silver people voices from the panama canal

Noriega’s regime was corrupt, brutal, authoritarian, but President Reagan and Vice-President Bush had overlooked this because Noriega was useful to the United States.

20, 1989, the United States invaded Panama in “Operation Just Cause.” Howard Zinn provides a description in chapter 21 of A People’s History of the United States:Īs if to prove that the gigantic military establishment was still necessary, the Bush administration, in its four-year term, launched two wars: a “small” one against Panama and a massive one against Iraq.Ĭoming into office in 1989, George Bush was embarrassed by the new defiant posture of Panama’s dictator, General Manuel Noriega. Army M-113 armored personnel carrier on a street near the destroyed Panamanian Defense Force headquarters. Included are a historical note and selected references.A U.S. Well, thanks to Engle’s elegant and affecting novel, now more will know. “No one cares because no one knows,” it says. They don’t.” In the epilogue, a dictional letter written after the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition mentions that although there are plenty hailing this new “manmade Wonder of the World,” no mention whatsoever is made of what the “silver people” endured. There is hope, though, as Henry and Mateo become friends “Then we sit/ together, / medium- dark/ and dark-dark, / as if/ the bizarre/ Canal Zone rules/ did not/ matter. Especially compelling are sections containing poems from the voices of the jungle flora and fauna who also had to endure this environmentally disruptive project.

Engle’s devastating free-verse novel eloquently lays out the racial injustice between the whites and Europeans who acted in more supervisory capacities, and those of color who had not only to deal with deplorable and dangerous working conditions, but also segregation and horribly inadequate living conditions.

The blatant racism and horrific conditions surrounding the monstrous undertaking of the construction of the Panama Canal are told through the voices of characters such as Mateo, a 14-year-oldĬuban who lies about his age in order to be able to work on the project Anita, a young, female herb collector/seller Henry, a Jamaican hoping to send money back home and various U.S. Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal.

Silver people voices from the panama canal