Monthly Archives: November 2008

Chombo!

Posted on November 28, 2008 by | 10 Comments
This is a typical board building tenement
that still exists in the poorer “Barrio” neighborhoods
of Panama City. This one is among several in
this area of Santana, slated for
demolition soon.

It was not until the decade that began with the year of 1940 in which an event such as the devastating fire that would virtually destroy the Atlantic coast city of Colon, that I would awake to who I really was in the world into which I had been born. Continue reading →

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Posted in Racism in Panama, Silver People of Panama, West Indian Panamanians

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If the Story be Told

Posted on November 25, 2008 by | 2 Comments
An early Silver Payline in the Canal Zone
Image thanks to Afro-Panavisions

If not to anyone else, it has been proven to me that, without a doubt, the Silver Men absorbed most of the psychological damage of working in an oppressive segregated system and in a generally difficult work environment. The legendary Silver Men who comprised the vast majority of the Panama Canal Zone labor force earned the honor of being unique workmen- tough, versatile, resilient and loyal. Continue reading →

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Posted in Panama Canal, Silver People of Panama, West Indian Panamanians

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The Sacrifice of Silver Families- A Bitter Cup

Posted on November 22, 2008 by | 3 Comments
A Bitter Cup

The deleterious effects of a segregated work environment would invariably exact its toll on the emotional climate of the Silver workers’ home front. What had become a bounty to Gold Roll families would become a great sacrifice for Silver families and the dynamics of the entire picture would not be so clearly perceived until the works in the Great Ditch had come under control. Continue reading →

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Posted in West Indian Panamanians

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A Different Reality

Posted on November 18, 2008 by | 7 Comments
This was how Central Avenue looked in 1940.
Image thanks to our friends at czimages.com
This is an image of how Calidonia looked in 1940.
Thanks to our friends at Afro-panavisions.


For someone like me, who experienced life as a Black Canal Zone Silver child and also a black Panamanian child, I can safely say that the insight I gathered from what it was like to be a Silver laborer came from my brief experience with my maternal grandfather, Seymour Green. Continue reading →

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Posted in Calidonia, West Indian Panamanians

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The Scowling Stranger

Posted on November 14, 2008 by | Leave a comment
This is an image of 29-47 Mariano Arosemena Street
where my father and mother eventually came to settle in a
one room dwelling- the four of us- in the heart of Calidonia.
Our home is the downstairs unit, second to the
right-only one window.


My first experience with what Mr. George W. Westerman later called “The Westindian Problem“-a set of problems that I feel we all, directly or indirectly, encountered as Westindian people and were somehow related- would unfold at the tender age of four. It would prove to be an unforgettable morning in that same year of 1940 as my status as a member of the Green Family of Colon would end abruptly- too abruptly- at a time when I most needed my family’s love and care. Continue reading →

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Posted in Calidonia, West Indian Panamanians

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The Terror of the Silver Roll

Posted on November 10, 2008 by | 11 Comments

Bust of Aminta Melendez in Colon.

Aminta Melendez and her father Don Porfirio Melendez.

Image on top : Bust of Doña Aminta Melendez that
sits in Colon’s Parque de la Avenida Central.
Middle: Aminta Melendez
and her father, Porfirio Melendez, circa 1904
Bottom: My sister Aminta and me about 1942.

After the notorious Colon fire of 1940, the Green family would return to a normal life with the appearance of the first buds of their second generation in the persons of my sister and me, Cobert Junior, or Juni for short, having been named after my father. My sister, Aminta, who was one year younger, had been named by my mother after Aminta Melendez, daughter and notable personage (although under mentioned) in the short revolutionary history of the City of Colon. Continue reading →

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Posted in West Indian Panamanians

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