Another Side of Panama

April 17, 2008

by Larnies Bowen

“Well the way how them have Colón, it’s the Cinderella of the whole country. That’s how they have Colón…The Cinderella of the whole country. The reason why that happened is because there was too much black in that area. Yes, that’s how they have Colón. The Cinderella of the whole country. So they never cared to do nothing for Colón. The government, they don’t care.”

–DJ Carlos Winthrop

While poring over some photos from my most recent day-trip to Colón, I was reminded of the above quotation from an interview I did last summer, bar-side at a popular hangout spot for older Panamanians in Brooklyn. The interviewee, DJ Carlos Winthrop, a Colón native and long-time Spanish Reggae DJ, recounted the origins of Spanish Reggae and his take on what I have dubbed ‘The Colón Question” or “Why is Panama’s second largest city, located in the country’s wealthiest region, surprisingly reminiscent of Havana?” Let me explain. Minus the squalor, Colón’s crumbling colonial buildings and the static, trapped-in-time feel, remind me of Cuba more than Panama. It seems almost unreal that Colón is the second largest city in a nation that is among the wealthiest and most developed in Central America.

As I have only made a few trips to and know little about the city’s history, I cannot confirm or reject Mr. Winthrop’s assertions. I include this quotation because the idea that “Colón is the Cinderella of the whole country” makes for an intriguing and powerful metaphor that echoes my own first impressions that this was a sorely neglected city.

I’ve spent the past week or so struggling to make some sense of the striking images of the “multis’” (housing projects) where the artists I interviewed grew up and continue to live. I’m still wading through my first impressions and the questions the trip raised for me. In the meantime, I thought I’d offer you some photos.