Abstract

Melva Lowe de Goodin's play, De/From Barbados a/to Panama, is a linguistic and cultural representation of the experience of West Indians of African heritage, or antillanos, in Panama in the twentieth century. Written in both English and Spanish, this play is not bilingual in the usual sense. Rather, scenes enacting the experiences of traditionally marginalized Caribbean immigrants to Panama in the early twentieth century to work on the North American Canal are written in the English-based Creole of Barbados;1 scenes set in 1980s Panama, in which a school girl comes to learn of her own family's experiences and heritage, are written in contemporary Panamanian Spanish. The play is a representation of life in and between multiple linguistic and cultural traditions and the formation of identity at a pivotal moment in the history of Panama, the construction of the Canal. Employing primarily drama but also photography and sheet music, the published text of Lowe's play constructs and projects a common memory, or postmemory, of what it means to be West Indian in Panama.2 Moving beyond simply remembering the past, the play models ways to incorporate West Indian memory into the official discourses of education and national history and reminds us that there is cultural and linguistic variety not only in Panama but also specifically within the Afro-Panamanian population. The play aims to elevate and redefine the status of West Indians as Panamanians, thereby redefining Panamanian national identity at the time that the country prepared itself for recovery of full control of its national territory. Rather than highlight conflicts that have existed between ethnic groups in twentieth century Panama, Lowe's projection of her country's national identity proves to be inclusive rather than exclusive. Ultimately, De/From Barbados a/to Panama aims to heal historic divisions by modeling the development of a memory play and by articulating the nation of Panama as one with multiple ethnic identities.Race and identity are complex topics in general, but in Central American countries such as Panama they are particularly so.3 The terminology used in this study reflects an effort to recognize the challenges and realities faced by West Indian Panamanians, who have experienced the double Diaspora of displacement first from Africa to the Caribbean because of the slave trade and then again to other areas in the Americas for economic, social, and political reasons. Panamanian writer Lowe's play is about a group often referred to in English as West Indians and in Spanish as negros antillanos, afroantillanos, or simply antillanos. They are people of African heritage that travelled primarily from the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean to the isthmus to work on the massive construction projects of the railroad, the French Canal, and the North American Canal beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and continuing into the early twentieth century.4 Antillanos are not the only Afro-descendants in Panama, but they are the focus of Lowe's play. Another group important to understanding the complexity of racial identity in Panama are those traditionally referred to in the isthmus as negros coloniales. At the time of the arrival of antillano Canal workers in Panama, this segment of the populace was a more generally Hispanized group of people, again of African heritage, but whose ancestors arrived in Panama during the colonial era and under slavery, and adopted the Spanish language and Catholic religion well before the Protestant, English-speaking West Indians arrived. Historian Peter Szok explains that Afro-descendant slaves and free people of color were in fact the largest segment of the population during the colonial era but were not recognized by official articulations of Panamanian identity (19-20). As works such as Carlos Guillermo Wilson's Chombo (1981) illustrate, these two groups, both of African heritage and relegated to inferior social status, have been in conflict with one another since the arrival of the antillanos in the isthmus. …