José Agustín Arango Ramírez y su legado traces the life of the Panamanian Arangos from the arrival of the first family member in the early nineteenth century to his descendant José Agustín Arango Remón, one of the protagonists of Panama's independence from Colombia in 1903. The book, commissioned by the Arango family to foremost Panamanian sociologist and historian Alfredo Figueroa Navarro, focuses on the details of the Arango family. However, given the role of this family in Panama's government and Figueroa Navarro's insightful approach to his task, this book goes beyond the story of one family and gives us a novel understanding of nineteenth-century Panama.
This insightful approach is particularly important because Panama's nineteenth century has been understudied. Contemporary Panamanians, whose understanding of the nineteenth century still carries the weight of that earlier era's nationalist descriptions, tend to merely portray this important century as an interregnum between Panama's independence from Spain and Panama's independence from Colombia. Works on nineteenth-century Panama for the most part focus on two things: Panama's multiple attempts at separating from Colombia, and the role of foreign investments in major infrastructure work such as the Panama Railroad and the Panama Canal. Institution building in the nineteenth century is rarely studied, as if it had not happened. The neglect of institution building in the nineteenth century seems to follow an idea taught in Panamanian schools, where children learn the nineteenth-century writer Rufino Cuervo's comment that “whoever wishes to know Panama should visit it now, because it is about to come to an end.”
Nationalist stories aside, the nineteenth century was crucial for institution and political building in Panama. It was the century of Panama's first democratic elections and first constitutional governments. It was also a century of urban modernization and public education. And this is what Figueroa Navarro highlights in his book. With his analysis of José Agustín Arango Ramírez and his important role as a liberal journalist and a participant in the creation of the Sociedad de Amigos del País, we observe the creation of a public sphere in Panama—in Jürgen Habermas's sense. With Figueroa Navarro's examination of Arango Ramírez's ancestor Ricardo Arango Remón, we obtain a window into the life of nineteenth-century Panamanian merchants and their multiple connections with other ports in the Pacific Ocean. We understand, for example, how important a port like Guayaquil was for Panama's economy. We also understand the role of local protagonists in creating modern Panama. The Arangos were part of a group of local entrepreneurs who actively sought to participate in the construction of important infrastructure projects like an urban train, which they proposed in 1882 to Panama's government. Of particular importance were their efforts at building Panama City's first aqueduct between 1894 and 1898. Panamanian and foreign engineers conducted important studies and traced plans for this aqueduct, even if it would not be built until the early twentieth century by the new US government in the Canal Zone.
The life of Ricardo Arango Remón also allows us to understand institution building in the late nineteenth century. A conservative working for the government of the Regeneration, he was prefect of Panama, general administrator of the treasury (administrador general de hacienda), and governor of Panama. His life allows us to observe late nineteenth-century policies in public health, public education—including the construction of the normal school for women—public roads, and jails. Finally, Figueroa Navarro studies the life of José Agustín Arango Remón, who was a Colombian senator from Panama and later a crucial conspirator during Panama's independence from Colombia. He was one of the organizers of the independence movement and a member of the first Junta de Gobierno Provisional as well as Panamanian ambassador to Washington. The history of the Arango family, along with the book's important appendix of selected primary sources, provides an invitation to do further research on Panama's rich nineteenth century, a century essential for understanding the political, cultural, and social foundations of twentieth- and twentieth-first-century Panama.
José Agustín Arango Ramírez y su legado is a crucial book for understanding Panama's nineteenth century. Readers will enjoy the interesting life of the Arango family, and from Figueroa Navarro's skillful analysis they will come out surprised by the multiple ways in which the nineteenth century is still part of us.
