COSTA RICA

Costa Rica abolished its military in 1948, and while this is celebrated globally, it removed one of the few structured rites of passage available to young men. Without military service or equivalent programs, Costa Rican boys transition to manhood through informal channels — the finca (farm), the futbol pitch, or the street. The absence of a formal threshold creates a masculinity defined by economic performance in a tourism economy where seasonal work is the norm and job security is a fantasy.

The "pura vida" brand is Costa Rica's greatest export and its most effective silencer. When your country is marketed as the happiest place in Latin America, admitting depression feels like treason against the national identity. Expat communities in Guanacaste and the Central Valley further distort the picture — foreign retirees living in engineered paradise while Tico men in the same communities struggle to afford rice and beans. The gap between the Costa Rica the world sees and the one its men live in creates a cognitive dissonance that therapy might help resolve, if therapy weren't concentrated almost entirely in San José and priced beyond most men's reach.