The role of blacks in the 19th and 20th centuries

This population came to our country to work more difficult tasks aware of the stress experienced during that time.

It is important to know that the arrival of black groups in Panama It does not appear in one phase, its presence is the product of different migration movements from different places, but above all Caribbean Antilles.

Colonial blacks were brought by the Spaniards to the isthmus to facilitate the work of the conquerors and colonizers of America, while the West Indians arrived in the second half of the century 19th and early 20th centuries with several migrations to build, work with large dimensions.

Historian Silvio Zavala points out that many of the blacks who they came to America They were by no means the barbarians described by the apologists for slavery, and for this reason many managed not only to preserve their elements of culture but also to pass them on to other black slaves – of different origins – with whom they lived… They played a very important role at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in favor of the development of the Isthmus, since the construction of the interoceanic highway was first actively managed by the French and then under protection NOW.

George Westerman claims that during the works on Panama and French Canal Railway the demand for Antillean workers was high. His job was mainly maintenance and operation Panama Canal and the work of this ethnic group during World War II This was decisive for mastering the English language. It should be noted that this was a period of economic prosperity that was strengthened by the change in policy of Mr United States towards Latin America non-intervention.

They took the same religion, language, customs and the traditions of their teachers, as the Indians did after the conquest, and it was like this part of the unique mixed race that happened on this side of the world.

Historian Mauricio Mclean He points out that dancing was an important part of these groups, black people were always very musical and it is very difficult to imagine someone who does not know how to dance; It is interesting that dance competitions were held in Colón as early as 1910… Despite the great differences between colonial and West Indian blacks, which are actually imperceptible, it was the contribution and integration of the ethnicity of this racial group; for which it was achieved by your efforts and his stubbornness leaves his heritage in Panamanian culture.