One of the great disconnects between many of the American expats of the gated communities is this compulsion about how food comes from a supermarket or a restaurant, not from the micro-businesses of that half of the Panamanian work force who make their livings in the informal economy. It’s not only a matter of missing out on bits of Panamanian culture like piva nuts, but also a big distortion in what they hear about Panama by way of over-reliance on an upscale sliver of local society with which they do interact. Archive photo by Eric Jackson.
Post-Gringo Coronado wasn’t different than elsewhere in the Interior this time…
In search of traditional
US Thanksgiving stuff…
article and photos by Eric Jackson
This is Panama. This is 2024. The country is no longer split in two by a “perpetual” strip of land and water presided over by a US Army Corps of Engineers major general appointed by the president of the United States as governor. THAT arrangement lasted for 75 years but ended 45 years ago. But even before Canal Zone times, and well after, the Republic of Panama and the United States of America are heavily intermarried societies, with plenty of citizens of each in the other country, with many a strange cultural fusion.
The American soldier, sailor, airman or marine who was stationed here, met and married a Panamanian, then sometime after mustering out of the military came back to live here? I suppose that over at the embassy, among the marine guards and the various military attaches, that cycle of relationship still continues with each new shift of US Armed Forces personnel. But it’s way diminished.
Along the way there have been people with birthright citizenship in one or the countries but citizenship by parentage in the other, and these people sometimes come and go between the isthmus and the states.
And are there also “illegals?” Sure, and occasionally Panama deports some American who has family or friendship ties and tries to stretch that without proper documentation by working here without a permit. The United States deports the occasional Panamanian university student who overstays his or her visa, and both countries will send criminals or crazy people back.
And then there are the “expats,” so often attracted here by an industry of glowing and sometimes down right false published reports. Live down here and pay no taxes, don’t worry about crime, park the money you made in the rackets up there in a numbered bank account here. Live in English-only insularity in an upscale gated community. Bring all your customs and tasted with you, and find establishments to keep you supplied for those.
But then came the epidemic. A few Americans were among the nearly 9,000 people who died of COVID here and a lot of Americans boarded the evacuation flights. Some of these latter returned, many did not.
How many gringos left for good? Where are the remaining concentrations? Perhaps someone in the Panamanian governments more or less knows, but I have not seen those data published.
MOREOVER, there is this common imprecision,. “norteamericanos.” I have noted US and Panamanian, or US and other Latin American, dual citizens referred to that way. Also Canadians.
But see, Canadians are not gingos who have difficulty pronouncing words like “about” and “schedule” in proper American Standard English. Many of them get downright annoyed abouit being confused with Americans, even if it has been more than 200 years since the United States and those British provinces that were to become the Dominion of Canada went to war with each other. Canadian and American football have different rules, with the sniper picking off fans at the Super Bowl a peculiarly Canadian figment of the imagination. Plus, Canadian Thanksgiving has its own traditional origins and happens in October.
Canadians have their own specific community presence in and around Coronado. The place was promoted early on by hosting golf tournaments of the Canadian PGA.
Politically, there is the impression that Coronado’s Canadian community is largely Tory, but Canada isn’t quite so whacko about its political divisions as is today’s United States. There may be a few Quebec separatists in the mix, but THIS Panagringo wonders if there are now more Canadian New Democrats in Coronado than there are US Democrats.
In years past, American Thanksgiving shopping was catered to in Coronado. It SORT OF still is – there were frozen turkeys to be had. But the boxes of stuffing mix, and the smoked turkey legs or wings? I went to El Rey, and Super 99. and the Machetazo, but those things I did not find in Coronado as American Thanksgiving Day approached. What’s a single downscale rustic old hippie who cooks on a hotplate instead of a stove with an oven to do?
I had tried Penonome and Anton on previous days, without finding the ingredients I sought. Nor even the canned loose-berry cranberry sauce, which I really ought to avoid anyway because of the sugar.
Yeah, I know how to make stuffing from scratch with the croutons or bread crumbs, spice and maybe et cetera. Plus, I have done non-traditional Thanksgiving dinners in years past. Not a problem here. No cause for the onset of tropical cabin fever depression. I could substitute and make do, and I did.
The Martinelli business empire has been and is in hart times mode, as seen at its main outpost in Coronado. But we are recovering from the depths of the epidemic, which hit Panama when the national economy was already in a bad way. Across the street at the entrance to Coronado El Rey has remodeled and expanded. The Riba Smith that used to be across the Pan-American Highway has moved to move spacious digs a mile or to to the east. A lot of little businesses failed but a lot of other ones have started up. Outdoor advertising is still in the doldrums and one of the notable changes is that hardly any of it is in English anymore. Judgments have been made about which market niches aren’t much worth it anymore and they probably do affect who has been moving into the beach communities. Photo by Eric Jackson.
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