About Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia
Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia (8 March 1900 – 9 June 1970) was a Costa Rican physician and politician who served as the 29th President of Costa Rica from 1940 to 1944. The founder of Calderonism, he had previously represented San José in the Constitutional Congress from 1934 to 1940. == Early life == Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia was born on 8 March 1900 in San José. In his youth, Calderón Guardia studied in Costa Rica, France and Belgium, where he married Yvonne Clays Spoelders, who was later to be the first female diplomat of Costa Rica. After finishing his studies in Belgium, Calderón Guardia became a medical doctor and practicing surgeon, which he would remain for most of his life, even after serving as president. He became the Municipal President of San José at the age of 30 and in 1934 he won a seat in congress as a member of the National Republican Party before being backed as a presidential candidate by then President León Cortés Castro in 1940. == Presidency == In 1940, with the support of conservative coffee elites, Calderón was elected President of Costa Rica. Shortly after becoming president-elect, he met with American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor on March 25 and 26 of that year in Washington, D.C. Prior to Calderón, Costa Rican Presidents, while democratically elected, had largely supported the interests of the conservative coffee oligarchy. Calderón soon turned his back on the conservative coffee elite to address widespread poverty and poor health conditions among the working poor. He became the first Central American president to primarily focus his attention on poverty and deteriorating social conditions.
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