Impressions of National History: Retracing Panama through Memory Lines

Against the background of the 30th anniversary of the invasion of Panama by U.S. troops, this article analyzes cross-generational differences in how Panamanians evoke and signify this event. Panama’s current climate is ideal to explore this topic, because 2019 also marked 500 years since the foundation of Panama City. This article focuses on how different generations revamp collective memory and relate a story that befits the circumstances of their time. Drawing on informal interviews, secondary data, and relevant aspects of family biography, it examines the interplay between generational drifts and subjective knowledge of Panama. This analysis spotlights how local and transnational processes intersect with biography, shaping perceptions of national history. By the end of the 20th century, U.S. militarized presence in the Panama Canal Zone gave way to a less conspicuous—yet no less significant—influence over Panamanian affairs. Thereupon, past generations’ concern with sovereignty has been overshadowed by a growing focus on the country’s integration in the global economy. While Panamanian millennials are not oblivious to recent U.S. armed intervention, their attitude towards this action is impersonal and dispassionate. Their perception of an increasingly faster course to meet the future dovetails with both a subjective distancing from Panama’s neocolonial history and a growing disconnect from the anti-imperialist discourse of past generations.

Gender, Race, and Migrant Labor in the “Domestic Frontier” of the Panama Canal Zone

The cover of Maid in Panama depicts a West Indian higgler as a “mammy.” Her skin is an exaggerated ink-black, her body is large, her face round, and she wears a servant's uniform, including headscarf and apron. The higgler walks across an open field carrying a tray of tropical fruits on her head, with a background of palm trees, a placid river, and fluffy clouds.

Dioscorea cayenensis (Guinea yam).

Dioscorea cayenensis, one of the cultivated tropical species of Dioscorea, is an important staple in Africa, with 2500 cultivars developed. It is a vine mostly known from cultivation, but also reported as escaped in the Panama Canal Zone. In Cuba, it is listed as a transformer species with a high possibility of becoming invasive, although there are no further details. The infrequently reported sexual reproduction, the digging of the tubers and its strict environmental requirements limit the spread of this species.

Heroines of the Panama Canal: U.S. nurses in the Panama Canal Zone 1880-1914

This essay highlights the critical contributions of the Sisters of Charity throughout the French construction of the Panama Canal between 1880 and 1904 and American-trained nurses during the US canal-building until 1914. The Sisters of Charity mended hundreds of thousands of injured and ill immigrant laborers in the Zone. Still, when American-trained nurses arrived in 1904, the nurses found themselves in conflict with the Daughters of Charity, who refused to vacate the hospital they helped found. I argue, self-aggrandizing stories of male accomplishments in the Panama Canal Zone subordinated female participation in one of the largest engineering feats undertaken in modern history. On the front-lines, female caretakers in the Zone understood the risks they faced with a population of transient engineers, scientists, tourists, and entrepreneurs. Even with a limited amount of power, the Sisters of Charity and US nurses made demands of their superiors based on dangers associated with living and working in a “tropical” region. Aware of their power –albeit limited– US nurses developed strategies for survival in the isthmus to protect themselves with limited access to medical supplies and funds. No matter how small the power nuns and nurses exercised in the Zone, many of their male superiors worried. They worried; what if nurses wanted more pay? What if they refused to work or left? US nurses also fell victim to prevailing stereotypes centered on what “type” of a woman left her home and family to live in the “wilds” of Central America? In US print media, popularized perceptions about nurses abroad came steeped in eugenic-inspired views of gender roles and “fitness.” Did nurses in the Canal Zone push gender norms in ways not possible in the US? Furthermore, how did US Canal Zone employees and administrators view nurses? With respect? Ridicule? Have only contemporaries recognized nuns and nurses women for their hard work? Were US Zone nurses valued as heroines throughout the construction of the canal? Or were they only heralded as heroines well after canal construction ended?

Revision of the genus Amazunculus Rafael (Diptera: Pipunculidae), with description of six new species

The species of the genus Amazunculus Rafael (Diptera: Pipunculidae) are large bodied flies, easily identified by their flattened hind tarsus and curved dm-m wing vein. The species of this Neotropical genus are revised, including six new species: Amazunculus acreanus sp. nov. (type-locality: Brazil, Acre, Rio Branco), A. bethoi sp. nov. (type-locality: Brazil, Amazonas, Carauari), A. francyae sp. nov. (type-locality: Ecuador, Napo), A. manauara sp. nov. (type-locality: Brazil, Amazonas, Manaus), A. panamensis sp. nov. (type-locality: Panama, Canal Zone) and A. psilalarius sp. nov. (type-locality: Venezuela, Amazonas). All these new species are described with an emphasis on structures of the male terminalia, which are fully illustrated. An identification key to the twelve species of Amazunculus is provided. The first record of Amazunculus in Central America (Panama) is documented.