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Also in this section:
 1000 Pollera Parade
 Congo dancing in Colon
 Theatre Guild of Ancon auditions
 The usual suspects at XOKO
 Gallery & Museum Guide

1000 Pollera Parade
photos by Allan Hawkins

The annual 1000 Pollera Parade doesn't just feature the fancy Creole dresses that have become one of our national symbols. The wide range of our traditional culture, which has many regional variations and pecularities, is on display at this popular event on Panama City's Calle 50.

     As you might imagine, the labor required to make a pollera like this, plus the

      traditional jewelry, is considerable. This is, of course, reflected in the price.

Panama has two main black cultures, the later-arriving Antillean one and the earlier Spanish colonial one, from whence the particular expression shown above originated. Part of the colonial black culture was the Cimarron tradition created by slaves who ran away to the jungle and set up West African - style villages.

Here we see a more modern African-based fashion,

embraced by the West Indians in particular.

Diablitos come in several regional varieties. This is the La Chorrera style.

A Kuna song and dance, played with pan pipes and maracas.

These Embera women are painted with a substance made from boiled immature genips.

The tambor is a typical Interior-style drum. From time to time a Panamanian Carnival queen, politician or boxer will make his or her grand entry into a place accompanied by a murga, a band that plays tamborito rhythms on these and other instruments.

An Ngobe woman with everyday dress and also beads, feathers and paint for the special occasion.

Here we have some congo dancers, typical representatives of the Cimarron culture.

Also in this section:
 1000 Pollera Parade
 Congo dancing in Colon
 Theatre Guild of Ancon auditions
 The usual suspects at XOKO
 Gallery & Museum Guide