The Silver Townships- The City of Colon…continued

The Silver population in Colón, as well as in Panama, had traditionally been dependent on the employment offered by the Railroad and later the Panama Canal Commission. In fact, during its boom periods, the Hispanic segment of the population came to view the Antillean Blacks as the affluent West Indians who had steady employment and money to spend on housing, stylish clothing and jewelery, recreational pursuits and on travel. Colón, in its heyday, became known as “la tasita de oro,” the little golden tea cup.

Such was its grandeur for this small corner of the Caribbean Basin. Few citizens of the Republic of Panama could equal the style and affluence which the West Indian community in Colón seemed to exude.

It was also, however, the most devastated portion of the population when the personnel offices would begin cutting back employment or demoting highly skilled Black workers to pave the way for White Gold Roll workers. These successive waves of mass unemployment have often sent the “Silver” population scrambling to the “other city” to Panama City in search of work and better educational opportunities for their children.

By the late 40’s and early 50’s the majority of the Silver population would inevitably begin seeing their greatest option in immigration to the United States thus sending much of Colón’s as well as Panama City’s Silver citizenry to the farthest corners of New York City, especially Brooklyn. In addition to the factors of unemployment and a failing economy in Panama, the Constitution of 1941 with its notorious Article 12 (a) (b) (c) and (d) which transformed West Indian Panamanians into “prohibited immigrants” created a very tense political as well as racial climate in the entire country but especially in the Cities of Panama and Colón.

This politically charged Constitution promoted by the administration of the then President Arnulfo Arias Madrid, in fact, hung a cloud of uncertainty and stigmatized the second and third generations of children born in Panama as “prohibited immigrants.” Understandably, it was a clear message of “you West Indians will always be foreigners in our country,” and even the school children were involved in targeting the West Indian children in their taunts. Many children were denied entry into the public schools and the climate, in general, became quite unfriendly. Many West Indians responded to this wave of bigotry by immigrating to the United States where jobs, however menial, were waiting and the brightest of their children might have a chance at higher education. Many people, nonetheless, stayed in Colón and Panama and managed to weather these challenges to their collective dignity.

Since reversion began and with the abolition of the Canal Zone, the City of Colón’s limits have been redefined to include the former Canal Zone towns of Cristobal, Rainbow City, Margarita and Coco Solo, as well as the former US military base of Fort Gulick.

By 1948 the southeastern corner of Manzanillo Island became the home of The Free Trade Zone or the Colon Free Zone as it is popularly called. It has seen steady expansion since then through land reclamation on the Folks River and annexation of parts of France Field and Coco Solo.

With the city’s economic decline, much of the city’s elite and middle class left the city, reducing its former diversity and orderliness and today a significant South Asian and Arab community remains prosperous in cluster areas of the city as well as in gated communities outside the city.

Colón has been home to some of the most respectable, educated and well-heeled Panamanian families of West-Indian heritage including the Moodys, the Beebys, the Archibolds, the Edwards, the Crowns, the Hoys, the Warehams, the Abrahams, the Mckintoshes, and many more. Some of the best teachers, professors, doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen, and politicians came from these households and have contributed to the city’s prosperity. Most of them eventually left the city for the USA or the UK. Their influence, however, can still be seen by their descendants that remain in the province.

Below we have listed some, and only some, of Colón’s most notable personalities:

Panama “Al” Brown, Boxer and Champion
George Westerman, publisher and editor
Al Sprague, painter
Fernando A. Edwards, II, scholar and attorney in the United States
Victor Mckintosh, prominent engineer in the United States
Eric Jackson, publisher, journalist and talk show host
Rod Carew, major league baseball player
Ismael Laguna, boxer
Irving Saladino, athlete, long jump current World Champion
Kenneth B. Clark, although an American by citizenship, was nevertheless born in Colón, and became a psychologist and educator. His research was crucial to the desegregation of the public schools in the United States of America in the case known as Brown vs. Board of Education
Benjamin Oglivie, major league baseball player, Panama’s Home run King (41HR in 1980) Humberto V. Robinson, first Panamanian and first Central American in major league baseball Camilo A. Alleyne, gynecologist. In 1990 performed the first successful In Vitro fertilization of Panama, Central America and the Caribbean.

This story will continue.