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From reading the history it seemed to me as though Nombre de Dios should have been a very recognizable part of the history of the Western Hemisphere, but for one reason or another – lack of security being the main reason - it was abandoned for other more accessible and secure places, and then forgotten about completely. Seems funny to think that such an obscure place as Nombre de Dios is as important to the discovery of the Western Hemisphere as more famous places like, Cuzco, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Jamestown, Virginia or the island of Hispaniola, but such is the magic of Nombre de Dios. Before making the trip to Nombre de Dios I went back and read some of the history surrounding this obscure port town on the Caribbean coast of Panama. Columbus made four journeys to the New World; on his last journey he was able to make it to the mainland of Central America. He traveled along the Caribbean coast of modern day Costa Rica and Panama in 1502 in search of a waterway to Asia and gold. However, Columbus was not the first vistor to the Caribbean coast of Panama: In 1501 the Spaniards Rodrigo de Bastidas and Vasco Nuñez de Balboa sailed from Venezuela to explore the Caribbean coast of Panama as well. But it was Columbus who founded the town of Nombre de Dios; he was the first European to arrive and give the place a name. On this his final journey to the Americas, Columbus traveled with only four ships. The journey had not gone well, the ships had sailed through rough weather and the crew was tired and scared by the time they reached Nombre de Dios. And apparently so was Columbus: he said to his crew: “in the name of God we will go no further”. Hence the name of the town: Nombre de Dios (Name of God). The Indians in the hills above the Nombre de Dios came to greet Columbus’s four ships in the empty harbor; they were happy to trade cotton and food with the Spanish, but they had no gold for Columbus, of course that was what he was looking for: he had to return to Spain with something. Columbus left the settlement almost as soon as he arrived and sailed back in the direction of Costa Rica: he had seen gold in the Indian settlements near Costa Rica. Columbus would never return to Nombre de Dios. In 1510 Diego de Nicuesa founded a permanent settlement at Nombre de Dios and then in 1519 the Spanish capital of Panama was moved from Santa María de la Antigua del Darién on the Caribbean coast to Panama City on the Pacific Coast; this was done because of the better weather and health conditions on the Pacific side. Panama – which means an abundance of fish - was the name of the new Pacific capitol and to connect the Pacific and Caribbean sides of Panama a road was built from Nombre de Dios to Panama City: the road became known as the Camino Real. The Camino Real was 50 miles long and nine feet wide at its widest points; beyond the nine feet of trail there was nothing but jungle and cimmarones and corsairs. Cimmarones or as the English called them Maroons were black slaves that were able to break free from their Spanish masters and make their way into the jungle. Most of the slaves would have arrived in Nombre de Dios and then broken free there or along the Camino Real. The idea of breaking free from the Spanish and running into the jungle took great courage as the jungle must have been incredibly hard to navigate, since in the jungle you have no view of the horizon or static points in the far distance such as mountains or rivers. Also, the runaway slaves would have had no knowledge of the dangers one might encounter in the jungle or how to survive, and the maroons knew there were Indians living in the jungle that might be hostile to them. But even with all these difficulties the maroons, incredibly, were able to establish settlements in the jungle far from the Spanish. From these settlements in the jungle they learned to navigate the jungle and waterways better than the Spanish who were fearful of walking into jungle where they might be attacked or disappear in lost confusion. From their settlements in the jungle the maroons would run raids along the Camino Real in the dry season which was the only time of the year the Spanish moved gold and silver across the trail. The captured gold and silver was taken by the maroons, not because they treasured its value, but because it was for them a way to harass the hated Spanish who were known to be obsessed with gold and silver. Legend has it that the maroons buried the stolen gold and silver in river beds. The treasure could only be dug up when the dry season came and the streams narrowed. Another danger
on the Camino Real for the Spaniards was the corsairs: in this case the
corsairs were French Huguenots that lived in the jungle near Nombre de
Dios or sailed the seas east of the town. They knew the jungle and the
habits of the Spanish and were able to carry out raids against the Spanish
along the Camino Real and at sea. They were also friends of the
English as were the maroons; the anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic sentiments
created a very unlikely alliance between the French, Africans and English
in Panama. The personality that brought these unlikely groups together
in order to try to isolate Nombre de Dios from the Spanish and strip it
of its gold and silver was the Englishman Francis Drake who landed in Panama
in 1572.
Born in Devon in 1540-43, Drake seems to have been made to go to sea as he spent his youth sailing between Medway and Antwerp and other North Sea ports. His hatred for Catholicism and particularly the Spanish was extreme and was a product of his father’s teachings: his father was a harsh Protestant lay preacher. Those prejudices against Catholicism were radicalized further by the English disaster at San Juan de Ulua, Mexico. In 1568 at San Juan de Ulua, six British slave-trading ships were attacked by the Spanish while in harbor for repairs: only Drake and his cousin John Hawkins escaped. The incident led not only to Drake’s bitter hatred of Catholics and Spaniards, it also lead to the sinking of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The incident in Mexico triggered the rivalry between Spain and England for control of the seas. Drake became a kind of cult figure in Europe in the subsequent decades following his raids on Spain’s holdings in the New World. His piracy against the Spanish and the Catholic world made him a hero in those parts of Europe where the Reformation had gained strength. His successes at sea were the Protestant-world’s successes. He was a beloved figure in 16th century Protestant Europe. To his enemies he was a terrorist that threaten the security and wealth of the Catholic world. Though hated by Catholics, he was a well-respected figure by his adversaries because of his great abilities as a navigator. Much of the aristocracy in Europe was in awe of Drake: many desired a picture of him as a souvenir. Drake took Nombre de Dios in July and August of 1572, but retreated out to sea after being shot in the leg. After retreating from Nombre de Dios, Drake settled on a rock island near the entrance of the harbor at Nombre de Dios, from there he calculated his next move. The Spanish tried to negotiate with Drake, but he refused; after turning the Spanish down, he disappeared from sight, out to sea or along the coast, no one in Nombre de Dios really knew. The inhabitants of the town were in mortal fear of Drake. Rumor and paranoia gripped the town and Panama. With the help of some maroons who lived to the east of Nombre de Dios, Drake navigated his way through the jungles of Panama to the Pacific coast. Drake then carried out two raids on the Camino Real: the first raid was on the Pacific side, closer to modern day Panama City; the other, and more successful raid, took place in the hills above Nombre de Dios. The second raid was carried out with the help of a French Huguenot by the name of Captain Tetu and a maroon named Pedro who Drake had converted to Protestantism. Drake was able to capture £50,000 worth of silver and gold, a fortune for the time. Drake sailed back to England with the stolen treasure and on August 9th 1573 presented his treasure to Queen Elizabeth. After Drake’s raids on Panama the Spanish moved the Caribbean end of the Camino Real from Nombre de Dios to Portobello where nature provided a more secure port against pirates. Nombre de Dios languished and then disappeared under the shadow of Portobello. For Drake this was just the beginning of his many adventures which would eventually take him around the world; he would sail the globe and in 1596, while trying to capture some of his old glory by raiding the Camino Real one last time, he would return to Panama where he died of fever in the town of Portobello. His dead body was submerged in the dark waters of the bay. Visit To Nombre de Dios The road to Nombre de Dios runs through Portobello on the Caribbean coast of Panama. It is a beautiful drive. The road is perfect up until Portobello, after Portobello the road is full of potholes and badly eroded. After you pass Portobello, the landscape is green and hilly, but then opens up into cattle pasture with the jungle in the far distance; a few houses can be seen in the distant hills and along the road: this part of Panama is sparsely populated as most of the land is cattle pasture. Recently, a number of Spaniards have moved into the hill country near Portobello and Nombre de Dios to raise goats. Friends of mine in the area tell me the Spaniards are buying up property near the edge of the jungle and have begun farming. There are French in the area as well. As I talked about earlier, there were French Huguenots in the area during the time of Drake and there are French here today. After you drive
through Portobello the road will lead you in the direction of Isla Grande;
ten or twelve miles after Portobello there is a fork in the road; if you
go right you head in the direction of Nombre de Dios. At the fork there
is a pizzeria that a Frenchman opened; it is open on Friday, Saturdays
and Sundays. The pizza is very good and the bread is the best you can get
in Panama. They also have nice sweets. There is a special kind of dark
bread called Pan Bon that is eaten on the Caribbean coast that has
the most incredible flavor of cinnamon that you will ever encounter. The
bread is only made during Semana Santa or Easter week. The people
in the area also know how to make great fried sweets from ginger. Anyway,
the French pizzeria is fun; it is called Tropical Paris at least
that is what one of the colorful signs says in front of the shop. We drove
past the French pizzeria and decided we would stop there after we had made
the journey to Nombre de Dios. I was curious to see what the road would
be like as I knew the area from previous trips but had never traveled on
the road to Nombre de Dios. The road went up and down gentle green hills
and through a couple of small towns, each town had a very small and very
pretty church; hilly green pastureland dotted with cows could be seen on
the outskirts of each town. People walked along the road talking, scratching
themselves, and enjoyed the late day light. We drove on and after a half
hour we were in Nombre de Dios.
The harbor is directly in front of you when you enter the town. Immediately, you can see why the Spanish made it a settlement: the harbor is perfectly shaped, but, there is one drawback: the harbor is too open so that ships could be easily attacked from the sea. Looking at the harbor, the low hills and the dense jungle and feeling the remoteness of the place, you get an idea of why Columbus had decided things should probably end here and that he should head back from where he had come. The beach is brown and grainy; there are some houses along the beach and as I looked down the beach I saw a few people sitting in white and dark green plastic chairs with their feet in the water enjoying the surf. We drove through the back of the town, near a small lagoon. The road took us through Nombre de Dios and further east in the direction of the San Blas Islands. The land here had been cut and cleared and was being used to raise cattle; we passed some small streams as well. The rivers beyond Nombre de Dios I am told are great places for panning gold. We saw a small one-room shack by the river that was built on very high concrete stilts: a gold-panner’s shack, perhaps. We turned around after 20 minutes and headed back to Nombre de Dios. We drove through the town and went by a small house that said “Elvin’s video”, or something like that. And then drove around a small rectangle-shaped park; the people in the town were friendly enough; they were indifferent to us; they looked at us and talked amongst themselves. It was Easter Saturday so they were gearing up for the great dances that occur before Easter Sunday. During Easter weekend in Panama, everyone leaves the city and heads to the countryside where they see their families, dress up and dance like crazy and drink. The town was beginning to come to life for the party; music could be heard from different parts of the town and buses and pick up trucks loaded with people passed by, everyone seemed very happy. We went to the beach and took some photos, we then drove back to the French pizzeria and had a pizza and bought some bread. There were some British travelers eating pizza as well as a young American couple. We drove back to Panama City; the ride was long but the sunlight was still visible as we drove through the jungle before arriving to the outskirts of Panama City. Some Thoughts On Globalization In Latin America The best way to define globalization I think is to say that it is the process of expanding the market to all corners of the globe. Expanding it to areas which have rejected the market previously, or areas that have never been integrated into the world market. I’ve always thought that globalization in Latin America is wider than it is deep: it covers a large area but it doesn’t go deeply into people’s hearts and minds. People in Panama like the idea of globalization as they have always been traders and business people. Trading was an intricate part of the colonial economy in the region and that continues to this day. It has also meant that contact with the U.S. has been more and more based on trade rather than security issues which has allowed the region to reduce the level of violence in society and create more prosperity for more people. And of course the market is a great thing and people should want to participate in it: a great “discovery system” as Fredrich Hayek put it. Immanuel Kant liked it also, because he felt that world peace could be achieved by sinking peoples’ urges and impulses away from religion, which caused wars, and into the market: the war of economic competition, would replace physical warfare based on religious beliefs. The hope was and has always been that through the market people would gain a kind of enlighten knowledge, based on reason and liberty that would be worldwide, and more importantly, peaceful, since markets need peace to operate well. Religion and the market though in many ways having the same goals are not really natural allies. The money-God and the spiritual-God are very different is a statement most people I think would agree with. Maybe it’s the friction between the market and religion that causes people to react so strongly against globalization. Of course peace
is always desirable though there always needs to be noise. In Panama people
don’t talk much about globalization but they do in Costa Rica, a place
I know and love as much as Panama. Life in Costa Rica is much harder than
in Panama – primarily because Costa Rica does not use the dollar like Panama
- although foreign investment in manufacturing is higher in Costa Rica
than in Panama. The fear of globalization in Costa Rica and other Latin
American countries I have traveled to is that it is an exported idea coming
into the region from another place and that always brings in the problem
of interpretation. What do I mean? Let me give you an example. During the
Cold War the dominant message coming into the region from outside Latin
America was get rid of the communists. The problem was that the message
was amplified and then flashed in front of a funhouse mirror during the
interpretation process, so that it was interpreted as kill the communist,
yes, but after having achieved that, lets kill the progressives and intellectuals,
and then finally we will kill anyone we don’t like – all in the name of
communism. And many innocent people died. Those days are over. There can
never be another Cold War at least not in my lifetime.
I’ve seen the effects of state cutbacks in Latin America mostly in education. In the 1950s and 60s Panama’s public educational system spent more money per student than the U.S. The primer high school in Panama at the time was the Instituto Nacional, a state school. People graduated from the Instituto and went onto to study at the best American and European universities; many, many, many famous lawyers, doctors, engineers and economists in Panama were educated at the Instituto Nacional. The best families sent their kids to study at the Instituto; it was the best school in the country. The public school system of Panama is not what it was in the 50s and 60s. Today the only schools that people in Panama want to send their kids to are private, so education is now a question of wealth and therefore state schools have seen their budgets continually cut, because need for high quality education has shifted from the public to the private sector and is therefore determined by money, not merit. Access to education is probably the best determinant of the health of a society. Anyway on a lighter note, a friend of mine who drives taxi in Panama – his name is Darkman – told me that the U.S. brought everything to Panama, even the dollar bill, but the one thing they forgot to bring was salaries – someday soon I hope, believe me. Other articles by the author:
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Catalina And Coiba Prison Island ~ 
