Abstract.

This article details and analyzes the main modifications of the list of obligatory readings proposed on 2010 and implemented by Ministry of Public Education (MEP) on 2011, in the Costa Rican Third Cicle of General Basic Education. The study was carried out by a research on specialized magazines, thesis, books, the study programs of Spanish regarding 2005 and 2009, the list of obligatory readings implemented by MEP on 2011, as well as several interviews made to national specialists on educational topics. The conclusion is that the main modifications are based on the dosage, the cataloguing, and the flexibility of the list of obligatory readings because the amount of texts and literary genres that are studied by level are modified, as well as the teachers are now provided with a range of options for them to choose what to read with their student group; nevertheless, is also clear that none of these changes are properly sustain on the new proposal. Finally, the incorporation of quite a significant corpus of texts concerning the character of president Juan Mora Porras stands out; the purpose seems to be of identity and ideological nature because the goal is to counteract the increasing political disenchantment of the last years and to stablish itself as the new national hero.

Keywords: list of obligatory readings; mep; basic general education; key speech.