Politics of Race in Panama - 9780813054018

Politics of Race in PanamaAfro-Hispanic and West Indian Literary Discourses of Contention\nAuthor(s): Sonja Stephenson Watson\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: University Press of Florida, United States\nImprint: University Press of Florida\nISBN-13: 9780813054018, 978-0813054018\nSynopsis\nThis volume tells the story of two cultural groups: Afro-Hispanics, whose ancestors came to Panama as African slaves, and West Indians from the English-speaking countries of Jamaica and Barbados who arrived during the mid-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries to build the railroad and the Panama Canal.\n\nWhile Afro-Hispanics assimilated after centuries of mestizaje (race mixing) and now identify with their Spanish heritage, West Indians hold to their British Caribbean roots and identify more closely with Africa and the Caribbean.\n\nBy examining the writing of black Panamanian authors, Sonja Watson highlights how race is defined, contested, and inscribed in Panama. She discusses the cultural, rac.