The April BAMS Brown bag lecture will occur on Monday, April 12th in 206 Trabant University Center from 12:15-1:10. Carla Guerron Montero will be the main speaker and you will find her topic and a summary below. Please share this with your colleagues and graduate students and especially invite your undergraduate students to come.
Cuisine, Ethnicity, and Black Identities in Panama
Carla Guerron Montero, Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Delaware
Shared ideologies of food preference are fundamental for both national and regional identities. In my presentation, I discuss the preparation and consumption of regional dishes among Afro-Antillean populations in the northwestern region of the country, the Archipelago of Bocas del Toro (Bocas del Toro province). Afro-Antilleans have contributed to the construction of the youthful Panamanian nation since the early 1800s. Considered the “ideal” labor force for some of the most important infrastructural projects of the nation (the Panamanian Railroad and the Panama Canal), thousands of workers from the British West Indies migrated, either temporarily or permanently, to Panama. Due to their distinctive cultural traits-in contrast with Panama’s assumed “national” mestizo identity-and the racial climate in the country and the region, Afro-Antilleans became second-class citizens, whose many accomplishments have only been acknowledged in recent years. Their marginalization and isolation was more apparent in Bocas del Toro. In my talk, I discuss the preparation and consumption of Afro-Antillean cuisine, and I address the role of international tourism in fostering both the maintenance and evolution of this dish for Panama’s cuisine.
James M. Jones, Director
Black American Studies