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Mourning María Pantalones: Military Rule and the Politics of Race, Citizenship, and Nostalgia in Panama

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Caribbean Military Encounters

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Abstract

This essay examines public reactions to the 2013 death of Maud Catherine Carter, or “María Pantalones.” Carter became a public figure during the military government (1968–1989) as a popular leader in Panama City. Carter notoriously attired herself in pants or shorts and combined charity work for poor children with organizing for the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), the party of Panama’s military government. After the U.S. invasion of 1989, Carter’s political fortunes waned. The essay discusses how her death provided a brief reprieve from the public amnesia that shrouds the military era, allowing for expressions of nostalgia for the gains made by some working-class people in the military years as well as ambivalence about the current era of neoliberalism.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Voluminous scholarship exists on the history of militarism in Panama. See, among other works, Guevara Mann, “Auge y militarización”; Guevara Mann, Panamanian Militarism; Guevera Mann, Political Careers; Pearcy, We Answer Only to God; Pedreschi, “La dictadura militar”; Priestley, Military Government; Ropp, Panamanian Politics; and Sánchez González, “La transición.”

  2. 2.

    On Panamanians of West Indian descent and the Torrijos regime, see especially Priestley, “Antillean-Panamanians,” 54–56. See also Priestley, Military Government; and Ropp, “Panama,” 122–123.

  3. 3.

    Daniel M. Alarco, “La mujer que le dio infancia a El Chorrillo,” La Estrella de Panamá, November 24, 2013, http://laestrella.com.pa/media/news/document/53b494d5beb3e.pdf. The profile was awarded Panama’s National Journalism Prize for “mejor crónica,” or best work of narrative journalism, for 2014. See “La Estrella de Panamá gana Mejor Crónica y Reportaje Económico,” La Estrella de Panamá, May 15, 2014, http://laestrella.com.pa/panama/nacional/estrella-panama-gana-mejor-cronica-reportaje-economico/23771956. Alarco is identified in the latter article as Daniel Molina.

  4. 4.

    Conniff, Panama, 63–70; Greene, Canal Builders, 21–22. See also Major, Prize Possession.

  5. 5.

    Greene, Canal Builders, 29–32. See also Conniff, Black Labor; Conniff, Panama; and Maloney, “Significado de la presencia.”

  6. 6.

    See Corinealdi, “Envisioning Multiple Citizenships”; Corinealdi, “Redefining Home”; Priestley, “Antillean-Panamanians”; and Putnam, Company They Kept.

  7. 7.

    For discussions of the legal and social history of citizenship and people of West Indian descent in Panama, see Corinealdi, “Envisioning Multiple Citizenships”; Corinealdi, “Redefining Home”; Lasso De Paulis, “Race and Ethnicity”; Maloney, “Significado de la presencia”; Priestley, “Antillean-Panamanians”; Robinson, “Panama for the Panamanians”; Senior, Dying to Better Themselves; and Watson, Politics of Race, 14–16. Lara Putnam estimates the population of “locally born second generation” people of West Indian descent in Panama in 1930 to have been about 60,000. Putnam, “Borderlands,” 14.

  8. 8.

    Alarco, “La mujer.”

  9. 9.

    On the Arrabal, see the classic work by Figueroa Navarro, Dominio y sociedad; and McGuinness, Path of Empire, 25–29. On the history of El Chorrillo, see Figueroa Navarro, “Breve introducción”; González Guzmán, “Escrutinio histórico”; and Tejeira Davis, “El Chorrillo.”

  10. 10.

    Guillermoprieto, “Panama City, 1992,” 226. See also Tejeira Davis, “El Chorrillo.”

  11. 11.

    Alarco, “La mujer.”

  12. 12.

    Lydia, “María Pantalones Carter—A Legend of Altruism,” The Silver People Heritage Foundation, April 14, 2013, https://thesilverpeopleheritage.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/maria-pantalones-carter-a-legend-of-altruism/.

  13. 13.

    Priestley, Military Government, 117–120.

  14. 14.

    Priestley, “Antillean-Panamanians.” Kaysha Corinealdi has further analyzed the transnational dimensions of this activism. Corinealdi, “Envisioning Multiple Citizenships”; Corinealdi, “Redefining Home.”

  15. 15.

    See Priestley, “Antillean-Panamanians”; Priestley, Military Government; and Ropp, “Panama.”

  16. 16.

    Alarco, “La mujer.”

  17. 17.

    Víctor Juliao, as quoted in “Te vamos a extrañar María Carter ‘Pantalones,’” La Estrella de Panamá, April 3, 2015, http://laestrella.com.pa/panama/nacional/vamos-extranar-maria-carter-pantalones/23478382.

  18. 18.

    Manolo Álvarez Cedeño, “Simplemente humana: María Carter Pantalones,” Conversando con Manolo, Radio Panamá, April 4, 2013, http://www.radiopanama.com.pa/opinion/bloggers/blogs/conversando-con-manolo/simplemente-humana-maria-carter-pantalones/20130404/blog/1872533.aspx.

  19. 19.

    Víctor Juliao, as quoted in “Te vamos a extrañar.”

  20. 20.

    Alarco, “La mujer.”

  21. 21.

    Alarco, “La mujer.”

  22. 22.

    Luis Batista, “Yo tengo la salsa,” La Crítica, April 3, 2013, http://www.critica.com.pa/nacional/yo-tengo-la-salsa-260831.

  23. 23.

    Batista, “Yo tengo.”

  24. 24.

    Batista, “Yo tengo.”

  25. 25.

    Alarco, “La mujer.”

  26. 26.

    For a discussion of the language of race and racial terminology in Panama, see Stephenson Watson, Politics of Race, 1–13.

  27. 27.

    For an analysis of the history and politics of performance and sovereignty in the context of Panama and the Canal Zone, see Zien, “Claiming the Canal.”

  28. 28.

    “Nutrido adiós para María Carter,” La Estrella de Panamá, April 6, 2013, http://laestrella.com.pa/panama/nacional/nutrido-adios-para-maria-carter/23478730.

  29. 29.

    Genesis Recuero, “Adiós a María Carter ‘Pantalones’, sus amigos politicos no asistieron,” La Opinión, April 4, 2013, http://laopinionpanama.com/nacional/adios-a-maria-carter-pantalones-sus-amigos-politicos-no-asistieron/.

  30. 30.

    Kenibeth Ríos P., “María Carter prefiere a Noriega que a Martín,” Crítica, August 26, 2007, http://portal.critica.com.pa/archivo/08262007/nacional.html.

  31. 31.

    Batista, “Yo tengo la salsa.”

  32. 32.

    Dinges, Our Man in Panama; Koster and Sánchez, In the Time of Tyrants. For the hemispheric and global context of the 1989 invasion, see Grandin, Empire’s Workshop, 191–194.

  33. 33.

    Guillermoprieto, “Panama City, 1992,” 228.

  34. 34.

    For the destruction of El Chorrillo and the impact of the invasion on the neighborhood’s inhabitants, see Figueroa Navarro, El Chorrillo; Guillermoprieto, “Panama City, 1992”; and Independent Commission, U.S. Invasion, 25–56.

  35. 35.

    On the aftermath of the US invasion, see Sánchez González, “La transición.” On the establishment of a national day of reflection and the independent commission, see “Instalan comisión que esclarecerá los hechos del 20 de diciembre de 1989,” La Prensa, July 20, 2016, http://www.prensa.com/politica/Instalan-comision-esclarecera-hechos-diciembre_0_4533296766.html.

  36. 36.

    See, for example, Pedro Crenes Castro, “María Carter: pantalones cortos, pero bien puestos,” Panamá América, July 4, 2013, http://www.panamaamerica.com.pa/content/mar%C3%ADa-carter-pantalones-cortos-pero-bien-puestos; Lydia, “María Pantalones Carter”; “¡Muere la dirigente María Carter Pantalones!,” CoCoas.net, April 3, 2013, http://www.cocoas.net/noticia/muere-maria-carter-pantalones; and “Te vamos a extrañar.” As of the writing of this chapter, a memorial is being contemplated for Carter in El Chorrillo. See Emilia Zeballos, “Buscan honrar a María C. ‘Pantalones,’” El Siglo, May 31, 2015, http://elsiglo.com/panama/buscan-honrar-maria-pantalones/23869690.

  37. 37.

    Putnam, “Borderlands.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, USA

    Aims McGuinness

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  1. Aims McGuinness
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Correspondence to Aims McGuinness .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Shalini Puri

  2. Department of History, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Lara Putnam

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McGuinness, A. (2017). Mourning María Pantalones: Military Rule and the Politics of Race, Citizenship, and Nostalgia in Panama. In: Puri, S., Putnam, L. (eds) Caribbean Military Encounters. New Caribbean Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58014-6_13

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