Trabajo
{{Infobox newspaper
| name = Trabajo
| logo = Trabajo, weekly organ of the Communist Party of Costa Rica, in 1934.png
| image =
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| type = Monthly (1931–1932), weekly (1933–1947)
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| owners =
| founder =
| publisher = Communist Party of Costa Rica
| editor = Aureliano Gómez
| president =
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| maneditor =
| newseditor =
| managingeditordesign =
| campuseditor =
| campuschief =
| opeditor =
| sportseditor =
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| foundation = {{start date|1931|07|14}}
| political =
| language = Spanish
| ceased publication = 1947
| relaunched =
| headquarters = San José
| circulation = 7,500 (1946)
| sister newspapers = Revolución, Combate
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| free =
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}}
Trabajo ('Work') was a weekly newspaper published from San José, Costa Rica, from 1931 to 1947. It was the organ of the Communist Party of Costa Rica.Cerdas Cruz, Rodolfo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=U10D4e7PI80C&pg=PA416 La hoz y el machete: la internacional comunista, América Latina y la revolución en Centro América]. San José, Costa Rica: Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia, 1986. p. 416Oliva Medina, Mario, and Rodrigo Quesada Monge. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Yhl9oxZ5moQC&pg=PA8 Cien años de poesía popular en Costa Rica (1850–1950)]. San José, Costa Rica: Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia, 2007. pp. 6–8 Trabajo provided ample coverage of trade union activism.Miller, Eugene D. [https://books.google.com/books?id=CQW9T9wrqMUC&pg=PA A Holy Alliance?: The Church and the Left in Costa Rica, 1932 - 1948]. Armonk, NY [u.a.]: Sharpe, 1996. pp. 9–10 Moreover, the newspaper frequently reproduced proletarian poetry.
Initial period
The first issue of Trabajo was published on July 14, 1931. Unlike its predecessor, Revolución (the organ of ARCO), Trabajo was an explicitly communist publication.Cerdas Cruz, Rodolfo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=U10D4e7PI80C&pg=PA326 La hoz y el machete: la internacional comunista, América Latina y la revolución en Centro América]. San José, Costa Rica: Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia, 1986. p. 326 During its initial phase Trabajo was sold at ten centavos, but was not distributed through newsstands. Trabajo relied on distribution within the labour movement. It had a circulation of about 1,000. Publishing was somewhat irregular in its first years; it was published on monthly basis until October 1932, and from January 7, 1933, it became a weekly.Molina Jiménez, Iván. [http://amnis.revues.org/736 Los primeros años de Trabajo, el periódico del Partido Comunista de Costa Rica (1931–1935)], in Amnis, 4, 2004
Weekly
At the time that Trabajo became a weekly, the distribution became more widespread. According to a report from the U.S. embassy, the street-based distribution network in San José was managed by Carmen Lyra. The newspaper did, however, not have a developed subscription system in the capital or surrounding rural areas. By 1934 it reached a circulation of 4,000.
Trabajo was distributed in neighbouring countries, where the communist movements were suppressed and unable to issue legal organs of their own. The newspaper claimed to have subscribers and readers in Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Honduras, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, El Salvador and Argentina.
Betancourt
Rómulo Betancourt, a Venezuelan student, was a prominent contributor to Trabajo.Molina Jiménez, Iván. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mYnTqKKoaDwC&pg=PA106 Ricardo Jiménez]. San José, C.R.: EUNED, 2009. p. 106 When he went into semi-clandestinity in 1933, he was put in charge to manage Trabajo and authored most of its editorials.Angulo Rivas, Alfredo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mtwOAAAAYAAJ Adios a la utopia]. Caracas: Univ. de los Andes, Alfadil Ed, 1993.p. 26Betancourt, Rómulo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=aTRBbx7iom4C&pg=PR27 Venezuela, Oil and Politics]. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979. p. 27 By 1934 Betancourt was appointed director of the newspaper, as part of his duties as a Central Committee member of the party.Arráiz Lucca, Rafael, and Hermán Sifontes Tovar. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7A6AQAAIAAJ Rómulo Betancourt: crónica visual]. Caracas: Fundación para la Cultura Urbana, 2009. p. 17Romero, María Teresa. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jTJsAAAAMAAJ Rómulo Betancourt: (1908–1981)]. [Caracas, Venezuela]: Editora El Nacional, 2005. p. 40Luque, Guillermo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=xf0QAAAAYAAJ Educación, estado y nación: una historia política de la educación oficial venezolana, 1928–1958]. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, Consejo de Desarrollo Científico y Humanístico, 1999. p. 70 Betancourt would become the president of Venezuela in 1945.Henderson, James D., Helen Delpar, Maurice Philip Brungardt, and Richard N. Weldon. [https://books.google.com/books?id=e2F7c0wW7g4C&pg=PA438 A Reference Guide to Latin American History]. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1999. p. 438 As of 1935 the editor of Trabajo was Aureliano Gómez.Molina Jiménez, Iván. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mYnTqKKoaDwC&pg=PA118 Ricardo Jiménez]. San José, C.R.: EUNED, 2009. p. 118
Popular Front line
In the aftermath of the 1936 election, in which the communists lost their parliamentary representation and the pro-fascist León Cortés Castro emerged victorious, the political discourse of Trabajo shifted. The rhetoric of denouncing 'bourgeois democracy' and the 'landlord-bourgeois government' was discontinued. Rather the newspaper adhered to the popular front line, supporting defense of democratic advances. Trabajo carried poetry dealing with the Spanish Civil War.Ríos Esparíz, Angel María. [https://books.google.com/books?id=exFrAAAAMAAJ Costa Rica y la Guerra Civil española]. San José, Costa Rica: Ed. Porvenir, 1997. p. 107
On June 14, 1941, a special issue of Trabajo was issued in 10,000 copies, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Communist Party.
Later period
By 1946, Trabajo had a circulation of 7,500, which made it one of the most widely read newspapers in the country. Publication of Trabajo had ended by the time of the outbreak of 1948 Civil War.Acuña Ortega, Víctor H., and Iván Molina Jiménez. [https://books.google.com/books?id=x2qxAAAAIAAJ Historia económica y social de Costa Rica, 1750–1950]. San José, Costa Rica: Editorial Porvenir, 1991. p. 185 Whilst the Costa Rican communist were unable to maintain publication of Trabajo, the communist-controlled trade union organ Combate (1943–1953) continued to appear.Molina Jiménez, Iván. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ICEoAQAAIAAJ Los pasados de la memoria: el origen de la reforma social en Costa Rica (1938–1943)]. Heredia, Costa Rica: EUNA, 2008. p. 57 Later the Popular Vanguard Party founded Adelante as a successor to Trabajo.Proyecto Estado de la Nación. [https://books.google.com/books?id=yzQPAAAAYAAJ Auditoria ciudadana sobre la calidad de la democracia, vol. 1]. Pavas, Costa Rica: Proyecto Estado de la Nación, 2001. p. 126