The Silver People Law- Going Before the National Assembly of Panama

Here I am signing the initiative and receiving guidance from the helpful functionaries at the Asamblea Nacional.

Our Bill or Proyecto de Ley #348 will be up for a very important debate next week and we are calling for people to support us with their presence.

This past Tuesday morning I was cited by the Asamblea Nacional de Panamá Permanent Commission to appear on next Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 10 A.M at the Budget Commission (Comisión de Presupuesto) to make a presentation defending our projected Law# 348 (Proyecto de Ley #348) Declaring Patrimonio Histórico the 3 cemeteries on the Banks of the Panama Canal and Black Canal Zone, Corozal (Silver), Gatún, and Mount Hope (Monte Esperanza) in Colon.

The Modernization of Transportation

 

The gallery images above are property of Mr. Allen Morrison.

In undergoing the intense period of transformation that usually accompanies modernization the average Panamanian today is compelled to cope with all the new changes in their besieged transportation system.

Santo Tomas Hospital

A conceptual rendering of the proposed Financial Tower.

Santo Tomas Hospital has been very much in the news lately with regards to a controversial project to build an enormous 70+ high rise Financial Tower on the lot adjacent to the hospital which was until recently, home to the United States Embassy (1938-2011), who was the leaseholder of the building.

Santo Tomas Hospital is our central theme today as the history of the Silver People in Panama is intimately intertwined with its controversial past.  In its colonial days (prior to 1920) it was located on B Street in our fair Panama City, and it was a small inadequately equipped infirmary more than a hospital, staffed by a tiny group of inadequately trained people. 

The Treatment of the Mentally Insane in the Panama Canal Zone

Ancon Hospital circa 1920.

Continuing our series on the hospital history of the Panama Canal Zone, we’ll take a look at how the entire issue of the mentally ill was approached by the administrators of the Canal, both French and American.

Hospital History of Panama- Colon Hospital

A vintage postcard image of Colon Hospital thanks to panamarailroad.org.

An old photo of one of the Sisters of Charity that might have staffed the original Colon Hospital under the French. image nunsandsisters.com

From the very beginning in 1881 the French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique started construction of a hospital in the city of Colon by first choosing a beautiful site by the shores of the Caribbean Sea in the northern part of Manzanillo Island.  This choice location provided fresh cross ventilation and the wonderful eternally present sea air which carried currents of relief for its many patients. At that time it earmarked a budget of $ 1 million for the building and equipping of this respected institution.

Hospital History of the Panama Canal

Older view of Gorgas Hospital on file with the Library of Congress photo collection.

By Lydia M. Reid

The history and heritage of the Silver People of Panama would not be complete without a mention of their longstanding relationship with the medical facilities that served (and did not serve) so many of them.  The French and American construction periods of the Panama Canal sought to provide health services to their vibrant population of workers from all over the globe but the Black workers from the West Indian islands were probably the largest segment of people to recur to the services offered by the various medical institutions.