San Francisco/Bay Area Salsa & Latin Jazz: Izquina Cultural

Panama: The Reclaiming of a Culture
The Word-on-the-Street from the Nacional Symphonic Choir
By Robin Davies

It has been almost two-years since the United States relinquished navigational control and all responsibilities related to the operation of the Panama Canal. The transference of the Canal was one of the most important historical events to affect the planet in the last century because of its strategic military local and lucrative financial transportation significance. Once the transfer was completed the people of Panama gained their independence after nearly five-hundred years first being conquered by Spain then a sluth of constant political battles with their own corrupt governments and emotionally charged rhetoric with Colombia and the United States.

In recent history this small tropical country of 3 million people has survived extreme poverty, political coos, serveral dictatorships, and a U.S. military invasion. Similar incidents have toppled countries five times their size, but despite these adverse experiences the people of Panama over the last decade have united in their efforts to strip away unsolicited social stigmas that have attempted to sprawl their autonomy as a nation and sanitize them of their culture.

Their first steps in reclaiming their culture has been the reconstruction and rebuilding of their art and historical museums, development of national parks and reserves, and the introduction of national educational programs focusing on their country‚s anthropology, sociology, customs, and history.

Simply put, the celebration of their own voice and heritage.

While working on assignment in Panama, I had the opportunity to conduct a series of casual, "on-the-spot" interviews with the people, capturing their ideas and sentiment of the changes happening. The outcome of these interviews provided an honest testament and social barometer of the issues at hand and a truthful sense of the social temperature within the country. The Nacional Symphonic Choir was the focus of one of these sessions of brief interviews. A group of men and women who volunteer their time, energy, and often personal funds into the presentation and preservation of their nation's classical coral music.

The Nacional Symphonic Choir has been together officially for twenty-four years, performing and traveling at non-profit events in Europe, Asia, and throughout the Americas. Their specific goal is the exposure of the classical coral music of Panama.

At the time of the interview the Choir was preparing for a series of concerts in Europe, rehearsing every evening, hopeful but uncertain that the funds needed would be raised. The current events of the day in Panama were like that of the choir‚s optimistic uncertainty. The President-elect, Mireya Moscosos, almost a year and a half into her position, had not yet fully appointed her cabinet. Fighting in the state of Darien (along the Colombian boarder) had escalated, the stock market and import and export markets had taken a series nose dives, and the country was moving into their six month long raining season.

Aware of the numerous problems of economic, social, educational, and transportation issues facing them as an independent country, the prospect of forging a new destiny and life overwhelmingly outweighed the fears. The excitement and pride was easily found each proud of being apart of creating and building their Panama.

The choir was asked what their thoughts were of this new independence and what reclaiming their culture was about. The opinions expressed were both honest and couragous. During the course of the interview the range of emotions matched that of the countries weather sometimes extremely heated, balmy, but often cooled down with a light shower of humor. Tthe wounds however were visiable to the spiritual eye. And the pain connected to them electric.

I reliezed the thoughts and feelings these men and women shared with me deserve the highest of honors. They are a living record of what we as human beings do forgive; but never forget and live life to the fullest no matter what. Viva Panama!

"El Maestro" Choir director and conductor of the Nacional Symphonic Orchestra, Jorge Ledesma:
What you are looking at right now is just a sample of who we are culturally. Every person in this room is a professional, we're musicologists, architects, attorneys, professors, doctors, psychologists, engineers, mechanics, journalists, administrators, pharmacists, and so on. Everyone has a drive for music and advancing our culture. Music is our passion, so after work we all come to rehearsal. Everyone here is a professional musician.

As a choir we have traveled to different parts of the world many times. We will soon travel to Europe for the fourth time. After work every evening, we rehearse and prepare. We want to be at our best because we represent Panama. Besides traveling abroad we travel extensively throughout Panama, singing our comprehensive repertoire, a compilation of diverse international music. We have sung at the grandest music halls and the poorest places in the world. Our constant desire is to share our music with as many people as we can.

Our musical program includes important pieces from the universal choral repertory programs like Carina Urana, the Requiem, Bach, Handel, Analasin, and Glory from Vivaldi. Our repertoire is vast, representing the collective conscious of the choir from folk, popular and Renaissance choral to a cappella. Every program we perform is done with joy. For us, all these genres carry a musical importance.

We have a way of relating with each other based on tolerance and an open mind. We don't care about anyone's religion, race, political beliefs, or sexual preference. That is each person's personal business and not a subject for public discussion. Some of us have been friends and singing together for over thirty years. In that time a lot has happen in the choir and in Panama. Your political party, color, age, or religious belief has never been an issue. The choir has a little bit of everything. When we travel we interact like a family taking care of each other.

When we perform live we have the chance to see music as a language that everyone can understand. It doesn‚t matter if we are singing in Español, Italian, French, or German, people sense the spirit that is being projected in the moment. It is a very magical moment where the choir and the listener connect. The essence of the choir is celebrating with the world all that is Panama.

Administrator of the Nacional Choir Administrations, Pedro:
The choir is a non-governmental (non-profit) organization where people make tax-deductible donations and, in addition, we sponsor non-profit events [and] concerts and solicit donations from the private sector. The concerts and private donations help to support the choir with our travel and promotional expenses.

When we travel we pay our own way and if a member is unable to fully pay, all the members donate what they can to get all choir members there. This is the Panamanian way.

As a group we view all proposals and discuss them, making decisions in a democratic manner. In 1983 we sponsored the first International Choral Festival. We had groups from all over participate, Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, as far as Lithuania. It was amazing because we never dreamed our Nacional Theater would sell out every night. At closing night it was a standing room only --people were standing in the aisles and in the lobby hoping to get in. Unfortunately, a few years prior to and after the U.S. invasion we were unable to afford to continue sponsoring the festival.

Because we have such an ethnically diverse, mixed culture, we as a group like to sponsor artists from around the world to perform. These artists are reminders of all the places we come from in Panama. This also exposes our young people to [the] other alternative ways music can be done. Our hope is this will eventually make an impact in our culture.

But overall, we are basically a bunch of friends that love music and believe in the advancement of our countries' cultural well being. Despite all the hardships we have been through as a choir, we don't let economic problems get in the way of our main objective: making music.

Choir member, Melissa:
Summing up our identity in a few words is a difficult thing to do. Until recently we have never been free or an independent nation. There hasn‚t been enough time to really get a sense of our identity. We haven‚t had enough time without the heavy influence of another country's culture (the United States, most recently) to figure it out. And let‚s not forget all that we have been through. I think that people here can tell you what we do, but it is hard to say who we are. Little by little we‚ll discover the answer, but it‚s going to take time before we Panamanians can really tell you who they are. But the good thing is [that] with all these cultural influences we have become very tolerant and accepting of others. I think that is a lesson and something we can share with the world, and something the United States can learn from us.

Choir member, name unknown:
Panama is a country as Bolivar said, "an isthmus that unifies." The role of isthmus is one where multiple cultures have converged together and without realizing it, developed into what we have today. We live with people from all the societies and nationalities of the world. That alone has influenced our way of thinking. We are not like other countries where everyone is alike and not used to dealing with different customs. As a choir this is reflected in our choice of music we sing. The music we choose validates what people have said about Panama being the heart of the world and the center of the universe.

Choir member, Juan Carlos:
We are a very young country. There have been people going through our country for hundreds of years--first, different Indian tribes, then Europeans, Jamaicans, and West Indians after the construction of the canal, hundreds of other nations.

Because of these many influences in our country we are having a hard time defining who we are and where we are going. This is basically our struggle as a young country. We have our faults as well not appreciating all the beautiful things we have here in the land. Our weather, music, art, crafts, foods, taking all that for granted. It can be frustrating at times but again we're a young country.

Our saving grace, however, is our passion for life. This is reflected in our music, the way we communicate with each other and think about ourselves individually. Some Europeans call us lazy because our society is not totally focused on working and our careers like so many other countries. With this issue we have to have a lot of tolerance for these people because they don't appreciate our culture and our ways. You see, to us, our lives, family, and friends come first, then our professions.

As we embark on this new national independence we will need to find a balance between the global work ethic and ours. But it will be a solution we as Panamanians resolve. We will review everything as a nation and take the best, and leave the worst behind.

Choir member, Pedro:
We have sung at Catholic, Jewish, Greek, and other weddings singing their traditional music. They are [either] friends of members of the choir or have just heard about us. This is an example of how we are helping to build the culture of Panama. It's a multi-level mix of cultures from everywhere it‚s wonderful.

Learning the traditional music of any nationality and sharing in their celebrations is what I think we're about. As a choir we are a microcosm of the diversity that makes up Panama's many cultures, people, and tastes.

Choir Member, name unknown:
Right now the choir is in the process of offering and presenting our classical music to the general public of Panama. In the past the Panamanian people were not given the opportunity to experience Panama‚s classical choral music, partly because the rich socities in those days didn‚t offer it and recently, with all we have been through, life was very hard for everyone--surviving was the most important thing.

Now we have time to study the arts, music, and our history. We have begun singing our music in churches and the response has been very warm.

Choir member, Carl:
Panama is beautiful with a lot to offer --there are so many things that have not been explored because of the political and economic problems of the past. We have suffered a lot as a country, like so many other countries that rest beside us and around us. But with all the problems we have had, I think we are going to make it.

Right now we are in a tremendous growing stage and our economic growth has a lot of promise if it is managed properly. The next few years are going to be crucial in defining the direction of our nation. But you know what really makes me proud is for the first time our next generation will have the chance to really dream and decide what they want to do with their lives. They‚ll be free of political and cultural compromise that alone makes all the struggles of the past worth it.

Choir member, Marta:
They call me "La Marter Noster," the mother of the choir. I have been with the choir almost since the beginning. When talking about Panama all I can say is that it is a privilege to have been born here --this is a beautiful country with good people.

It has been said that God was Panamanian because we don't have cold weather, tornadoes, or hurricanes.

Nature has been very generous to us. We are a gentle people, forgiving, but we don't forget. All that we have been through as a nation we know the most important thing is not what we do (work), it is how we live --taking care first of family and sharing time with friends. We have a lot to offer and a lot to learn. Our independence will be our greatest teacher.

Choir member, Hermin:
I don't want to sound like I am bragging, but Panama must be special, considering we sat across the negotiating table with the most powerful country in the world (the United States) and accomplished getting our territory back. We don't know in God‚s name how we did it, but we did.

The other special thing is the amount of talent we have --there are only 3 million Panamanians in the world, but we have accomplished so much. In the world of sports we have Roberto Duran, who against all odds went on to defeat one of the best prizefighters in the world, Sugar Ray Leonard, two years ago in the World Series the MVP was Ivan Rodriguez the catcher from the Houston Astro‚s he's Panamanian.

In music Ruben Blades and Danilo Perez are two very respected musicians worldwide. That‚s just a few of the people in Panama. You know, for such a tiny, insignificant country we must have something special in order to produce so much.

Choir member, Ester:
Our magic is what we are learning to identify --we're a big soup of cultures that creates a magical, experiential mix difficult to define. The Greeks live on an isthmus like we do with people from every nation coming to their ports, with some people staying, making Greece their home. When you have so many different people cohabiting, something new has to come out of it. Greece, like Panama, is a natural, cultural experiment where people from all over, by living together, have developed a broader and different perception of life and don't see things the same as other countries.