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Speaker 1: My dad once told me he wanted his ashes spread

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Speaker 1: across the Panama Canal. I played along and asked if

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Speaker 1: I should say for a helicopter. My father was a force.

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Speaker 1: The family physician. Then doctors found a tumor in fall

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Speaker 1: of twenty twenty three, but he lasted about two weeks.

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Speaker 1: The earth felt like it trembled, but one thing felt certain, unshakable,

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Speaker 1: my father's desire to go home. So we brought his

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Speaker 1: ashes to Panama, where I've returned to quite a lot

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Speaker 1: lately to settle his affairs.

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Speaker 2: I'll be back, Okay, I'll be back.

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Speaker 1: Story. This is me saying goodbye to my cats in Boston.

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Speaker 1: The last time I left for Panama. I called my

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Speaker 1: mom on the way to the airport. The horizon tinted

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Speaker 1: pink as she asked to pray for me, as she

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Speaker 1: always asked God to open doors and closed doors. It's

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Speaker 1: something she sure God did. When my parents left Panama

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Speaker 1: almost forty years ago, a tiny me in tow my

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Speaker 1: mom and dad, a nurse and a doctor left in

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, Parama remained caught in the grip of

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Speaker 1: Manuel No Diega, a dictator trained by the US military.

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Speaker 2: Strange bedfellows.

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Speaker 1: Every Sunday, the government would air a propaganda show called

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Speaker 1: Everything for the Homeland Toto porla Patria.

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Speaker 3: Last Wars.

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Speaker 1: After my dad dreamed of practicing medicine in the US,

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Speaker 1: my mom imagined a place where No Diega's henchmen weren't

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Speaker 1: attacking people in the street. We moved over and over California,

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Speaker 1: then New York, where my sister was born, and eventually

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Speaker 1: South Florida. My mom supported us working as a nurse.

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Speaker 1: My dad, a pediatrician, sold newspapers until a residency accepted him.

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Speaker 1: My childhood embodied the diaspora. School years in the States,

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Speaker 1: but these long, delicious summers in Panama, where my hair curled,

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Speaker 1: my skin tanned, then my smile softened. I'd ride in

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Speaker 1: the back of my grandfather's blue jeep, protesting No Diega,

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Speaker 1: my little voice screaming abajo lapigna, a reference to the

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Speaker 1: dictator's pockmarked face. I grew up longing for those summers,

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Speaker 1: counting down the days until I was in Maya Wilalia's

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Speaker 1: front yard, eating starfruit from her trees. And at the

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Speaker 1: end of each summer, a dread formed in me, and

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Speaker 1: I'd cry all the way back to the States. Then,

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Speaker 1: on the eve of my fifth birthday, we came back

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Speaker 1: to Panama for Christmas break, blissfully unaware we'd soon witness

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Speaker 1: our new country bomb our homeland.

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Speaker 3: Hello.

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Speaker 4: Official figures list some two hundred Panamanian civilians killed. Locals

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Speaker 4: here say the true figure is nearer a thousand.

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Speaker 1: The US government had grown tired of No Diega. The

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Speaker 1: official story was that the authoritarian was caught drug trafficking

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Speaker 1: and money laundering into the US, but some reports say

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Speaker 1: the Panamanian dictator may have double crossed the CIA, whom

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Speaker 1: he'd long given secrets to.

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Speaker 5: He was finished a long time ago. He held his power.

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Speaker 1: By via The US invaded Panama, toppling him and killing

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Speaker 1: hundreds of Panamanian civilians along the way. Many were never found,

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Speaker 1: just mass graves and destruction left in the US's wake.

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Speaker 5: The Vatican called the United States and occupying power in Panama.

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Speaker 1: Today, the US called it Operation just Cause, famous for

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Speaker 1: the US military's rock and roll assault. They blared the

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Speaker 1: likes of ACDC day and night to drive No Diega

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Speaker 1: out of hiding. Seriously, there is a whole playlist online.

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Speaker 4: If diplomacy can't move Nadiega. Why not try rock music,

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Speaker 4: playing it at full volume outside the Vatican Embassy.

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Speaker 1: Before we'd left for Panama, my mom packed a frozen

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Speaker 1: turkey in our suitcase, not knowing the US would invade

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Speaker 1: two days later. We made that turkey last as long

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Speaker 1: as we could at my grandmother's house while explosions went

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Speaker 1: off across Panama City. There's a photograph of four year

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Speaker 1: old me from this trip. I've got an intense bowl

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Speaker 1: cut and I'm smiling wide in a yard full of

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Speaker 1: mango trees. Next to me is a US soldier camouflage

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Speaker 1: in military garb. His face is painted green, and he's

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Speaker 1: kneeling at my side holding a big gun. I remember

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Speaker 1: I told him I spoke English, I lived in the

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Speaker 1: United States, and hand on my heart, I recited the

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Speaker 1: Pledge of Allegiance.

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Speaker 2: I was such an innocent kid even then.

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Speaker 1: I think a part of me knew the US had

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Speaker 1: a certain cavalier power that it could use against my

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Speaker 1: country whenever it wanted.

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Speaker 2: And I've grown up with that knowledge.

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Speaker 1: That if it wanted to, the US could turn on Panama,

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Speaker 1: that it could decide to invade US as easily as

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Speaker 1: it did when I was four, eating leftover turkey, hearing bombs.

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Speaker 1: It's what goes through my mind when I hear Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump suddenly call for control of the Panama Canal, a

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Speaker 1: marvel of modern engineering that allows ships a shortcut from

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Speaker 1: one side of the world to the other, shaving off

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Speaker 1: millions of dollars in costs and months of travel.

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Speaker 4: The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our

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Speaker 4: treaty has been totally violated.

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Speaker 1: He's accused Panama of allowing the Chinese government control of

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Speaker 1: the canal and of overcharge the US. Panama vehemently denies

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Speaker 1: both claims, but Trump has declared the US could simply

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Speaker 1: make the canal theirs again.

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Speaker 2: And we didn't give it to China.

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Speaker 5: We gave it to Panama and we're taking it back.

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Speaker 1: So on that recent morning, as I flew to Panama

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Speaker 1: one more time, my mom's prayers were for more than

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Speaker 1: my travels. I sent them across an ocean to our

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Speaker 1: Isthmus for its sovereignty and place in the world.

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Speaker 5: Hello, Okay, text me when you're leaving.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I will.

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Speaker 5: I love you?

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Speaker 2: Okay, I love you too. Your pocket.

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Speaker 3: From Fudro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Ario

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Speaker 3: Josa and today the fight over the Panama Canal and

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Speaker 3: what it means for a journalist in the US with

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Speaker 3: deep Panamanian roots.

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Speaker 5: We'll be right back not thereby.

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Speaker 3: Yes, we're joined now by Panamanian American journalist Gristella Erra. So, Gristida,

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Speaker 3: I just want to ask you, because you know, you

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Speaker 3: actually don't hear a lot about Banama in US news.

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Speaker 1: So, yes, it's a little place, but there is a

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Speaker 1: deep love we Panamanians have for our home. It's always

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Speaker 1: been a place of connection of blended cultures, a main

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Speaker 1: artery for trade through the Americas. And you know a

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Speaker 1: fact in colonial times, enslaved Africans fled ships to freedom

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Speaker 1: in Panama and they made settlements where their heritage was preserved.

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Speaker 3: But currently Banamah is suddenly all over American media because

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Speaker 3: of this decision that Trump has made that he wants

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Speaker 3: to reclaim one of the most important global assets in

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Speaker 3: the history of trade and commerce, and that would be

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Speaker 3: the Panama Canal. So why don't you start, Cristella at

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Speaker 3: the beginning here for our listeners who maybe don't know

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Speaker 3: the history of the canal.

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Speaker 1: So historically ships were required to sail around the entire

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Speaker 1: continent of South America to get from the Pacific to

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Speaker 1: the Atlantic Ocean. That costs a lot of time and money.

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Speaker 1: So the French tried to build a shortcut a canal

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Speaker 1: and what is now Panama in the eighteen eighties. They

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Speaker 1: weren't able to because of mosquitoes and diseases, and so

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Speaker 1: the French approached to the US and offered them that

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Speaker 1: contract to build the Panama Canal.

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Speaker 5: But there was this.

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Speaker 3: Big problem right which is at Panama at that time

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Speaker 3: it was actually a part of Colombia.

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Speaker 1: Exactly, and Colombia initially denied the Americans the right to build.

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Speaker 1: So President Teddy Roosevelt decided, Okay, we'll just support Panamanian

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Speaker 1: independence from Colombia with a fleet of warships.

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Speaker 5: Okay, So that's pretty incredible.

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Speaker 3: And to be clear, there had already been an independence

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Speaker 3: movement brewing in Panama, and this military support from the

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Speaker 3: United States actually enabled that independence to happen.

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Speaker 1: So, yes, Panama its independence, but it comes at a cost.

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Speaker 1: The US establishes what is essentially an American colony inside

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Speaker 1: Panama in the zone where they built the canal. The

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Speaker 1: US spent over three hundred and seventy million dollars at

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Speaker 1: the time and finished the canal in nineteen fourteen, and

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Speaker 1: the US controls the canal for decades, But in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy seven, President Jimmy Carter signs a new treaty that

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Speaker 1: declared the Panama Canal would be owned and controlled by

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Speaker 1: Panama in the year two thousand.

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Speaker 4: Fionness and not forced should lie at the heart of

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Speaker 4: our dealings with the nations of the world.

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Speaker 3: President Carter may he rest in peace. Has received a

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Speaker 3: lot of criticism from Republicans for returning the canal to

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Speaker 3: the country of Panama.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I think one of the quotes that really summarizes the

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Speaker 1: sentiments from those that disagreed with Carter is from one

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Speaker 1: senator at the time, Si Hayakawa, who said, of the canal,

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Speaker 1: we should hang on to it. We stole it square

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Speaker 1: and Republicans now like Ted Cruz have again expressed a

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Speaker 1: similar entitlement.

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Speaker 6: The Nation of Panama did not build the Panama Canal.

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Speaker 6: America did. The Nation of Panama did not pay for

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Speaker 6: the Panama Canal America did. The Nation of Panama did

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Speaker 6: not give thousands and thousands of lives in building the canal.

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Speaker 6: America did.

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Speaker 3: But that notion, right, that idea that the canal was

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Speaker 3: built by Americans, that isn't completely accurate, right, Cristilla.

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Speaker 1: So not entirely the Americans paid for the construction, but

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Speaker 1: the people who literally built the canal with their hands,

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Speaker 1: who excavated, were mostly black migrants. Here's Maya doug Akunya,

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Speaker 1: a PhD candidate in African and African American studies and

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Speaker 1: a scholar focused on Afro Panamanian diaspora at Harvard. Both

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Speaker 1: of her grandmothers worked in the American controlled canal zone

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Speaker 1: in Panama.

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Speaker 7: This language of ownership that's rooted in this idea or

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Speaker 7: this myth that Americans built the canal, when no, not

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Speaker 7: at all. I mean the workforce, the labor force was

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Speaker 7: simply entirely migrant labors and overwhelmingly labors from the Caribbean

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Speaker 7: was like black West Indian workers. And those are the

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Speaker 7: folks who you know sacrifice. Those are the folks who

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Speaker 7: were exploited, and those are the folks who were killed

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Speaker 7: in the construction process.

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Speaker 3: So for you, Cristella, you too are a Panamanian American.

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Speaker 3: What is the threat of the United States taking back

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Speaker 3: the canal? What does it bring up for you.

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Speaker 1: So honestly, a lot of fear for how things could escalate.

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Speaker 1: I think about my parents, who are proud of the

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Speaker 1: life we built in the United States and also instilled

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Speaker 1: in me a profound love for Panama. And the last

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Speaker 1: time I was in Panama, I saw how my family

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Speaker 1: there is processing this threat from the US.

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Speaker 5: And we're going to hear more about your latest trip

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Speaker 5: to Panama.

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Speaker 3: Right after the break, we're back with Panamanian American journalist

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Speaker 3: grist De la Gera, who's going to take us with

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Speaker 3: her as she visits her family in Panama amidst ominous

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Speaker 3: threats from President Trump and the United States that it

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Speaker 3: wants the Panama Canal back.

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Speaker 1: Every time I land in Panama, I remember my Woloo,

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Speaker 1: who worked for PanAm waiting as we got off the plane. Today,

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Speaker 1: I land alone but lighthearted, and I hear salsa andreatung

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Speaker 1: as soon as I got inside my rental car. When

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Speaker 1: you long for a place, everything looks romantic, the ocean,

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Speaker 1: familiar skyscrapers, the flag. On my way to my aunt's

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Speaker 1: house in Panama City, I arrived at my dea greeted

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Speaker 1: by my cousin Annadina, a sociologist who convinced me to

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Speaker 1: get a matching tattoo of a burning tower on my

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Speaker 1: forearm after my dad's funeral.

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Speaker 2: It's the Getra family.

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Speaker 1: Cress my young cousin, a college student who's like my

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Speaker 1: little brother, and a doctor who shares a love.

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Speaker 2: Of medicine with my dad. And my dear mummy, my.

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Speaker 1: Father's older sister, sharp direct, she doesn't suffer fools.

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Speaker 8: I'm welcome, thank you.

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Speaker 1: She recently retired as the ambassador for Panama in France

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Speaker 1: after fifty years in diplomacy. Wikiki a little, some food

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Speaker 1: and drinks and cheesemade ks about. Then we touch on

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Speaker 1: what's on everyone's mind, American intervention.

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Speaker 2: So do worry for us? Is Trump's declarations?

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Speaker 1: My aunt says he's making a mistake with Panama. To

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Speaker 1: mess with the canal is to mess with Panamanian territory.

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Speaker 1: And there is no separation between the canal and the country.

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Speaker 1: It's all Panama. It's true. The canal shaped Panamanian society.

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Speaker 1: When Americans built the canal, they brought with them Jim

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Speaker 1: Crow segregation with them on top. Residents of the canal zone,

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Speaker 1: called Zonians, enjoyed the comforts the color of their skin

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Speaker 1: could afford them in a American cast system. For white Zonians,

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Speaker 1: the Canal Zone served as an American utopia in the tropics,

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Speaker 1: while Black Zonians and other workers were relegated to the fringes,

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Speaker 1: and Panamanians we had to live by these rules too

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Speaker 1: in the Canal Zone. My aunt remembers taking an accounting

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Speaker 1: class in the Canal Zone College.

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Speaker 8: All the shares next to the window would be used

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Speaker 8: by Sonians as citizens, because that was the best seat.

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Speaker 8: Because you were next to the windows, you had the

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Speaker 8: trees then you were. If you were a Panamanian, you

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Speaker 8: would sit in the middle, and if you were a

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Speaker 8: Black Sonian, you would sit against the wall. So I

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Speaker 8: was told to move just because I was a Bamanian

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Speaker 8: in my own country, they would choose where I would sit.

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Speaker 1: My aunt also remembers January ninth, nineteen sixty four, when

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Speaker 1: Panamanian students had gotten permission to hang a Panamanian flag

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Speaker 1: next to the American flag in the Canal Zone. American

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Speaker 1: Zonians didn't like it. A riot broke out. Twenty one

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Speaker 1: Panamanians and four Americans were killed. Here's my cousin and

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Speaker 1: my Tamammy's daughter Anna.

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Speaker 2: Lodina is America Latin America.

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Speaker 1: Panama has always been a reactionary country, she tells me, Devido,

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Speaker 1: because of living with Uncle Sam's boot at our neck.

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Speaker 1: My cousin says, it's only been twenty five years since

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Speaker 1: we've been free of US control, when they seeded control

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Speaker 1: of the Canal Elonga. Panama is like a lion that

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Speaker 1: grew up caged, and even when that cage is gone,

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Speaker 1: the lion thinks it still has to stay in the

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Speaker 1: same spot, she says, referring to feeling less than your colonizers.

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Speaker 1: To her, the strength of Panama is its people and

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Speaker 1: their pride, people who Secretary of State Marco Rubio surely

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Speaker 1: saw holding Panamanian flags as he visited Panama this month,

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Speaker 1: the first overseas trip for the Trump administration and.

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Speaker 6: His Secretary of State's first overseas mission.

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Speaker 8: Marco Rubio brought an ultimadium ultimatum to Panama's president.

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Speaker 1: And after the trip, President Trump had a warning, We're

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Speaker 1: going to take.

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Speaker 9: It back, or something very powerful is going to happen.

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Speaker 1: Panamanian protesters burned American flags and two paper figures with

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Speaker 1: Trump and Rubio's face in the street. Not Trump, not

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Speaker 1: the gringos or their army or the government have anything

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Speaker 1: in Panama. A protester shouted, what's here belongs to the Panamanians,

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Speaker 1: the canal. There's sovereignty, their self determination, It's all Panamanian.

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Speaker 1: On a recent trip to the Panama Canal, I watched

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Speaker 1: with a group of tourists as ships passed through.

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Speaker 9: About the.

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Speaker 1: Motto of the canal remains bromundi beneficio, which in Latin means.

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Speaker 2: For the benefit of the world.

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Speaker 1: Americans may have paid and supervised workers who carved through

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Speaker 1: our land, establishing an imperial power dynamic that would shape

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Speaker 1: us forever, but Panama voted to expand the canal to

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Speaker 1: meet the needs of larger ships, making it more efficient

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Speaker 1: and profitable through Panamanian ingenuity. Although stamped by this relationship

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Speaker 1: with the US, we are not defined by it. There

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Speaker 1: are so many things that are still simply and beautifully

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Speaker 1: Panamanian without any American influence. Like it's folklore, says my

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Speaker 1: cousin Ceastian.

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Speaker 9: Of the the personas the Kanzas.

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Speaker 1: It's melding of cultures, traditions, people beliefs.

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Speaker 10: You got okay, You're not that's.

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Speaker 1: I can't imagine myself without Panama. My cousin Adriana tells

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Speaker 1: me that cutting our words short our cadence, the way

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Speaker 1: the syllables roll from our tongues, that's all Panama.

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Speaker 8: It's important.

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Speaker 1: Our country is more than a canal. My aunt tells

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Speaker 1: me in Pa. Our inherent worth isn't tied to this

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Speaker 1: man made waterway. Our gold is this land, lush and green.

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Speaker 1: We chart our own fate with the chasm others dredge.

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Speaker 1: We don't let threats stop us from celebrating our history,

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Speaker 1: from being free. Nama Paramoo. There is nothing more Panamanian than.

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Speaker 3: That, Victor Emanuel Guerra Urado Presente. This episode was produced

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Speaker 3: by Criste la Guera with production assistance from Tasha Santoval.

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Speaker 3: It was edited by Our Co executive producer Maria Garcia.

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Speaker 5: It was mixed by Lea Shaw Damaran.

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Speaker 3: The Latino USA team also includes Fernanda Chavari, Julia Caruso,

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Speaker 3: Jessica Ellis, Victori Estrada, Dominique est Rosa, Prinaldo Leans Junior,

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Speaker 3: Stephanie Lebau, Andrea Lopez Grussado, Roxanna Guire Luis, Luna Marta Martinez,

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Speaker 3: Nur Saudi, JJ Krubin.

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Speaker 5: And Nancy Trujillo, Benillei Ramidez, Marlon.

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Speaker 3: Bishop and myself are co executive producers and I'm your host, Mariaojosa.

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Speaker 5: Join us again on our next episode.

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Speaker 3: In the meantime, I'll see you on all of our

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Speaker 3: social media and remember not Te Bay.

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Speaker 5: Yes Muca.

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Speaker 10: Latino USA is made possible in part by the John D.

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Speaker 10: And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, working with

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Speaker 10: visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, and

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Speaker 10: the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for more than fifty

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Speaker 10: years advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better

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Speaker 10: world at Hewlett dot org.