The traditional oxcart is a product of Costa Rica's most famous craft. In the early days, the Spanish colonizers brought European-style oxcarts to Costa Rica in order to use them for transportation and farming. Their original designs, however, kept running into the muddy terrain. To counter this, in the mid-19th century, a novel design based on the indigenous Aztec disc was incorporated into a solid wood wheel connected to a metal ring capable of cutting through mud without getting stuck. These oxcarts, dating from about 1840, transported coffee beans, sugar cane, corn, and other goods from the Central Valley of Costa Rica to the Pacific Coast port of Puntarenas or the Caribbean port of Limon for export. During their journey, the oxcarts would cross jungle-covered mountains, rivers, swamps, and beaches in about ten to twenty days. Now, the same distance can be driven in about an hour to the Pacific, and in about two hours to the Caribbean.
In the earliest days of the oxcarts in Costa Rica, they were simple and functional plain wood. However, in the early twentieth century, a tradition of decorating and painting oxcarts was started. It began at the Joaquin Chaverri Oxcart Factory, which was founded in Sarchi in 1902. According to the story passed down to us in the family, Joaquin decided to decorate his oxcart to take his family on Sunday outings in the cart. Because of the lack of color options available to him, he painted his first oxcart bright orange, according to his family. Traditionally, orange and red are the most popular colors for cart painting. The designs and colors used in the decorations are based on Costa Rican plants and flowers.
The painted patterns on the wheels of each region, which enabled the origin of drivers to be determined by the patterns, became increasingly creative in time. By the turn of the twentieth century, flowers, faces, and miniature landscapes were added beside the pointed stars. Contests are held to reward the most creative artists in this tradition. Whenever an oxcart is bumped along, it produces the unique 'song', a distinct sound produced when a metal ring strikes the hub nut of the wheel. As the pride of individual ownership grew, increased care was taken in construction, and the highest-quality wood was chosen for the finest sounds. Compared to the original rough-hewn, rectangular, cane-framed, rawhide-covered carts, today's colorful and richly decorated vehicles bear hardly any resemblance to them.
During the last decade, trucks and trains have replaced oxcarts as Costa Rica's primary means of transport. However, oxcarts remain a symbol of Costa Rica's rural past and are still prominent in parades and religious and secular celebrations. This is because oxcarts have become obsolete as a means of transport. The demand for them has decreased, resulting in a declining number of artisans who are trained to manufacture and decorate oxcarts.
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