The Thorns of the Rose is the memoir of William Donadio, the proprietor of Colon's best tailor shop.

Born in 1928 into a European family that was on the former Canal Zone's Silver Roll --- so called because US citizens working for the canal were paid in gold, while all other employees, most of whom were from the West Indies, received their pay in silver --- Donadio's memoir of growing up on the Atlantic side, then building a small business and raising a family in Colon was originally written in Spanish for the benefit of his grandchildren. However, a number of his grandchildren live in the United States and don't speak much Spanish, hence the English translation.

The Thorns of the Rose, however, is not only of interest to a small circle of relatives. Though written by a tailor with just a modest formal education, it's a valuable historical document.

Very few books have been written about Colon, in Spanish or English. Donadio's account of growing up in the Silver Roll sections of Gatun and Cristobal, then, after his stepfather's forced retirement, spending his adolescent years in the now vanished community of Folks River and going on to build a business in downtown Colon, is thus a rare primary historical source.

There have been a number of books and articles written about the black laborers who came to the isthmus from the Caribbean islands and accounted for the majority of those who built the Panama Canal. Mostly as exercises in early 20th century political triumphalism or later historical revisionism designed to justify the continued American enclave in the Canal Zone, there are even more books and articles about the Americans who worked to build and operate the canal. However, though the Europeans, Chinese and Hindus who worked on the Silver Roll went on to become important parts of Panama's cosmopolitan social fabric, they have been ignored by historians and writers. The Thorns of the Rose stands alone in the literature documenting the experiences of the European part of the Canal Zone's Silver Roll.

The Thorns of the Rose is also a rare and important work for another reason. Sociologists have written studies of Panama's poor, hack journalists have produced fawning panegyrics about Panama's rich, Americans with ideological points to make have churned out literature about the Panamanian political class, and the politicians and their followers have penned many a tome justifying themselves and excoriating their adversaries. Almost nothing has been written about the Panamanian middle class. Donadio's book begins to fill that void. Those who read it with an eye toward Donadio's underlying values and the greater context of his individual experiences will come away with invaluable insights about Panama's relations with the United States, its corrupt political system and its complicated social relationships, from the seldom-heard middle class perspective.

The Thorns of the Rose, a 242-page illustrated paperback, costs $15. This includes the costs of postage and handling. To order your copy, send a check made out to Eric Jackson and the information about where you want it mailed to:

Eric Jackson
The Panama News
Apartado 55-0927 Estafeta Paitilla
Panama, Republic of Panama