious or temporary – functions as a noun to denote a squatter community, encapsulating conditions of instability, poverty, and scarcity. Since the nineteenth century, eviction and squatting have shaped urban and rural landscapes across Latin America, and wherever informal housing has expanded, insecurity and poverty have followed.
In Precario Joe Lenti presents a narrative-driven collection of stories that trace the loss of land, forced departures, and the occupation of new spaces in Costa Rica from the sixteenth-century moment of contact to the present. Drawing on an expansive archive of secondary scholarship, media accounts, state records, and written and oral testimonies from precaristas, politicians, lawmakers, journalists, and housing activists, this first-of-its-kind English-language history offers a ground-level account of how ordinary Costa Ricans have sought to secure land and shelter out of necessity. Their efforts are situated within the country’s broader political, economic, social, and environmental histories, yet the book’s core contribution lies in its sustained attention to agency: the everyday decisions, collective actions, and strategies through which people sought to shape their own lives.
Challenging the persistent misconception that Costa Rica has somehow escaped dynamics of housing informality and scarcity, Precario foregrounds survival, settlement, and resistance as lived experiences that are central rather than peripheral to the nation’s history.
