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Adrianne Ott
Stone Center for Latin American Studies
Field Research Terminal Report
September 11, 2009
Initial Research Goals:
This project sought to determine the effects of Panamanian President Arnulfo Arias’ racial exclusionary
national polices on the Sino-Panamanian population in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Resources were
to come from both the Panamanian National Archive and the Centro Cultural Chino Panameño (CCCP),
both of which are located in Panama City.
My 2009 summer field research can be best be summarized by the adage ‘The more we know, the
more we want to know’. As my first foray into scholarly field research, the mistakes I made in
approaching this project were certainly numerous. However, no matter how discouraging these errors
initially seemed, they eventually became thoroughfares to a more comprehensive understanding of the
Panamanian nationalist movement as a whole.
Given my tendency to use formulaic approaches in professional and academic pursuits, I faced a
number of cultural barriers before even beginning my project. Imagine the horror of a rather straitlaced
graduate student when confronted by the TIP principle1, or even worse, the rule of ‘un cosa mas’2.
Encountering such cultural phenomena was the first of many unanticipated delays to commencing my
research. However, after getting thorough these initial hurdles, I faced further disappointment in my
project design.
The CCCP was nowhere the resource I had hoped and expected it would be. Not only was its
collection of historical documents small, the vast majority of it was recorded in traditional Chinese
1
TIP Principle - “This Is Panama”, An expression used by US, Canadian and other European expats to explain any
sets of circumstances or occurrences than do not conform to Western ideas of social order, timeliness, sanitation,
or anything potentially outside of Global North societal norms. The ubiquitous 3’ by 3’ holes in Panama City
sidewalks, easily deep enough to trap grown adult even though they apparently serve no practical purpose, are an
excellent example of the TIP principle.
2
The rule of Una cosa mas, or, ‘one more thing’ is a social rule that may apply to any series of attempts to
accomplish a task, each of which are thwarted by unforeseen requirements to present una cosa mas. Attempts to
accomplish said task may be separated by a mere 20 minutes, or by several days depending on the nature of what
one is trying to accomplish, and whatever arbitrary requirements are demanded. The rule of una cos mas can
cause time consuming delays. It arises from a lack of centralized procedures within an organization, or else a
general misunderstanding or ignorance of these standards in instances where they have been established.
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characters. My weak command of simplified characters (much easier to read than their traditional
counterparts) was so nowhere near sufficient to gather the type of information I had hoped to find.
Fortunately, however, Arias’ personal collection at the Archive was quite extensive and more
than compensated for the lack of information at the CCCP. His papers were completely disorganized,
grouped loosely in to cardboard boxes whose contents and subjects were, for the most part, unknown even
to archive staff. In the spirit of my newfound flexibility, I resigned myself to sifting through the jumbled
stacks, which was well worth the effort. The disorganization forced me to examine a wide variety of
sources, rather than simply going directly to those I suspected would be most helpful. I began to consider
the Panameñismo movement as a whole, rather than focusing specifically on Arias and his leadership
role. While Arias’ election was certainly the culminating moment of the movement, 15 years of growing
frustrations prior to it created a variety of social and political organizations that provided great insight as
to Arias’ role in prohibited race legislation. My original proposal was short sighted both in research
question and project design; I failed to plan for the possibility that Arias was simply a tool of the
Panamanian populous. His background was that of a well educated, light skinned doctor from the interior
city of Penonomé, which is commonly considered to be the center of pure, classic isthmian culture. This
made him the perfect voice for the variety of Panamanian organizations which sprang up from the general
exclusionary sentiment of the period. One in particular, Acción Communal, was particularly vocal with
calls to limit minority rights as a vehicle for what they perceived to be improvement of the Panamanian
populous. Letters and petitions to Arias from this and other organizations, meeting minutes and speeches
lead me to believe that prohibited race legislation was a not a product of Arias, rather, he was a product of
those who pursued it. His timing, arriving on the scene just as tensions were coming to a boil, was ideal.
Despite unforeseen circumstances, I was able to gain some insight into various communities’
reactions to and methods of handling national policy towards Chinese-Panamanians. Of all exclusionary
polices, most damaging to the Sino-Panamanian community was probably the law of forced sale of
Chinese owned businesses. Its precursor law, which dictated that all businesses in Panama must have at
least 75 % Panamanian employees, was also damaging. This legislation created a multifaceted problem
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for isthmian Chinese. During this period, the majority of Chinese-Panamanians was shopkeepers,
primarily owning stores which sold essential food and household items. So common was their ownership
of small shops that the stores came to be called chinos. Many of these chinos were single-employee
establishments. The proprietor stocked, inventoried, cleaned, advertised and sold. In a single employee
business owned by Chinese-Panamanian, it is impossible to have 75% employees not of prohibited races.
This law led to wide closure of smaller, single-employee chinos. A common arrangement for these
shopkeepers was to run their stores on the lower level of a two story building while making their homes
on the upper levels. Forced sales of Chinese businesses left thousands of Sino-Panamanians not only
without work, but also homeless.
Forced sales and closures also created problems within communities at large, particularly in small
towns and cities. In addition to closing what were often the only stores available to buy food stuffs,
government mandates placed burdens on citizens not of prohibited races. Someone had to purchase these
businesses, and then keep them running to supply to the local area. As stress fell on communities who
could not find store proprietors, it became common to simply overlook national legislation by not
enforcing closure of businesses run by Sino-Panamanians. Towns not wanting to appear directly defiant
often rallied behind their citizens of Chinese descent by requesting legal exceptions from Arias himself.
This method of protest was particularly common in the island community of Bocas del Toro. Not only
was this city a geographic outlier, but it also boasted one of the larger Chinese communities on the
isthmus.
All aspects considered, this project was actually far more educational than I had imagined or
expected at its inception. In addition to the immense value of the cultural education that comes with
immersion in a country, my understanding of Panama, as well as my capacity to conduct future research,
has expanded. As much I as seek to answer individual questions or pinpoint single problems, I will need
to be more mindful of dependent variables in social and political movements, which cannot be viewed in
a vacuum. As I learned here, a more comprehensive approach to research and one that flexibility deals
with unexpected circumstances produces more accurate and more thorough analysis.