## Introduction  
It could have been a morning like any other. Though the discussions on climate change have taught us that the climate is not always the same, one could have imagined that it was like any other typical sunny morning in July in the old city of Cartago, right in the heart of the Americas. Even so, the day was not like any other, this would be a very special day, this would be the day of his baptism. Anton arrived at the parish of Nuestra Señora del Carmen accompanied by his godparents, Father Balthazar de Grado and Juan de Cárdenas, on 20 July 1599. Anton was the first African registered in Costa Rica that had his name recorded, although he most certainly was not the first to be baptized.  
Perhaps Anton was aware that through this act he was entering a new congregation of souls; he could have already known the Catholic rituals from his native land of Congo, whose capital in those days had several Catholic chapels. Perhaps he was not aware, and went reluctantly to a church embedded in a society that was being settled amid blood, sweat and tears. Anton was not alone. In 1599, the cusp of a new century, there were other Africans baptized in the same parish. The scene was the same, including for orphans; the Africans arrived with their godparents. This was the case of Francisca, who arrived with Andrés and Ana, both Afro-mestizos. We see this couple acting, again and  
again, as godparents to these children of God. There were cases like that of Madalena, possibly born someplace in Africa, who arrived with an indigenous couple as her protectors.  
While the small province had few inhabitants, month after month, one after the other, Africans and Afro-mestizos, free and enslaved, became increasingly visible in the ecclesiastic record. By 1625, their number had increased. Five were registered on 24 March, fourteen one day later, and twenty-five on 26 March. On 30 March, thirteen additional Afrodescendants were registered with five more the following day. Two were left for the visit on 1 April.