Changmarín: Race, Identity, and Children’s Literature in Panama

This essay reviews the work that Carlos Francisco “Chico” Changmarín, Panamanian poet, essayist, and novelist, wrote especially for children. In particular, it analyzes the role of race in the formation of Panamanian national identity. Changmarín distinguished himself from the predominant voices of his time by spending his career documenting and celebrating the plurality of races that make up what he sees as Panamanian identity and merging his construction of identity with the uniqueness of the natural environment. He spoke out in defense of ecological concerns way before it became popular to do so and denounced the racially segregated Canal Zone as antithetical to everything that Panama valued. In so doing, he flipped Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s long-held dichotomy between civilization and barbarism on its head questioning the very foundations of colonialism and modernity. Ultimately, for Changmarín, it is the particular ecology of Panama, the water, the butterflies, the orchids, the tree after which Panama is named, combined with its art, music, and the language of the people, that most clearly inform Panamanian identity. Panama, according to Changmarín, has been built on the backs of all races: the indigenous, the “cholos,” the blacks, and the Chinese. Each group has had a role to play in defining the nation, and thus, the self.