February 23, 2025 • 21 mins
As President Trump threatens to take the Panama Canal back, journalist Cristela Guerra recalls her childhood memories growing up between the U.S. and Panama. She tells us about the complicated history between the two countries and what’s at stake if the U.S. tries to take the canal back.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My dad once told me he wanted his ashes spread
across the Panama Canal. I played along and asked if
I should say for a helicopter. My father was a force.
The family physician. Then doctors found a tumor in fall
of twenty twenty three, but he lasted about two weeks.
The earth felt like it trembled, but one thing felt certain, unshakable,
(00:24):
my father's desire to go home. So we brought his
ashes to Panama, where I've returned to quite a lot
lately to settle his affairs.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'll be back, Okay, I'll be back.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Story. This is me saying goodbye to my cats in Boston.
The last time I left for Panama. I called my
mom on the way to the airport. The horizon tinted
pink as she asked to pray for me, as she
(01:04):
always asked God to open doors and closed doors. It's
something she sure God did. When my parents left Panama
almost forty years ago, a tiny me in tow my
mom and dad, a nurse and a doctor left in
nineteen eighty six, Parama remained caught in the grip of
Manuel No Diega, a dictator trained by the US military.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Strange bedfellows.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Every Sunday, the government would air a propaganda show called
Everything for the Homeland Toto porla Patria.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Last Wars.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
After my dad dreamed of practicing medicine in the US,
my mom imagined a place where No Diega's henchmen weren't
attacking people in the street. We moved over and over California,
then New York, where my sister was born, and eventually
(02:02):
South Florida. My mom supported us working as a nurse.
My dad, a pediatrician, sold newspapers until a residency accepted him.
My childhood embodied the diaspora. School years in the States,
but these long, delicious summers in Panama, where my hair curled,
(02:23):
my skin tanned, then my smile softened. I'd ride in
the back of my grandfather's blue jeep, protesting No Diega,
my little voice screaming abajo lapigna, a reference to the
dictator's pockmarked face. I grew up longing for those summers,
counting down the days until I was in Maya Wilalia's
(02:43):
front yard, eating starfruit from her trees. And at the
end of each summer, a dread formed in me, and
I'd cry all the way back to the States. Then,
on the eve of my fifth birthday, we came back
to Panama for Christmas break, blissfully unaware we'd soon witness
(03:07):
our new country bomb our homeland.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Hello.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Official figures list some two hundred Panamanian civilians killed. Locals
here say the true figure is nearer a thousand.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
The US government had grown tired of No Diega. The
official story was that the authoritarian was caught drug trafficking
and money laundering into the US, but some reports say
the Panamanian dictator may have double crossed the CIA, whom
he'd long given secrets to.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
He was finished a long time ago. He held his power.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
By via The US invaded Panama, toppling him and killing
hundreds of Panamanian civilians along the way. Many were never found,
just mass graves and destruction left in the US's wake.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
The Vatican called the United States and occupying power in Panama.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Today, the US called it Operation just Cause, famous for
the US military's rock and roll assault. They blared the
likes of ACDC day and night to drive No Diega
out of hiding. Seriously, there is a whole playlist online.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
If diplomacy can't move Nadiega. Why not try rock music,
playing it at full volume outside the Vatican Embassy.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Before we'd left for Panama, my mom packed a frozen
turkey in our suitcase, not knowing the US would invade
two days later. We made that turkey last as long
as we could at my grandmother's house while explosions went
off across Panama City. There's a photograph of four year
old me from this trip. I've got an intense bowl
(04:41):
cut and I'm smiling wide in a yard full of
mango trees. Next to me is a US soldier camouflage
in military garb. His face is painted green, and he's
kneeling at my side holding a big gun. I remember
I told him I spoke English, I lived in the
United States, and hand on my heart, I recited the
(05:03):
Pledge of Allegiance.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I was such an innocent kid even then.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I think a part of me knew the US had
a certain cavalier power that it could use against my
country whenever it wanted.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
And I've grown up with that knowledge.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
That if it wanted to, the US could turn on Panama,
that it could decide to invade US as easily as
it did when I was four, eating leftover turkey, hearing bombs.
It's what goes through my mind when I hear Donald
Trump suddenly call for control of the Panama Canal, a
marvel of modern engineering that allows ships a shortcut from
(05:42):
one side of the world to the other, shaving off
millions of dollars in costs and months of travel.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our
treaty has been totally violated.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
He's accused Panama of allowing the Chinese government control of
the canal and of overcharge the US. Panama vehemently denies
both claims, but Trump has declared the US could simply
make the canal theirs again.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And we didn't give it to China.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
We gave it to Panama and we're taking it back.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
So on that recent morning, as I flew to Panama
one more time, my mom's prayers were for more than
my travels. I sent them across an ocean to our
Isthmus for its sovereignty and place in the world.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Hello, Okay, text me when you're leaving.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Okay, I will.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
I love you?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Okay, I love you too. Your pocket.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
From Fudro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Ario
Josa and today the fight over the Panama Canal and
what it means for a journalist in the US with
deep Panamanian roots.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
We'll be right back not thereby.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yes, we're joined now by Panamanian American journalist Gristella Erra. So, Gristida,
I just want to ask you, because you know, you
actually don't hear a lot about Banama in US news.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
So, yes, it's a little place, but there is a
deep love we Panamanians have for our home. It's always
been a place of connection of blended cultures, a main
artery for trade through the Americas. And you know a
fact in colonial times, enslaved Africans fled ships to freedom
in Panama and they made settlements where their heritage was preserved.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
But currently Banamah is suddenly all over American media because
of this decision that Trump has made that he wants
to reclaim one of the most important global assets in
the history of trade and commerce, and that would be
the Panama Canal. So why don't you start, Cristella at
the beginning here for our listeners who maybe don't know
(07:54):
the history of the canal.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So historically ships were required to sail around the entire
continent of South America to get from the Pacific to
the Atlantic Ocean. That costs a lot of time and money.
So the French tried to build a shortcut a canal
and what is now Panama in the eighteen eighties. They
weren't able to because of mosquitoes and diseases, and so
the French approached to the US and offered them that
(08:21):
contract to build the Panama Canal.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
But there was this.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Big problem right which is at Panama at that time
it was actually a part of Colombia.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Exactly, and Colombia initially denied the Americans the right to build.
So President Teddy Roosevelt decided, Okay, we'll just support Panamanian
independence from Colombia with a fleet of warships.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
Okay, So that's pretty incredible.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And to be clear, there had already been an independence
movement brewing in Panama, and this military support from the
United States actually enabled that independence to happen.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So, yes, Panama its independence, but it comes at a cost.
The US establishes what is essentially an American colony inside
Panama in the zone where they built the canal. The
US spent over three hundred and seventy million dollars at
the time and finished the canal in nineteen fourteen, and
the US controls the canal for decades, But in nineteen
(09:19):
seventy seven, President Jimmy Carter signs a new treaty that
declared the Panama Canal would be owned and controlled by
Panama in the year two thousand.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Fionness and not forced should lie at the heart of
our dealings with the nations of the world.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
President Carter may he rest in peace. Has received a
lot of criticism from Republicans for returning the canal to
the country of Panama.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I think one of the quotes that really summarizes the
sentiments from those that disagreed with Carter is from one
senator at the time, Si Hayakawa, who said, of the canal,
we should hang on to it. We stole it square
and Republicans now like Ted Cruz have again expressed a
similar entitlement.
Speaker 6 (10:06):
The Nation of Panama did not build the Panama Canal.
America did. The Nation of Panama did not pay for
the Panama Canal America did. The Nation of Panama did
not give thousands and thousands of lives in building the canal.
America did.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
But that notion, right, that idea that the canal was
built by Americans, that isn't completely accurate, right, Cristilla.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So not entirely the Americans paid for the construction, but
the people who literally built the canal with their hands,
who excavated, were mostly black migrants. Here's Maya doug Akunya,
a PhD candidate in African and African American studies and
a scholar focused on Afro Panamanian diaspora at Harvard. Both
of her grandmothers worked in the American controlled canal zone
(10:51):
in Panama.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
This language of ownership that's rooted in this idea or
this myth that Americans built the canal, when no, not
at all. I mean the workforce, the labor force was
simply entirely migrant labors and overwhelmingly labors from the Caribbean
(11:15):
was like black West Indian workers. And those are the
folks who you know sacrifice. Those are the folks who
were exploited, and those are the folks who were killed
in the construction process.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So for you, Cristella, you too are a Panamanian American.
What is the threat of the United States taking back
the canal? What does it bring up for you.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
So honestly, a lot of fear for how things could escalate.
I think about my parents, who are proud of the
life we built in the United States and also instilled
in me a profound love for Panama. And the last
time I was in Panama, I saw how my family
there is processing this threat from the US.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
And we're going to hear more about your latest trip
to Panama.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Right after the break, we're back with Panamanian American journalist
grist De la Gera, who's going to take us with
her as she visits her family in Panama amidst ominous
threats from President Trump and the United States that it
wants the Panama Canal back.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Every time I land in Panama, I remember my Woloo,
who worked for PanAm waiting as we got off the plane. Today,
I land alone but lighthearted, and I hear salsa andreatung
as soon as I got inside my rental car. When
(12:45):
you long for a place, everything looks romantic, the ocean,
familiar skyscrapers, the flag. On my way to my aunt's
house in Panama City, I arrived at my dea greeted
by my cousin Annadina, a sociologist who convinced me to
get a matching tattoo of a burning tower on my
(13:07):
forearm after my dad's funeral.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
It's the Getra family.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Cress my young cousin, a college student who's like my
little brother, and a doctor who shares a love.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Of medicine with my dad. And my dear mummy, my.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Father's older sister, sharp direct, she doesn't suffer fools.
Speaker 8 (13:38):
I'm welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
She recently retired as the ambassador for Panama in France
after fifty years in diplomacy. Wikiki a little, some food
and drinks and cheesemade ks about. Then we touch on
(14:05):
what's on everyone's mind, American intervention.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
So do worry for us? Is Trump's declarations?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
My aunt says he's making a mistake with Panama. To
mess with the canal is to mess with Panamanian territory.
And there is no separation between the canal and the country.
(14:41):
It's all Panama. It's true. The canal shaped Panamanian society.
When Americans built the canal, they brought with them Jim
Crow segregation with them on top. Residents of the canal zone,
called Zonians, enjoyed the comforts the color of their skin
could afford them in a American cast system. For white Zonians,
(15:03):
the Canal Zone served as an American utopia in the tropics,
while Black Zonians and other workers were relegated to the fringes,
and Panamanians we had to live by these rules too
in the Canal Zone. My aunt remembers taking an accounting
class in the Canal Zone College.
Speaker 8 (15:21):
All the shares next to the window would be used
by Sonians as citizens, because that was the best seat.
Because you were next to the windows, you had the
trees then you were. If you were a Panamanian, you
would sit in the middle, and if you were a
(15:41):
Black Sonian, you would sit against the wall. So I
was told to move just because I was a Bamanian
in my own country, they would choose where I would sit.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
My aunt also remembers January ninth, nineteen sixty four, when
Panamanian students had gotten permission to hang a Panamanian flag
next to the American flag in the Canal Zone. American
Zonians didn't like it. A riot broke out. Twenty one
Panamanians and four Americans were killed. Here's my cousin and
(16:21):
my Tamammy's daughter Anna.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Lodina is America Latin America.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Panama has always been a reactionary country, she tells me, Devido,
because of living with Uncle Sam's boot at our neck.
My cousin says, it's only been twenty five years since
we've been free of US control, when they seeded control
of the Canal Elonga. Panama is like a lion that
grew up caged, and even when that cage is gone,
(16:57):
the lion thinks it still has to stay in the
same spot, she says, referring to feeling less than your colonizers.
To her, the strength of Panama is its people and
their pride, people who Secretary of State Marco Rubio surely
saw holding Panamanian flags as he visited Panama this month,
the first overseas trip for the Trump administration and.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
His Secretary of State's first overseas mission.
Speaker 8 (17:22):
Marco Rubio brought an ultimadium ultimatum to Panama's president.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And after the trip, President Trump had a warning, We're
going to take.
Speaker 9 (17:30):
It back, or something very powerful is going to happen.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Panamanian protesters burned American flags and two paper figures with
Trump and Rubio's face in the street. Not Trump, not
the gringos or their army or the government have anything
in Panama. A protester shouted, what's here belongs to the Panamanians,
(17:58):
the canal. There's sovereignty, their self determination, It's all Panamanian.
On a recent trip to the Panama Canal, I watched
with a group of tourists as ships passed through.
Speaker 9 (18:14):
About the.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Motto of the canal remains bromundi beneficio, which in Latin means.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
For the benefit of the world.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Americans may have paid and supervised workers who carved through
our land, establishing an imperial power dynamic that would shape
us forever, but Panama voted to expand the canal to
meet the needs of larger ships, making it more efficient
and profitable through Panamanian ingenuity. Although stamped by this relationship
with the US, we are not defined by it. There
(18:49):
are so many things that are still simply and beautifully
Panamanian without any American influence. Like it's folklore, says my
(19:10):
cousin Ceastian.
Speaker 9 (19:11):
Of the the personas the Kanzas.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
It's melding of cultures, traditions, people beliefs.
Speaker 10 (19:27):
You got okay, You're not that's.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I can't imagine myself without Panama. My cousin Adriana tells
me that cutting our words short our cadence, the way
the syllables roll from our tongues, that's all Panama.
Speaker 8 (19:50):
It's important.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Our country is more than a canal. My aunt tells
me in Pa. Our inherent worth isn't tied to this
man made waterway. Our gold is this land, lush and green.
We chart our own fate with the chasm others dredge.
We don't let threats stop us from celebrating our history,
from being free. Nama Paramoo. There is nothing more Panamanian than.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
That, Victor Emanuel Guerra Urado Presente. This episode was produced
by Criste la Guera with production assistance from Tasha Santoval.
(20:45):
It was edited by Our Co executive producer Maria Garcia.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
It was mixed by Lea Shaw Damaran.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
The Latino USA team also includes Fernanda Chavari, Julia Caruso,
Jessica Ellis, Victori Estrada, Dominique est Rosa, Prinaldo Leans Junior,
Stephanie Lebau, Andrea Lopez Grussado, Roxanna Guire Luis, Luna Marta Martinez,
Nur Saudi, JJ Krubin.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
And Nancy Trujillo, Benillei Ramidez, Marlon.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Bishop and myself are co executive producers and I'm your host, Mariaojosa.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Join us again on our next episode.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
In the meantime, I'll see you on all of our
social media and remember not Te Bay.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Yes Muca.
Speaker 10 (21:26):
Latino USA is made possible in part by the John D.
And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, working with
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the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for more than fifty
years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better
(21:51):
world at Hewlett dot org.
My dad once told me he wanted his ashes spread
across the Panama Canal. I played along and asked if
I should say for a helicopter. My father was a force.
The family physician. Then doctors found a tumor in fall
of twenty twenty three, but he lasted about two weeks.
The earth felt like it trembled, but one thing felt certain, unshakable,
(00:24):
my father's desire to go home. So we brought his
ashes to Panama, where I've returned to quite a lot
lately to settle his affairs.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'll be back, Okay, I'll be back.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Story. This is me saying goodbye to my cats in Boston.
The last time I left for Panama. I called my
mom on the way to the airport. The horizon tinted
pink as she asked to pray for me, as she
(01:04):
always asked God to open doors and closed doors. It's
something she sure God did. When my parents left Panama
almost forty years ago, a tiny me in tow my
mom and dad, a nurse and a doctor left in
nineteen eighty six, Parama remained caught in the grip of
Manuel No Diega, a dictator trained by the US military.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Strange bedfellows.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Every Sunday, the government would air a propaganda show called
Everything for the Homeland Toto porla Patria.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Last Wars.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
After my dad dreamed of practicing medicine in the US,
my mom imagined a place where No Diega's henchmen weren't
attacking people in the street. We moved over and over California,
then New York, where my sister was born, and eventually
(02:02):
South Florida. My mom supported us working as a nurse.
My dad, a pediatrician, sold newspapers until a residency accepted him.
My childhood embodied the diaspora. School years in the States,
but these long, delicious summers in Panama, where my hair curled,
(02:23):
my skin tanned, then my smile softened. I'd ride in
the back of my grandfather's blue jeep, protesting No Diega,
my little voice screaming abajo lapigna, a reference to the
dictator's pockmarked face. I grew up longing for those summers,
counting down the days until I was in Maya Wilalia's
(02:43):
front yard, eating starfruit from her trees. And at the
end of each summer, a dread formed in me, and
I'd cry all the way back to the States. Then,
on the eve of my fifth birthday, we came back
to Panama for Christmas break, blissfully unaware we'd soon witness
(03:07):
our new country bomb our homeland.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Hello.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Official figures list some two hundred Panamanian civilians killed. Locals
here say the true figure is nearer a thousand.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
The US government had grown tired of No Diega. The
official story was that the authoritarian was caught drug trafficking
and money laundering into the US, but some reports say
the Panamanian dictator may have double crossed the CIA, whom
he'd long given secrets to.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
He was finished a long time ago. He held his power.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
By via The US invaded Panama, toppling him and killing
hundreds of Panamanian civilians along the way. Many were never found,
just mass graves and destruction left in the US's wake.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
The Vatican called the United States and occupying power in Panama.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Today, the US called it Operation just Cause, famous for
the US military's rock and roll assault. They blared the
likes of ACDC day and night to drive No Diega
out of hiding. Seriously, there is a whole playlist online.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
If diplomacy can't move Nadiega. Why not try rock music,
playing it at full volume outside the Vatican Embassy.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Before we'd left for Panama, my mom packed a frozen
turkey in our suitcase, not knowing the US would invade
two days later. We made that turkey last as long
as we could at my grandmother's house while explosions went
off across Panama City. There's a photograph of four year
old me from this trip. I've got an intense bowl
(04:41):
cut and I'm smiling wide in a yard full of
mango trees. Next to me is a US soldier camouflage
in military garb. His face is painted green, and he's
kneeling at my side holding a big gun. I remember
I told him I spoke English, I lived in the
United States, and hand on my heart, I recited the
(05:03):
Pledge of Allegiance.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I was such an innocent kid even then.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I think a part of me knew the US had
a certain cavalier power that it could use against my
country whenever it wanted.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
And I've grown up with that knowledge.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
That if it wanted to, the US could turn on Panama,
that it could decide to invade US as easily as
it did when I was four, eating leftover turkey, hearing bombs.
It's what goes through my mind when I hear Donald
Trump suddenly call for control of the Panama Canal, a
marvel of modern engineering that allows ships a shortcut from
(05:42):
one side of the world to the other, shaving off
millions of dollars in costs and months of travel.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our
treaty has been totally violated.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
He's accused Panama of allowing the Chinese government control of
the canal and of overcharge the US. Panama vehemently denies
both claims, but Trump has declared the US could simply
make the canal theirs again.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And we didn't give it to China.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
We gave it to Panama and we're taking it back.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
So on that recent morning, as I flew to Panama
one more time, my mom's prayers were for more than
my travels. I sent them across an ocean to our
Isthmus for its sovereignty and place in the world.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Hello, Okay, text me when you're leaving.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Okay, I will.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
I love you?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Okay, I love you too. Your pocket.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
From Fudro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Ario
Josa and today the fight over the Panama Canal and
what it means for a journalist in the US with
deep Panamanian roots.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
We'll be right back not thereby.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yes, we're joined now by Panamanian American journalist Gristella Erra. So, Gristida,
I just want to ask you, because you know, you
actually don't hear a lot about Banama in US news.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
So, yes, it's a little place, but there is a
deep love we Panamanians have for our home. It's always
been a place of connection of blended cultures, a main
artery for trade through the Americas. And you know a
fact in colonial times, enslaved Africans fled ships to freedom
in Panama and they made settlements where their heritage was preserved.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
But currently Banamah is suddenly all over American media because
of this decision that Trump has made that he wants
to reclaim one of the most important global assets in
the history of trade and commerce, and that would be
the Panama Canal. So why don't you start, Cristella at
the beginning here for our listeners who maybe don't know
(07:54):
the history of the canal.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So historically ships were required to sail around the entire
continent of South America to get from the Pacific to
the Atlantic Ocean. That costs a lot of time and money.
So the French tried to build a shortcut a canal
and what is now Panama in the eighteen eighties. They
weren't able to because of mosquitoes and diseases, and so
the French approached to the US and offered them that
(08:21):
contract to build the Panama Canal.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
But there was this.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Big problem right which is at Panama at that time
it was actually a part of Colombia.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Exactly, and Colombia initially denied the Americans the right to build.
So President Teddy Roosevelt decided, Okay, we'll just support Panamanian
independence from Colombia with a fleet of warships.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
Okay, So that's pretty incredible.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And to be clear, there had already been an independence
movement brewing in Panama, and this military support from the
United States actually enabled that independence to happen.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So, yes, Panama its independence, but it comes at a cost.
The US establishes what is essentially an American colony inside
Panama in the zone where they built the canal. The
US spent over three hundred and seventy million dollars at
the time and finished the canal in nineteen fourteen, and
the US controls the canal for decades, But in nineteen
(09:19):
seventy seven, President Jimmy Carter signs a new treaty that
declared the Panama Canal would be owned and controlled by
Panama in the year two thousand.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Fionness and not forced should lie at the heart of
our dealings with the nations of the world.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
President Carter may he rest in peace. Has received a
lot of criticism from Republicans for returning the canal to
the country of Panama.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I think one of the quotes that really summarizes the
sentiments from those that disagreed with Carter is from one
senator at the time, Si Hayakawa, who said, of the canal,
we should hang on to it. We stole it square
and Republicans now like Ted Cruz have again expressed a
similar entitlement.
Speaker 6 (10:06):
The Nation of Panama did not build the Panama Canal.
America did. The Nation of Panama did not pay for
the Panama Canal America did. The Nation of Panama did
not give thousands and thousands of lives in building the canal.
America did.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
But that notion, right, that idea that the canal was
built by Americans, that isn't completely accurate, right, Cristilla.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So not entirely the Americans paid for the construction, but
the people who literally built the canal with their hands,
who excavated, were mostly black migrants. Here's Maya doug Akunya,
a PhD candidate in African and African American studies and
a scholar focused on Afro Panamanian diaspora at Harvard. Both
of her grandmothers worked in the American controlled canal zone
(10:51):
in Panama.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
This language of ownership that's rooted in this idea or
this myth that Americans built the canal, when no, not
at all. I mean the workforce, the labor force was
simply entirely migrant labors and overwhelmingly labors from the Caribbean
(11:15):
was like black West Indian workers. And those are the
folks who you know sacrifice. Those are the folks who
were exploited, and those are the folks who were killed
in the construction process.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So for you, Cristella, you too are a Panamanian American.
What is the threat of the United States taking back
the canal? What does it bring up for you.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
So honestly, a lot of fear for how things could escalate.
I think about my parents, who are proud of the
life we built in the United States and also instilled
in me a profound love for Panama. And the last
time I was in Panama, I saw how my family
there is processing this threat from the US.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
And we're going to hear more about your latest trip
to Panama.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Right after the break, we're back with Panamanian American journalist
grist De la Gera, who's going to take us with
her as she visits her family in Panama amidst ominous
threats from President Trump and the United States that it
wants the Panama Canal back.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Every time I land in Panama, I remember my Woloo,
who worked for PanAm waiting as we got off the plane. Today,
I land alone but lighthearted, and I hear salsa andreatung
as soon as I got inside my rental car. When
(12:45):
you long for a place, everything looks romantic, the ocean,
familiar skyscrapers, the flag. On my way to my aunt's
house in Panama City, I arrived at my dea greeted
by my cousin Annadina, a sociologist who convinced me to
get a matching tattoo of a burning tower on my
(13:07):
forearm after my dad's funeral.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
It's the Getra family.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Cress my young cousin, a college student who's like my
little brother, and a doctor who shares a love.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Of medicine with my dad. And my dear mummy, my.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Father's older sister, sharp direct, she doesn't suffer fools.
Speaker 8 (13:38):
I'm welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
She recently retired as the ambassador for Panama in France
after fifty years in diplomacy. Wikiki a little, some food
and drinks and cheesemade ks about. Then we touch on
(14:05):
what's on everyone's mind, American intervention.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
So do worry for us? Is Trump's declarations?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
My aunt says he's making a mistake with Panama. To
mess with the canal is to mess with Panamanian territory.
And there is no separation between the canal and the country.
(14:41):
It's all Panama. It's true. The canal shaped Panamanian society.
When Americans built the canal, they brought with them Jim
Crow segregation with them on top. Residents of the canal zone,
called Zonians, enjoyed the comforts the color of their skin
could afford them in a American cast system. For white Zonians,
(15:03):
the Canal Zone served as an American utopia in the tropics,
while Black Zonians and other workers were relegated to the fringes,
and Panamanians we had to live by these rules too
in the Canal Zone. My aunt remembers taking an accounting
class in the Canal Zone College.
Speaker 8 (15:21):
All the shares next to the window would be used
by Sonians as citizens, because that was the best seat.
Because you were next to the windows, you had the
trees then you were. If you were a Panamanian, you
would sit in the middle, and if you were a
(15:41):
Black Sonian, you would sit against the wall. So I
was told to move just because I was a Bamanian
in my own country, they would choose where I would sit.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
My aunt also remembers January ninth, nineteen sixty four, when
Panamanian students had gotten permission to hang a Panamanian flag
next to the American flag in the Canal Zone. American
Zonians didn't like it. A riot broke out. Twenty one
Panamanians and four Americans were killed. Here's my cousin and
(16:21):
my Tamammy's daughter Anna.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Lodina is America Latin America.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Panama has always been a reactionary country, she tells me, Devido,
because of living with Uncle Sam's boot at our neck.
My cousin says, it's only been twenty five years since
we've been free of US control, when they seeded control
of the Canal Elonga. Panama is like a lion that
grew up caged, and even when that cage is gone,
(16:57):
the lion thinks it still has to stay in the
same spot, she says, referring to feeling less than your colonizers.
To her, the strength of Panama is its people and
their pride, people who Secretary of State Marco Rubio surely
saw holding Panamanian flags as he visited Panama this month,
the first overseas trip for the Trump administration and.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
His Secretary of State's first overseas mission.
Speaker 8 (17:22):
Marco Rubio brought an ultimadium ultimatum to Panama's president.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And after the trip, President Trump had a warning, We're
going to take.
Speaker 9 (17:30):
It back, or something very powerful is going to happen.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Panamanian protesters burned American flags and two paper figures with
Trump and Rubio's face in the street. Not Trump, not
the gringos or their army or the government have anything
in Panama. A protester shouted, what's here belongs to the Panamanians,
(17:58):
the canal. There's sovereignty, their self determination, It's all Panamanian.
On a recent trip to the Panama Canal, I watched
with a group of tourists as ships passed through.
Speaker 9 (18:14):
About the.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Motto of the canal remains bromundi beneficio, which in Latin means.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
For the benefit of the world.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Americans may have paid and supervised workers who carved through
our land, establishing an imperial power dynamic that would shape
us forever, but Panama voted to expand the canal to
meet the needs of larger ships, making it more efficient
and profitable through Panamanian ingenuity. Although stamped by this relationship
with the US, we are not defined by it. There
(18:49):
are so many things that are still simply and beautifully
Panamanian without any American influence. Like it's folklore, says my
(19:10):
cousin Ceastian.
Speaker 9 (19:11):
Of the the personas the Kanzas.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
It's melding of cultures, traditions, people beliefs.
Speaker 10 (19:27):
You got okay, You're not that's.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I can't imagine myself without Panama. My cousin Adriana tells
me that cutting our words short our cadence, the way
the syllables roll from our tongues, that's all Panama.
Speaker 8 (19:50):
It's important.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Our country is more than a canal. My aunt tells
me in Pa. Our inherent worth isn't tied to this
man made waterway. Our gold is this land, lush and green.
We chart our own fate with the chasm others dredge.
We don't let threats stop us from celebrating our history,
from being free. Nama Paramoo. There is nothing more Panamanian than.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
That, Victor Emanuel Guerra Urado Presente. This episode was produced
by Criste la Guera with production assistance from Tasha Santoval.
(20:45):
It was edited by Our Co executive producer Maria Garcia.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
It was mixed by Lea Shaw Damaran.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
The Latino USA team also includes Fernanda Chavari, Julia Caruso,
Jessica Ellis, Victori Estrada, Dominique est Rosa, Prinaldo Leans Junior,
Stephanie Lebau, Andrea Lopez Grussado, Roxanna Guire Luis, Luna Marta Martinez,
Nur Saudi, JJ Krubin.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
And Nancy Trujillo, Benillei Ramidez, Marlon.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Bishop and myself are co executive producers and I'm your host, Mariaojosa.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Join us again on our next episode.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
In the meantime, I'll see you on all of our
social media and remember not Te Bay.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Yes Muca.
Speaker 10 (21:26):
Latino USA is made possible in part by the John D.
And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, working with
visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, and
the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for more than fifty
years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better
(21:51):
world at Hewlett dot org.
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