Ortega was seeded the land in the 17th century by the Spanish crown as recognition for his work as an official in Cartago.

[8][10] However in 1559, upon receiving a royal license from Philip II of Spain, the governor of Nicaragua, Juan de Cavallón y Arboleda, planned an effort to colonise the Costa Rican Caribbean coast.

There, Cavallón would send out various hunting parties, one of which captured an indigenous Chorotega chief called Coyote.

[6] The Retes family would later sell part of the lands in 1750 to a priest named Juan de Pomar y Burgos.

[8][12] The Casona is still standing today, and is now part of the Museo Histórico Agrícola (Historical Agricultural Museum) located in the Santa Ana Conservation Centre.

[6][8] Around this time, the modern day head city of the canton (Santa Ana) began to arise around the Fernández property, along the Uruca river.

[8][13][14] In the 1864 Costa Rican census, the region of Santa Ana[β], at the time a part of the Escazú canton[γ], is recorded as having a population of 1,068.

[15][16] 6 years later in 1870, the government of Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez creates the Santa Ana mayorship, and names Cerlindo Villareal as its first mayor.

[8] On the 29 of August 1907, under law no.8, Santa Ana was awarded the title of canton, becoming fully independent from Escazú.

[1][6] In 1908, a contract was signed to build Costa Rica's second hydroelectric plant in the Brasil district of the canton, with it being finished it 1912.

[8][17] Following the military coup of Federico Tinoco Granados in 1917,[18] the city of Santa Ana would become a mayor stronghold for rebellion against the government.

Among the leaders of this rebellion was Jorge Volio Jiménez, a priest who was later honoured with a head bust outside of the Municipal Building of Santa Ana.

He would later help defeat a counter-revolutionary movement by Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia in 1955, and would eventually join the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica.

[3][8] On the 23 March that same year, a group of the canton's citizens gathered in the Andrés Bello López school to discuss the creation of a college to serve the area.

[23] As of the latest municipal elections in 2024, the Social Christian Unity Party candidate, Juan José Vargas Fallas, was elected mayor of the canton with 26.79% of the votes, with María de los Ángeles Sibaja[δ] and Alexander Hernández Hernández as first and second vice mayors, respectively.

[26] The Municipal Council's composition for the 2024–2028 period is as follows: Santa Ana has an area of 61.42 km2 (23.71 sq mi)[28] and a mean elevation of 904 m (2,966 ft).

[2] The triangular-shaped canton is delineated by the Virilla River on the north and stretches south as it narrows to include a portion of the Cerros de Escazú.

[34] Adopted by the municipal council of the canton on 22 April 1987,[35] the flag consists of three symmetrical horizontal stripes.

[1][35] The Tabebuia rosea (nicknamed "Roble de Sabana", meaning Savannah Oak) is native to Costa Rica, and can be seen in the country's warm areas.

[36] It was declared a symbol of the canton by Santa Ana's Municipal Council in ordinary session n.267 held on June 23, 2015.

[17] The region's onions are known for a few of their characteristics: Their colourization, firmness, globe-like shape, as-well as the traditional cultivation and drying methods used during their production.