Jose Antonio Badilla Álvarez

1957 -

José Badilla Álvarez, a retired teacher who struggled to have a profession and follow his passion for
music. He feels satisfied with what he achieved during his work period.

Don Jose was born in Fernandez, Puntarenas. Since his childhood he lived in contexts of poverty
and scarcity, but always with the hope and desire to fight thanks to his parents. His mother was the
one who encouraged him to study, to look for work opportunities. Since he was a little boy, José
started going to the countryside to help with the cattle, to feed them and milk the cows. During his
school years he was very naughty, he believes that he did not get good grades because he did not
like to study.

When he started high school, he became aware of his taste for music, and began to have
girlfriends from the age of 16. When he finished high school, he could not choose to study at a
university, so he worked for many years in the countryside.

According to him, as he was a musician, he was a 'Pica flor' he was always with one woman and
with another. Thus, with his first wife he had 3 children when he lived on the border with Panama,
they were 3 boys.

During his adult years he tried to study many times, among them once he enrolled in the UNED,
but as he had a long time without studying, he felt pressured, and reading a lot was not to his
pleasure so he gave up. He completed his higher education in 1997, in the career of Basic
Education. Thanks to the principal where her son was studying since she insisted and pursued him
to take the opportunity to study and not quit. That's how he decided on this major. He
characterizes himself as a person with a fighting spirit. A co-worker offered him and pushed him to
continue studying so that he could get a group in a university degree. But he preferred to study at
UCART to become a music education teacher. He always studied with the famous ‘letra de cambio'
but always delayed in the payments and sometimes passed even four quarters without paying.
While he worked as an informal taxi driver during his free time to be able to pay for the university.

After that, At the age of 40 he married his second partner, and since then he has had 5 more
children. To his wife and children, he wanted and wants to show them that in life you must behave
as a person. you must always fight for what you want, and you must accept what is welcome, in
other words, be grateful.