Juan Mora Fernández (July 12, 1784 – November 16, 1854) was a Costa Rican teacher and principal who served as Costa Rica's first elected head of state.^[1] He was considered a liberal and decided to move the capital from Cartago to Puntarenas. Mora was elected as the first head of state in 1824 (provisional until 1825).^[2]

He is remembered for instituting land reform, and he followed a progressive course. As a consequence of his land reform structure, he inadvertently created an elite class of powerful coffee barons. Under his tenure he signed the Acta de Indepencia. The barons eventually overthrew one of his later successors, José María Alfaro Zamora.

From 1850 to 1854 he was Magistrate and President of the Supreme Court of Justice of Costa Rica; he died shortly after he resigned. The first printing press arrived in Costa Rica under his tenure.^[3]

Juan Mora Fernàdez was born on July 12, 1788, in San José, Costa Rica, to Mateo Mora Valverde and Lucia Encarnación Fernàndez. He attended his primary school in San José and studied Latin grammar and philosophy in León, Nicaragua. He also became a teacher and a principal in a primary school in Alajuela. He became secretary at the city hall at San José, participated actively for the struggle of independence, joined the Junta Superior Gebernativa between 1821 and 1824. He also became a head of Congress and the Supreme Court of Justice.^[4]