Even in hardscrabble El Bajito. It actually does not surprise. Not everyone who lives here is a displaced fisher or farmer. And the Germanic touches to the celebration of the birth of a prophet long ago in the Levant? Remember that part the Spanish heritage is that much of Spain was conquered by the Teutonic Visigoths. Photo by Eric Jackson.
That time of the year in this corner of Latin American Christendom
by Eric Jackson
Panama is a Catholic country. Not universally, and it’s not compulsory, but it is mentioned in the constitution, next to where it says we have freedom of religion here, that we’re Catholic-majority.
In our history the indigenous people, most of whom traced roots to the Chibchan peoples of Central Colombia, were forcibly drafted into Catholicism by the Spanish conquistadores. How brutal was it? Depends on whom you ask. Among those original nations that never entirely assimilated, horror stories abound. From the Spanish side, varying shades of autocracy tended to censor the whole story.
Our independence from Spain? At a key moment the local Catholic Church saw the handwriting on the wall and went along with Panama splitting from Spain and rather immediately adhering to Bolívar’s Gran Colombia. But Bolívar and his partners in leading the revolution were freemason, men who disapproved of any official religion but trusted people who in some fashion believed in God more than those who did not.
Simón Bolívar died a hard death, infected by tuberculosis and disaffected by the course that his revolution had taken. “I have ploughed the sea!” he lamented on this deathbed. And indeed, Gran Colombia gradually broke apart and Colombia spent most of the 19th century rent by civil wars between Conservatives who wanted an officially Catholic country and Liberals who wanted secular government.
Panama took its exit from Colombia in a 1903 US-backed Conservative coup. The Liberals went along because like most other Panamanians they were sick of Colombia’s incessant warfare. Soon, under the leadership of Belisario Porras, the Liberals gained the upper and and the Conservative Party went extinct here, but they never got so hardcore as to ban Christmas.
Did the Liberals take over the churches? Actually the Catholic Church maintained its own governance but the buildings became public property — that is, maintained at public expense but run by the priests. And with the US presence in the form of the Canal Zone, a commercial aspect to the main December Christian holiday was enhanced in Panamanian culture.
Neither here nor there, but the commercialization of the holidays also brought with it a social compulsion to consume, the inner-felt need to buy and give gifts. It’s a police problem not only in Panama, but the cops here not only publish annual warnings, the also have enhanced the guard around ATM ,machines and shopping centers.
Do be careful. Christmas is also high-crime season. But then, just as there are people looking out for drunk drivers and muggers, most of the people here are in rising spirits. Take care but enjoy.
‘TIS THE SEASON — for cops to keep an eye on the ATM machines. Police photo.
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