| This dissertation analyzes constructions of identity and community in Panama and the Canal Zone throughout the twentieth century, with emphasis on three phenomena: U.S. imperialism, transnational African diasporic networks in the Americas, and anticolonial nationalism in Latin America. Chapter One examines the formation of the Panama Canal Zone in the early twentieth century, describing intersections of international and local forces in the Canal Zone, which shaped the identities of the Zone's civilian and military populations. In Chapter Two, I document attempts by West Indian Panamanian community leaders to promote the integration of West Indian-descended groups in Panama through the use of performance practices. I focus on the concert promotion company of West Indian Panamanian impresario George Westerman, which promoted a transnational sensibility of black cosmopolitanism by engaging African American performing artists on tours to Panama.;The third chapter analyzes formations of racial and national identity as well as class, gender, and sexuality in Panama's most significant work of theatre, La cucarachita mandinga (The Little Mandinga Cockroach). This comic operetta has been mounted numerous times between its premiere in 1937 and the most recent production in 2006. Over decades, Panamanian governing bodies have adapted the play's textual and performance elements to disseminate anticolonial and nationalist polemics. I trouble conventional readings of the play by addressing the nuances of its protagonist, who is represented simultaneously as an Afro-descendant female, a repugnant cockroach, and the Panamanian nation-state. Finally, my fourth chapter analyzes two ceremonies that commemorated the Panama Canal's transfer to Panamanian sovereignty in 1999. Discussing production components and processes, I examine trans/national discourses and relationships among spatial materiality, memory, and symbolism in the two performances' distinct constructions of that which I term 'critical utopia.' Linking all four chapters are themes of national identity, race, spatial configurations, and performance practices. Through these case studies I seek to situate Panama and the Canal as important sites for analyzing the cultural, social, economic, and political implications of transnational flows of people, goods, political ideologies, and cultural influences in the Americas. |
