For years Latin Americanists have been arguing that there is more to the history of the Panama Canal than political wrangling among countries large and small, military strategy, or the triumph of U.S. technology. The construction and maintenance of the canal have spawned a social history as well. As a former president of Panama once tried to convey to gloating North Americans who persisted in believing they were singularly responsible for the building of the waterway: “The canal was built with French brains, American money, and West Indian sweat.”
Michael Conniff, who has written previously on populism in Brazil, is here concerned with the story of the 100,00 West Indians the North Americans brought to Panama between 1904 and 1914 as laborers, and what happened to them and their progeny who remained on the isthmus. Theirs is a social tragedy that commenced with the chance to escape the poverty of the British West Indies and often ended in hopeless despair in the slums of Colón and Panama City. They were victims of economic calculation and racial prejudices—of North Americans and Panamanians. Their U. S. employers relegated them to an inferior status by creating a dual labor system and instituting, despite federal regulations, Jim Crow practices in Canal Zone society. Panamanians disliked the West Indians because they took away jobs and because, as Conniff makes clear, Panamanians, with their own categories of race, did not believe West Indians could ever fit into Panamanian society. As Panamanian demands for a greater share of canal employment and benefits grew over the years, the West Indians were often sacrificed to accommodate them. After World War II, as pressures increased to end segregationist practices, Canal Zone officials, mindful of tradition and the views of the “calzones,” were able to blunt them. Yet, as Conniff shows, the West Indians overcame these obstacles. They grouped in churches and societies to organize and break out of the isthmian subclass. They found a champion in a West Indian journalist, George Westerman, editor of the Panama American and chronicler of their history. Ultimately, even Panamanian politicians had to pay attention. But their battle for economic and social justice continued, and not until the 1977 canal treaties did they win significant benefits.
This is a worthy addition to the existing literature. Conniff has scoured archival sources in Washington and London, and has spent enough time in Panama to get a feel for the cultural imprint the West Indians have made on the isthmus. He has written a scholarly account that offers much to anyone interested in labor, racism, migration, and the social legacy of international politics.
