This is a great article about a perspective of Panama’s history early on when the US presence was throughout the country. What a story and great pictures as well.
BY MessyNessy
If I’m honest, before coming to Panama, I really didn’t know much about its murky 20th century history with the Americans. In fact, I remember rather swiftly passing over the subject in history class (I went to an American high school in London). I wasn’t aware it was so recent and raw and that I’d still find a decaying U.S. military footprint still so present throughout central Panama. And little did I know it was all about to become my new fascination when I landed myself on the doorstep of a prized Panamanian artist whose work and studio I’d requested to photograph one day…
Isabel de Obaldia lives in a house that was left behind by a Lieutenant of the U.S. military – or was it a a sergeant? Anyway. Almost her entire neighbourhood was built and occupied by U.S. military personnel not so long ago; Isabel reminds me that the last Americans left as recently as 1999. For almost 100 years, thousands of Americans lived a life of luxury in secluded tropical communities close to the Bay of Panama. Known as “Zonians” (living in what was known as the Canal Zone), they maintained one of the world’s great engineering feats – the Panama Canal.