ok yes, I still owe stories about the invasion march, about my trip to the US; however, here is a story about the large changes that took place in two generations among canal workers as a result of the Torrijos-Carter treaties. Opportunities for Panamanians to advance opened as a result of the treaties.
Many people of my grandmother's generation left Panama disenchanted by the double racism and discrimination (from US and from Panama) that plagued work opportunities and society in general, especially in the Zone. There are people of this generation who do not remember Panama fondly and did not speak highly of the country to their children. They did not want to return. In this story, one of my interviewees, now a captain in the ACP, recounts when his grandfather returned and visited him at work
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When I started working I was working as a electrician, as an apprentice. I worked in the same areas that my as my grandfather worked in. He worked in industrial division in Colón. And he retired from the Canal in 1959. Went back to Jamaica. Lived for several years. And he probably came back to visit when I was working. So I was working 1970? He is back, so it’s 11 years later and he is coming back and visiting.
And when he left there were no Panamanian black electricians. There were no Panamanian black machinists. There were no Panamanian anything. They were all helpers.
So as I took him the tour inside the industrial division and he stood and he looked around and he saw my workshop and he saw what I was doing and he saw the machines I was handling. He stood up and he cried. He cried.
He couldn’t believe that these changes has taken place in that short a period of time. He had not even envisioned any of these things happening. And so this is what some of those folks are living...
And so the folks in his generation, which were those early ones in that year when I was coming out[of high school] and some of them were leaving...And they were debating should they leave, should they stay. It was just starting to change. My father is 80 something on...
What I believe, however, is that some folks who left and may have eventually come to see themselves as having made a mistake by leaving. It is hard for you to face that reality and come back and look that in the eye. Folks who stayed may even, to some extent, some of them, would have it better than those who left. So that is not easy to face...
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