A Brief History of the Panama Canal Zone (Part One)

0:11 Hi everyone. This is Carmen and Christina and this is Estudia is Unknown, a podcast where we talk about Latin American history. Sometimes it's horrible and deals with heavy topics like racism, corruption, and genocide. But more than that, it's also about resistance, power and community. Wow, it's like we haven't recorded ever. That's what it feels like. Honestly, I was even asking you, like, wait, did we have an episode last week? It feels like we haven't recorded in forever. But yeah, yes, we did have an episode of last week. I think because. Recorded in Spanish and so it's like a different intro. You know, it doesn't even feel real. I'm just scary. Yeah, it feels like a fever dream, especially when I can't pronounce words, you know, yes, yes, Anyway, what is today about? Will Christina? Today we are talking about the Panama Canal, which has been kind of like a hot topic a little bit because really have a certain someone who is back to terrorize all of our lives. Yep, unfortunate, very And I'm gonna save the dumb ass, fucking dumb shit that Trump has said about the Panama Canal for a later part because this is going to be a part or I don't know how many parts yet. I'm hoping just too.

1:34 But yeah, you never know. We'll see. Yeah, Okay, I guess I'll get into it unless you have something to say before. I don't think so, you know, I feel like we don't Okay, I was gonna say, I feel like we don't talk about Panama enough. No, you're right, I mean other than our last Panama episode, the Invasion of Panama, which is also a bunch of bullshit, you know, Yeah, we haven't really talked about it. I think that was our first and only time. Yeah. Yeah, all right, well let's get into it. Yeah. The Panama Canal is a ten mile strip of land, five miles on each side of the canal, and for a long time the zone belonged to the US, who acquired it through the I Boo now Bardiya Treaty. Okay, pretty sure, that's how you say that. Those are the last names the Treaty of nineteen o three and maintained control of it pretty much until nineteen ninety nine, when full control was given to Banama. Control of the Banama Canal by the US is marked by displacement of and discrimination against Panamanians and immigrants from like the West Indies and Jamaica who were largely black, as well as destruction of the local environment. Right, what do you mean that US has brought up on racism, destruction of someone else's land and more.

3:05 They never do that. I'm shocked. Before the development and creation of the Panama Canal, the area was one of the most densely populated areas of Panama, but by the nineteen seventies, most of these towns, like Gatun and others had been largely forgotten by Panamanians, essentially erased and quick side note. I learned about this topic from a book, a historical historical fiction book called The Great Divide by Christina Anriquez. And this is the second book I read of hers. The first one I think you read it too, the Book of Unknown Americans a long time ago, Yes, and I loved that book.

3:46 It was fun. Yeah, And this book is similar in that it follows like a cast of characters and set during this time, during the development of the Panama Canal, once the US has taken over the development of it, and it follows like different people in the area, Like one of them is a doctor who went to Panama to try to eradicate yellow fever or malary adam bro which one it was probably both, honestly, yeah. And then another one is a younger woman who immigrated I want to stay from Jamaica to Panama to try and make more money for her family because her sister's sick with some like illness that whatever needs they need money for. And then another one is a young man who makes his dad mad because his dad is against the Panama Canal because he believes it's going to ruin Panama, which he was right.

4:44 And he was right, yeah, and he was not wrong. And this young man gets into a tiffy with his dad because his dad doesn't agree with him working and whatever. Like different characters, young man is building the Panama Canal. He's working, yeah, in the in the canal. And that's that's where you first learned about the Panama Canal. I already knew about the Pandama Canal. Everyone knows about Panic Canal. I'm the canal. I thought that's where I was like, that's no, no, no, where I was going was anyway, okay. I was inspired to learn more about it because of this book. One of the characters that made me want to look more into it was because I knew the existence of the Panama Canal, right obviously, and one of the things we learned, yeah, like the US was like I don't know, yeah, I mean for it, yeah, And I knew the US role with the canal like a little bit now a lot.

5:43 Yeah. But one of the female characters in the book lives in the city I want to say, she lives in the city of Cologne, but she's from Gatoon, and she says just her visits her sister there often, and during one of her visits, she learned that the residents of Gatun are being asked to leave for the development of the Panama Canal, and so she gathers her neighbors to protests because they've already heard of other smaller towns that have been asked to move and have moved and they're like, no, we're going to fight against this, and so okay. Learning about that and the protests that they did, because obviously the author Christina Antiquez did her research for the book too, right, that made me want to look into them, like, obviously people protested this, like they didn't find no one just left give up. Yeah, Yeah, that's what led me to the topic. Okay, And so by looking like up different stories about this, I found my main source erased the Untold Story of the Panama Canal by Mariksa. Lasso, And it's really the only book that goes into these depipulated towns.

7:00 We're not talking about the depipulation today, yes, today, not yet. First we need some context. Let me just say that Carmen has been researching this. No, it's not that I've been researching it. It's that I've been reading. Karmen has been promising to research this. You've been reading the book that counts as research. That is literal research for this. Right, I guess. But I guess when I think of researching, I'm like looking stuff up and it's like I wasn't looking anything. I was finishing a book. Yeah, I mean for true, Yeah, yeah, I was. I've been reading this book since November. Yeah, and I didn't think it was going to take me so long, but it was. It was a little on the dry side. So, yeah, we need some context before we talk about the depopulation of the towns for the canal zone. So we're going to talk a bit about how the Panama Canal came to be under US control. Right, So, yeah, I mentioned that the US acquired the canal in nineteen oh three, but initially back in eighteen eighty one, the building of the canal was a French effort through a company called the French French Company Universal. The canal canal into the top.

8:19 You say that, I don't know, I don't know how to say it. French Company Universal, probably canal International, I'm guessing it's what that word is. And it looks like international anyway, a French company. And this was led by Ferdinand the Lesseps, the builder of the Swiss canal in Egypt. Have you heard of the hot another another? Yeah, another canal that's place that lends itself for imperialism. Yeah yeah, yeah. And a certain country that we shall not name that's not really a country, but it wants it. It's demanding to be and terrorizing the world. Right, stop, right, I wonder what you're talking about. I'm just kidding. I know you're talking about Israel. Yes, yeah, yeah, I got that.

9:21 So Ferdinand's plan was to build a sea level canal along the path of the Panama Railroad, which is another story of colonization and a perilysm in the name of capitalism. That's the topic list. Yeah, so, uh yeah. The plan was to build a canal along the already existing path of the Panama Railroad, and Ferdinand estimated that it would cost around one hundred and thirty two million dollars and twelve years to complete. But the western desire to build a canal in Central America goes even further back than the eighteen eighties, as early as the sixteenth century. And I didn't look up to see when the sixteenth century starts. Would that be sixteen hundred?

10:13 I don't know. I think of the seventeen hundred. Okay, that makes sense whatever it is. So actually, I guess I could have known because then President Eusses Grant, So maybe that'll help put a time to this other than sixteenth century. I don't know whenever he was president. I didn't look that up either. I don't remember, like I vaguely know, but I don't. Are you sure it was the sixteenth century? That sounds too early. Well, okay, as early as the sixteenth century there was talks of this, I see, I see of a canal, wanting of them wanting to build a canal. And then Lysses S Grant was president during eighteen sixteen nine to eighteen seventy seven. I see, so talks of this desire to build a canal went as back at sixteenth century, since people were traveling from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

11:07 That's what I thought. Okay, so the sixteenth century would have been like the start of colonization of the Americas because he was fifteen oh one to sixteen hundred, and because it took so long, you know, to get from one side to the other, right. That had to go all the way around and South America. Yeah, yeah, so that's how far back I guess it started right like this, this wants to build the right now. It was a very long voyage, and with the canal in Central America, they could cut so much time. Right, So when uleases as Grant became president, not even that long he was president that he did this, but he sent steven expeditions to explore the possibility of building a canal. But that didn't really go anywhere. But as time went on and travel and trade increased, the desire for a care Now.

11:57 It's not what I said. It sounded like you said crazy. No, I said, increased okay, it just sounded wrong. Okay. So as time went on and travel and trade increased, the powers that be felt the need for a canal even more. Since travel and trade were increasing at this point, like we already mentioned, it took forever to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. So this meant less money, right, because because time is money. Yeah, yeah, you get it. Everything goes back to money. So it was not only the desire for faster trips to build the canal, but also because the Swiss Canal was making so much money for its investors that Fernand believed a canal in Central America would also yield the same kind of money for its investors. And the financial success of the Panama Railroad was also a motivating factor for Ferdinand.

12:58 In its first six years of operation, it made over seven million dollars, and that was so much money that not even these sixteen thousand plus people that had died building Umorro road lessened his excitement about the money he could make. Oh, of course, now, the money that could create everything. Plus, in their eyes, this was just a bunch of brown people that died, So they don't don't care. They're not even people right in their eyes, yeah, in their eyes, yes, yes, So the French hacked the jungle and made a path in which they would start digging, right, and they began their work on January twentieth, eighteen eighty two, with work crews consisting mostly of black Panamanians. Well then they were Colombians, right, and Indian laborers. And I didn't know if it meant from like the West Indies or like people from India. I didn't look into that, right, It's hard to know at the time, so that they're referring to just indigenous people anywhere, or I don't think they meant indigenous people because there was like a lot of foreign people working going into this yah, that's true.

14:12 Because of Panama's location, there was a lot already, a lot of different performers like externa kittos, Yeah, different populations, the Chinese people, like I said, from the Caribbean. The railroad work also brought yeah, yea of people too. Yeah, And even before the railroad, there was a huge trade already, like a world of trade that already existed here, okay, okay, And that's like a huge thing that the book gets into because there was this and we'll get into this later on too, But there was a huge belief that the canal and the railroad brought like modernization and like economic economy, like finance to Panama. But that's that couldn't be further from the truth because the I guess they call it the Smith is myths. I can't even pronounce it.

15:06 It's miss whatever. This there was a huge like trade route already that already existed since like the dawn of time. It was one of those world's oldest trade routes. Oh miss, it's hard to say. Yeah, so a narrow strip of land would sea on either side, forming a link between two larger areas of land. That makes sense, And they already called it the Panamanian is Smith's Smith. It's Smiths. It just feels like st right, So it's yeah, miss, that is just it's whatever. It doesn't roll off the tongue. It doesn't matter. There was already a huge international trade route here in this zone that would become the Panama Canal, and the US and the West tried to make it seem like, oh, we're bringing this here, but it already existed.

16:02 So yeah, progress was being made slowly, but soon this progress would be plagued by rain. Ferdinand, who visited Panama during the dry season, had dismissed prior concerns from locals who knew better, they need the weather. Better leave it to a yeah, a foreigner to just like, oh, I know more, even though you have lived here for your entirety, of your entire life, and your lineage of your family and so on. And soon the crew was facing daily rain, mudslides, bugs, swamps and swamp ass from the horrible heat, smallpox, malaria, yellow fever. Yeah, let's remember this. This is a tropical area right right, the Chagatas River, which is like in the zone. The area was just growing bigger from the rain too. And this was after the fact that for Nand was warned by engineers about the impossible task of working with the river since the Chagatas River snaked the canal rout fourteen times.

17:10 Oh wow. And Ferdinand was just dumb. He sounds like a dumb bitch. He's a dumb, dumb ass French bitch. So he only saw the river when it was at low, like a low ebb and based off of that he decided that they would be able to dam and divert the river, but that was basically impossible. It was impossible during the rainy season, of course, and every time they made any progress, the rain and the overflowing river destroyed it. Men were dying from mudslides, malaria, and yellow fever. In about three years, four hundred and twenty workers had died. But that's low balling it, oh god, because the French company often fired sick workers before they died to reduce their medical costs. Okay, yeah, not surprising.

18:05 And this practice just continued when Yes, of course the US took over the building and that it's not worsened. Yeah, I don't know if it worsened because I didn't. I didn't actually, I guess at a later time I could look it up and see if I added. But that's something that the fiction book I talked about gets into because the young man that starts working at the canal, he ends up quitting because his friend dies. And that's that they had already seen like men die beside them, and then they just had to keep working. This is called the Great Divide. Yeah, I didn't need to my TV or I listened to it from libby support your local library. Yes, and the non fiction book I read erased doesn't really get into that because it's more about the depopulation of the towns. So that's why I didn't look up the numbers from when the US took over the building. But basically, yeah, a lot of people were dying, and the French company didn't really keep full account of the numbers because they cared more about saving money of course, of course, and even worse, whence the workers were hospitalized, three out of four would die in the hospital, and a huge factor in this was that being at the hospital increased the chances of catching malaria or yellow fever.

19:34 Because the gardeners from the hospital, in order, I don't know, to protect the potted plants from the gardens, they were step pots in pottery bowls filled with water like in the plants, and so yeah, you have to keep this increased and the water down. Yeah. Yeah, they increased the amount of still water, which is the worst thing you could do for disease care mosquitoes, and this practice increased the number of disease carrying mosquitoes by millions. So over the years, the death toll grew bigger and investors became pissed at the lack of progress in American cartoonists even made a comic of Ferdinand and it said, is Ferdinand de lea SEPs a canal digger or a grave digger?

20:27 Shot fired? Ooh, you do not want that to be said about you as you are building something. Oo. It's a good one, though, it is. Yeah, it's a fair critique extrords. Yeah. By eighteen eighty eight, the French company basically gave up, leaving the canal unfinished. After two hundred and eighty seven million dollars were spent, eleven miles of the canal had been dug, and twenty thousand. Men had died. Oh my god, So after all that they gave up. Wow twenty thousand yeah, wow. But the Western desire for the Panama Canal was not over, and President Theodore Roosevelt would soon step in.

21:20 Oh fuck this man. Yeah, we talked about him before, right, Like in different as, different topics have came up. I like vaguely remember one of the sterilization episodes he was talking shit. I think that's right, that's right, Mexicans. I'm pretty sure. And you know what, actually I think they said Mexicans, but I feel like it was probably about the Panama Canal Zone. M maybe because I know, I know the Panama Canal Zone came up in our first sterilization episode because more Browns were dying from these diseases because they weren't taking precautions in there are areas of these camps while they were doing the same they were taking percussions for all the white people involved in the project. Yeah, so like that's why they were dying more. But to them it's like, oh, it's because they're dirtier, they're good asser, they're so I think that's what I think. That's when he came up.

22:14 I'm pretty sure. So, yeah, he sucks. In a speech to Congress, Roosevelt made a speech about the Panama Canal saying, no single great material work which remains to be undertaken on this continent is as such consequence to the American people. And of course there's so much wrong about this part of his speech. And I don't know what the whole speech is. This is the only part I read about, but this already wrong. This part is trash. First of all, Yeah, I'm like, you know, part of America is for your years to be taken or part of the continent like, you can't just take what you up.

22:55 But that's what they do. Yeah, yeah, manifest destiny all that bullshit. Huh uh huh. So this brings us to nineteen oh two when the US with no input from any Colombians. Oh sorry, I know, I think you're going to get into this, But isn't the split of Panama from Colombia related to the Panama Canal Zone and the United States? It is, like I want to say, they instigated like a coup almost, Yeah, they did, and we are getting into that next. Okay, Oh, scratch off your briingo cards. We we gotta come, we gotta cook them.

23:35 And of course that's not funny, it's horrible. No, it's funny, and yeah in the sense I don't know, but in the sense no, but in the sense that is actually fucking depression. Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly. So, yeah, this brings us to nineteen oh two when the US without any input from Colombians, because again I mentioned before, Panama had yet to gain independence for Columbia. So in nineteen o two, the US reached an agreement with the French company to buy the rights of the canal and all of the equipment, so that they could take up, you know, the building of the canal. And so they agreed to with some that would not exceed forty million dollars.

24:17 And they did all these negotiations with the French company directly first, without even talking to Colombia, whose they it was their land. I guess they're, yeah, aren't they providing a lot of the labor as well? Yeah? Yeah, yeah. So after doing these negotiations and reaching an agreement with the French company, then they're like, oh, well, maybe we should talk to Columbia about this. So they started negotiating with Colombia, and in true US fashion, when when negotiations were no longer going their way, the US meddled to get their way and they concluded, yeah, and so they did what they do bests right, and they included with the white Panamanian oligarchy. I feel like I said that word oligarchy, garky, Yeah, oligarchy to incite a revolution. And this next information is pretty much word for word from a collaborative Instagram post from Afro Latino Travel and Diaspora Dash because I don't think I could say it better. Yes, and that video will be LinkedIn on sources. It's a it's a great video on We've mentioned her before too, well when I did the other Panama yeah Panama topic. Yeah, and I think you're the one he mentioned it. Yeah, yes, I was, yeah, but great resource. She also has a class she does on Zoom with someone else that's like a black history in the like Latin America like world,

25:50 but like touching on like racism and everything. I've been meaning to take it, but I keep forgetting. Also I have zero time, but like literally the best resource, one of the best resources for like Afro Latino Latina history in like all spaces, and she I think mostly posts. She used to be big on Twitter, but like she's backed everyone has backed off Twitter. Yeah, but I think she mostly does Instagram and YouTube right now, I should find her number too, the most oh yeah on Instagram. I think already follower the me too. But yeah, great account, great person. Okay, So, in nineteen oh three, the administration of Roosevelt intimidated Columbia with warships with the full participation of the ruling white Panemanian oligarchy, into giving up the province that became the Republic of Banama. Roosevelt acted on the behest of various banking groups, among them GP Morgan and Co. Who was appointed fiscal agent for the newly independent Republic of Banama and was selected by the US Treasury Secretary in charge of managing the ten million dollars in aid that the US sent always aid right. There was already discontent among Panamanians to seed from Colombia, and the US was happy to lend help to the Panamanians after Columbia refused several times to give US access to the canal lands, which posed favorable commercial and military advantages

27:23 to the US. That's why they wanted to land. Basically, the Panamanian white elite were on board with accommodating the wealthy of North America, as has been the historical protocol throughout the Americas for centuries until that point. And we've touched on that with different topics too. I feel like time and time again. Yeah, tell us all this time. Once the new Republic of Panama was formed, the Ibunao Vardia Treaty was signed and enacted, which seeded control of the Panama Canal Zone to the US in perpetution in exchange for ten ten million dollar initial payment and yearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars payments thereafter. In addition, the US government purchased title to all lands in the Canal Zone from the private owners. The Canal Zone area then became US territory with its own US schools, police stations, post offices. Basically a small US country within Panama with entire Panamanian towns being depopulated a race to make way for these US towns the Panama Canal Zone. And that's what we'll be getting into next time. Okay, I'm excited to learn about this horrible thing because I know nothing about this other than the reason for the US wanting to get involved with the Panama Canal Zone. That's like,

28:54 I think the only thing talked about in the wide like general US publics school education system and only really you know, in high school obviously and then college after. But they really just touched on the importance of like, oh, we needed a faster way to get around, more money, Teddy Rose a belt. But yeah, in that narrative, obviously they're not gonna mention the talents that were destroyed the causing war between these two places so that one would become Panama. But not in the interest of like quote unquote freeing Banama. It was like because they wanted Kindama Canal zone. And yeah, so I also read in one of the articles that I read for this part that the US was bribing Colombian soldiers in Cologne with fifty dollars each to lay down their arms. So on top of the threats they made with the warships and stuff, they also giving soldiers money to basically not fight of course. Yeah, but yeah, that was part one of the Panama Canal And.

30:12 I don't know. Anything you want to say before we sign off. No, I don't think so, other than thank you to our amazing Patreon members and shout out to our Patreon members Marilyn, Desiree, Mariah, Michelle, Chata, JG, Cysia, and Ileana. Yes, thank you. Our last Patreon only episode was us recapping and talking about Emilies, which was a lot of fun, and it was fun. I thought that I was done getting Emilia a Petes tiktoks, but the algorithm decided otherwise, and I'm still getting them, but I love them. I'm still getting them at the time of recording. However, in four days, we don't know, true probably be gone. Yeah, we'll see we'll see, we'll see what house, We'll see what happens. Yeah, I just it's so annoying because like posting history things on TikTok just under a spooky tales before he started to know has been the best thing because the one time we tried doing it on Instagram, it was about Hostessaria.

31:22 Oh my god, it was the worst. Wow. We had to turn off comments. It was so homophobic. People were so mad. The Latinos TMTM were so mad. It was insane. It's just like I know people you know, will be up, I don't know, have their problems with TikTok too, but like, honestly, I loved it and like the same same video you know on TikTok. It was all like, oh my god, we can do anything, as in like Latinos like we can at all. Oh slay queen. Wow, I didn't know this. Thank you so much. Like and then Instagram fuck this slur slur slur slur, Oh my god, like calling us beetles for talking about this, and it's like, yeah, you're like dumb if that's what you think it was.

32:13 It was. It was horrible, and like, yeah, it's just it's so scary Instagram. I mean yeah, yeah, literally fucking sucks. Yeah. So also, thank you to anyone who has rated us on Spotify. We are now at over one hundred ratings on Spotify, which is exciting. That is exciting and yeah, I mean as always, if you have enjoyed the podcast Learned Anything, feel free to give us a rating on Spotify review on Apple Podcasts. Our last review was from June, so it would be cool if you could get another one. I don't know JA saying yeah, and I don't know recommend us to to your woke.

32:58 A meegas. Yeah anyone though. Other than that, no, don't recommend us to them. We want to stay in our bubble. I know they say not to do that. But I'll give a buck. Now that I'm a Senora, I need to say in my bubble. So yeah, yeah, all right, Well, we hope that there is one less estoria unknown for you. Bye