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On May 26 through 31 Panama's Muchachas Guias (Girl Scouts) did their part to celebrate Black Panamanian Heritage Day with a photo show and an open house at their activity center in Betania.

The photo show was by Laureano Mor·n, a photographer and founder of PRODES, the Centro de Estudio Para la Promocion del Desarrollo. It featured scenes of congo dancing, polleron dresses, Atlantic side diablitos and recreations of the labors that female slaves performed during the colonial era. All of these themes related to the older of Panama's black communities, the "colonial blacks" who came here as slaves of the Spaniards. Also featured were black fashions from various eras, including the French Antillean dresses that many of the women who came here during the canal construction years brought with them and fashions that came into vogue as Panamanian blacks became more interested in their African heritage in the 60s and 70s.

The open house at the well ventilated and solid cinderblock two-story activity center located across from the Catholic church in Betania also featured tastes that for the most part came here with the younger of Panama's black communities, the West Indians. As in ginger beer, buns, and jerked chicken wings.

In Panama the Girl Scouts movement is a multi-racial organization led for the most part by middle class professionals. Their celebration of black Panamanian heritage was an expression of the cultures from whence substantial minorities of their leaders and members come, and one small part of an annual celebration of black heritage that was more extensive than usual this year because of Panama's centennial.


Also in this section:
Girl Scouts celebrate black heritage
Bleming-Herrera

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