Tag Archives: Black-Christ-of-Portobelo

Colon’s Mourning Couldn’t Stop the Black Christ’s Followers

Posted on October 21, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Black Christ of Portobelo in full regalia. Image share thanks to Thyngum at flickr.

The City of Colon today is in the midst of mourning for the violent repression of its people who are in opposition to the sale of the Colon Free Zone lands. Their’s is a claim to patrimony, but despite the general dificulties that the controversy has imposed on the residents of Colon, the thousands of Black Christ of Portobelo followers have somehow managed to converge on the Atlantic city of Portobelo. Continue reading →

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Posted in Colon, Culture in Panama

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Oral History, Assimilation and the Black Christ

Posted on November 9, 2011 by | 2 Comments
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I feel compelled to continue relating my personal experience with assimilation and how the history behind the black Christ helped me.  Assimilation seems to be on the minds of many people around the world these days, especially young people like I was when I first immigrated to the United States. Continue reading →

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Posted in Assimilation, Church in Panama

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A Silver Roll Grandmother and the Black Christ

Posted on October 20, 2011 by | Leave a comment
A Diablo Rojo going to take many pilgrims to Portobelo. Image

As we approach the grand celebration of the Black Christ this Friday, October 21, I never fail to recall the words of my beloved grandmother who, as I’ve noted countless times, was the key person in my life to introduce me to the Black Christ of Portobelo in the Province of Colon. Continue reading →

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Posted in Church in Panama

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The Day The Black Redeemer Was Excommunicated

Posted on October 14, 2011 by | Leave a comment

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The notion that the Redeemer of Israel would appear as a “Black Christ” and also a Nazarite, one who is consecrated to the Lord our God, was not always an acceptable idea to the Princes and Kings of the Re-conquest.

Even more significantly, that He should be an only son who would be sent to suffer and be humiliated and prove to be for sinful humankind a redeemer, one whom we of the enslaved African masses of America would worship and would love even more profoundly than the Virgin Mother herself, was positively anathema to many of the rulers of the Universal Church. Continue reading →

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Posted in Church in Panama, Colon

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The Black Christ of Portobelo: Lasting Impressions

Posted on October 8, 2011 by | Leave a comment

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As the yearly celebration of the Black Christ of Portobelo begins to enter into Panama’s collective psyche, I begin to draw mental pictures, as an artist would of this whole scene that is an intimate part of our folklore and spiritual heritage and is very much Panamanian. Continue reading →

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Posted in Church in Panama, Racism in Panama

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The Black Christ and the Black Madonna

Posted on October 19, 2010 by | 1 Comment
This is a scanned image of the Black Christ of
Portobelo, Panama.
The Black Madonna and Christ Child ofBreznice (Prague)
Interfaithmarianpilgrimages.com

As the 21st of October approaches, devotees of the Black Christ of Portobelo dressed in their purple robes and “mandas” can already be spotted on their pilgrimage to the small but now universally famous town on the Atlantic coast. Rest assured as we get closer to the date of the festivities hundreds, even thousands, will join them from all over the country and, indeed, all over the world. Continue reading →

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Posted in West Indian Panamanians

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