La Etnia Negra

Origin of the Black Race in Panama
Historically there were three large black arrivals to Panamanian soil, although some anthropologists say they have been present in America since before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. One of these investigations is based on discoveries at an archaeological site in Mexico called the sale, where they found huge skulls with thick lips and flat noses "likewarriors" Africans. In the case of Panama, said Nunez, in 1513the discoverer of the South Sea, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, said he saw the land of the cacique Cuarecua, dark-skinned people to those classified as native, which is strange because Spanish "had not brought the black groups."
The African diaspora in America occurred during the process of conquest and colonization of the region by the Spanish.They were brought as slaves by supplying some of the Indian's hand had no conditions for heavy work like mine.
The black worked on the plantations of sugar cane, cocoa, snuff, like diving for pearls, in agriculture and domestic. Many black or mulatto zambas were the work of nursing the children of Spanish, as the case of Simon Bolivar, whose nanny was "mom's milk." The black groups were removedfrom downtown and the West African coast, being sent to America on ships.
In the case of Panama, many slaves came across the Atlantic from the Caribbean to Cartagena and from there to the name of God, and subsequently, Portobelo, where the moved to Panama Viejo to be sold in the South (Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina). ”It is watered by many farms and plantationsas an important work hand" in Panama working in mines, pearl fishing, as domestic workers or handled bongos and mules. "It was a major force in the way of traffic in the Caribbean to the Pacific and vice versa."
Those first black immigrants to Panama came from African people like Olofo, Mandingo, Ashanti, okimano, congo, carabalí, Mozambique, among others, "none resembles the other, have structureand different physical-somatic." According to Professor Nunez came a second wave, a small but significant. It was black slaves arrived with their English masters to Boca del Drago and Islands Pastors in Bocas del Toro, there were mixed with slaves and masters were called Creoles bocatorian. The third major influx was for the construction of the Railroad and the canal.
These were brought asworkforce from Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Jamaica and Barbados. They came to work, but they were not slaves, as in other places they had abolished slavery, but discrimination persists.
The arrival of blacks in Panama dates back to the time of colonial settlement, when transiting near Portobelo 3.500 slaves per year, which were destined for Peru, and extends to the discovery of goldin California, the railroad, the establishment of the United Fuit Company and, later, Aspinwall Fruit Co., and the periods of canal construction in French and American effort.
This period brought a time of feverish commercial activity and major disruption to our social life, however, favors the spirit cultural, literary in the formation of our poets, the full imposing height from Europe: Hugo,Musset, Byron and Espronceda and that America was moving up and Arboleda Caro Echeverria and Marble, without forgetting, of course, the influence of poetry mainland late eighteenth century, still in force: Goytía y Argote, Herrera and Obaldia, the Arosemena.
Afro-Panamanians come from a historical legacy of participation in various systems, activities and development models that survive until today,which include gathering, cultivation of household plots, rudimentary craft production, local trade, industrial development and scale emerging for export, international trade, the industrial platform of transportation services, international financial services and local socialism ethnic sector(in the case of indigenous peoples and African Palenque’s) colonial schemes (the European process and...