chomba blanca - white but black.

In my attempt to get my mind fully back into this project, which is rapidly coming to a close, I wanted to share a story from my notes.

background to understand the story:

The term "chombo, or chomba" was used as a derogatory word for English speaking Blacks, West Indian Blacks and/or all Blacks in Panama.  Chombo blanco refers to someone who is very light or white looking, but of west Indian or at least African descent. (this issue of being chombo blanco was central to the novel Gamboa Road Gang for anyone interested)  The "and/or" is to simplify how the term originated and how it is used today. Some consider it an insult still and refuse to use or hear it, others have embraced it as a term of endearment or self-identification. It is not uncommon for someone to say to me "soy chombo" meaning of West Indian descent, or "soy comecoco", meaning a Black (at least from the Atlantic coast) who is not West Indian.  

This story in particular was interesting to me because many people believe the term 'chombo' was a term used to separate West Indians from mainstream Panamanian. It meant being from "there" or from somewhere else. In this story, however, it is used as an inclusive Panamanian term.

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She often shops at Fruteria Mimi, a quick shopping stop on her way home. One day she was walking out of the store and the guard, an older (she uses this term relatively as he is probably younger than she is) black gentleman, stops to ask her. “where are you from? I am having this debate with this guy here. He thinks you are from the United States but I told him no. You aren’t from there. No you aren’t from the US. You are from here, verdad?  Usted es chomba blanca, no?”

“si, yo soy de aqui. Soy Panamena,”  she answered.

"I knew it!" he shouted.

E* recognizes that story as the first time the use of that term, directed at her, did not upset her or offend her. I hear that story as (possibly) the first time she heard it as a label of national inclusion rather than derogatory exclusion. “No, no tú eres de los Estados Unidos. Eres chomba blanca. Eres de aquí”. The certainty in the man’s voice, in her retelling, was a way to include her in the national identity of Panama. In her childhood, people used this label to her to make her feel less black than the black “chombo,”  by adding the “blanca” to the end, and certainly to feel outside of the Latinidad of Panama.  

In this story, however, the man spoke to her completely in Spanish, perhaps he doesn’t speak English, but his choice of words even in calling her chomba blanca assumes a certain level of colloquial literacy. He asserted that she was from here and looked for her confirmation, rather than simply asking where she is from.