community

Also in this section:
El Valle's Campesino Parade
Tuesday Talk, the unflattering side of city development
Canadian Thanksgiving

Italian Night with the American Society

The church in El Valle
 

The Catholic Church in El Valle

It's not the house of worship for everyone in El Valle --- Panama has religious freedom and in that town as well as in most other places there are other denominations and resident non-believers. However, the Catholic Church is a central location, a repository of the community's culture and history, a key social institution and a meeting place for more than just religious purposes.

El Valle de Anton was because of its geographical and geological characteristics recognized by the Spanish conquerors as a most desirable place to settle and was thus one of the first places in the Interior that the Catholic Church set up shop. Was the site of this church the location where pre-Columbian residents held their pre-Christian religious observances? That would by no means be unusual, but this particular datum of Panamanian history seems to be lost.

Photo by Eric Jackson

Italian Night with the American Society