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artsAlso in this section: More artists, fewer pirates expected at revived Portobelo Fair by Eric Jackson In centuries gone by, the gold and silver that the Spaniards stole from Peru was shipped to Panama Viejo, then transported on pack mules to the Atlantic side, where great convoys of Spanish Galleons would come with the trade winds to Portobelo with goods of all sorts to sell, then after the winds shifted head back to Spain loaded with precious metals. In between there would be great trade fairs, which reached their height at Portobelo. The English Sea Dogs and other predators --- “pirates” to the Spanish, but often the crown’s “privateers” to the English --- would do their best to waylay the shipments headed for Europe. The bolder among the corsairs --- Francis Drake, Henry Morgan et al --- would attack the towns where the fairs were held. Nombre de Dios was more or less abandoned to the more easily defended Portobelo, but that too fell to raiders. Eventually the combination of rampant piracy and the diminishing flow of booty from the Andes turned Portobelo from a great and prosperous trading center into a sleepy and impoverished town. But in recent years Portobelo has been a growing tourist attraction and Afro-Panamanian cultural center, a place that’s jam-packed every October 21 for the Festival of the Black Christ and draws people from around the world for the Diablos and Congos Festival. So wouldn’t you know, Portobelo is reviving its old fairs --- or sort of. Arturo Lindsay, a Panamanian professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, Photographer Sandra Eleta (who’s a prime mover behind the Diablos and Congos Festivals) and Roberto Enrique King of the Fundacion Alterarte are now organizing the modern Portobelo Fairs as international artists’s summits. The first of them took place in 2003, and the next one will take place in Portobelo starting on June 4. There will be a wide variety of plastic and performing arts, and those artist who wish to participate still have until May 29 to sign up. For more information or to sign up as a participating artist, contact Roberto Enrique King by email at reking@cwpanama.net or by phone at 264-4560 or 659-9579; or Arturo Lindsay at 448-2124.
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