La Cruz is a canton in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica. The head city is in La Cruz district. Toponymy The name of La Cruz translates to The Cross and dates back to the incident at the time when the mules carried the cattle from Nicaragua to Esparza, when one of them passing through the region fell dead because he pursued a cow that had escaped from the herd. This is why their peers placed a cross of sticks on his grave. Later, this cross served as a reference to the mules that went over there to make a break and also count the cattle, before continuing their journey to their final destination. Over time the site led to the formation of a burgeoning population, which began to be known as La Cruz. History La Cruz was created on 23 July 1969 by decree 4354. In Pre-Columbian times the area currently known as the canton de La Cruz, was part of a province of the Indians called Chorotegas whose domains ranged from the Nicoya Peninsula to Lake Nicaragua, made up of several villages or domains. The region was discovered by Don Gil Gonzalez Davila in 1522, on their march to another province of the Chorotegas, which was under the authority of the chief of the Nicarao people (in the territory now known as Nicaragua). In 1561 Don Juan de Cavallon from Granada passed through this area in his expedition to reach the Central Valley. In September 1562 Juan Vásquez de Coronado passed by this area too, who brought cattle and horses from León. He also went through the region of Perafán de Ribera in his journey towards Cartago. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the first farmers from Rivas, Nicaragua came to this region, beginning the formation of ranches. On March 20, 1856, our troops fought their first battle against the filibusters of William Walker in the Hacienda Santa Rosa, and succeeded in defeating the invaders. In the government administration of Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra, in 1906 the school was located fifty meters east of the existing lookout built by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (National Tourism Chamber). In 1953, a new school was built called Salvador Villar Muñoz. The college named Liceo La Cruz began teaching in 1969, the government of José Joaquín Trejos Fernández as a supplementary educational secondary school, at first in the day and