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This is an essay about Panamanians of Antillean descent in Panama and in the United States, particularly in Brooklyn, New York. It is concerned with two major themes: recent patterns of Antillean political participation in Panamanian politics and issues of cultural and national identity. These are examined in the decades of the 1970s through the 1990s, a period of political change in Panama and one of major shift in U.S.-Panama relations. During this period Antillean-Panamanians, historically represented as anti-nationalists and pro-United States by exclusionary nationalist and racist forces, organized in Panama and in the United States to support the nationalist treaty negotiated by General Omar Torrijos in 1977. At the same time, they challenged the Panamanian racial and national model. Since the heyday of Antillean-Panamanian activism in Panamanian politics in the 1970s and 1980s much has changed in Panama: Omar Torrijos died mysteriously in a plane crash in 1981; General Manuel Noriega, his successor, embraced the politics of neo-liberalism to the detriment of the vast majority of Panamanians, including Afro-Panamanians (a concept that embraces both Antillean and Hispanic Blacks), and in its wake, the U.S. invasion, accompanied by fundamental changes in the world order, brought new economic, political and social woes to the oppressed majority, and fueled the resurgence of, racism and ethnic conflicts on the Isthmus.
KEYWORDS: Afro-Panamanians, Antillean-Panamanians, Congress of Black Panamanians, George Westerman, identity politics, National Conference of Panamanians, race
INTRODUCTION
This is an essay about Panamanians of Antillean descent in Panama and in the United States, particularly in Brooklyn, New York. It is concerned with two major themes: recent patterns of Antillean1 political participation in Panamanian politics, and issues of cultural and national identity (Schiller, Basch and BlancStanton 1992, Gilroy 1993, Basch, Glick-Schiller, Szanton-Blanc 1994). These themes will be examined in the decades of the 1970s and 1980s, a period of political change in Panama and one of major shift in U.S.-Panama relations (Downer-Marcel 1997).
Antilleans first came in significant numbers to the isthmus from Jamaica in the 1850s to work on the Panama Railroad, a project initiated and controlled by the United States. In the 1880s, thousands more came from several Caribbean islands to work on the French canal project. The greatest influx of Antilleans, mainly from Barbados, arrived...