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Introducing San José
For much of the 20th century, San José was predominantly an agricultural city. However, following the post-war baby boom, increasing urban migration completely transformed the capital in a few decades. Between the 1950s and 1980s, the city’s population increased exponentially, and explosive growth, abysmal architectural preservation and unregulated development transformed the elegant capital into a sprawling and unsightly metropolis.
Today, Chepe, as it’s called by Ticos, is the most cosmopolitan capital in Central America. The city is packed with office towers, shopping malls and fast-food restaurants, though booming capitalism has left a large portion of the city’s residents disenfranchised. With each passing year, the outlying tugurios (slums) become more desperate and increasingly more violent, and the city is struggling to manage the growing crime rate that is atypical of the pura vida spirit.
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