In a conversation about blackness and being Panamanian, Anthony Palanco's grandmother spoke about her mother, who had fair skin, and her father's dark skin and features that's traditionally associated with blackness.
Panamanian Anthony Palanco author of Verses from the Diaspora: A Poetic Tale of the African Diaspora sat down with Latin Post and spoke about his mixed Panamanian roots, his upbringing in the United States of as a Spanish-speaking Latino with a dark complexion, and Panama's gaParze when it comes to skin politics.
Panama is the southernmost country of Central America, bordered by Costa Rica and Colombia. Its inhabitants' ethnic makeup is Mestizo (mixed white and Native American) 66 percent, Blacks/African descent 16 percent, white 8 percent, and Amerindian 10 percent; the Amerindian population including seven indigenous peoples. Panama's second largest population, Panamanians of African descent, are targeted for discrimination at multiple levels, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
