Janus Lives Here

Panama City, PANAMA
Feb.25, 2015

Casco Antiguo (or Viejo) in Panama City is why I travel.  It's one of those places that has played a number of different characters through its history, and is in the midst of transforming itself into yet another.  The personalities it takes on are unique, not your typical type-cast small town, gentrified city, old town, etc.  It takes on multiple facets at any given time - tough, pretty, gritty, elegant, proud, unassuming - and it's the unique combinations of those various facets that make it so facsinating, including during transition from one character to the next.

UNESCO World Heritage Site
It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site (in conjunction with the original European settlement on the other side of the skyscraper business centre of Panama).  This means it is "of outstanding universal value and meet(s) at least one out of ten selection criteria" [1] from the UNESCO criteria list.  For Casco Antiguo, it is its historical/colonial urban planning (ii) and architecture (iv), along with early (although unsuccessful) attempts at establishing a 'multinational congress of the Americas' (vi), prior to UN existence, that allowed it the UNESCO World Heritage status [2].  It also means it is protected and regulated by specific guidelines in order to preserve its cultural heritage.

In addition, Wikipedia tells me the UNESCO World Heritage designation "provides prima facie evidence" [3] through the Geneva Convention that these sites are legally protected during war.  How that would be enforced, or reprimanded if destruction does occur, I have no idea...

The Spaniards arrived in the early 1500's and established the first and oldest European settlement on the mainland Americas - Panama - on top of remnants of pre-Columbian settlements.  After being invaded by pirates in the late 1600's and burnt down, the settlement was moved to the decidedly nicer spot of what is now Casco Antiguo, where it prospered and grew into lovely stately colonial homes, apartments, businesses and churches, as well as home to the Presidential Palace.  After numerous more fires in the 1700's, and decline during urban expansion during the 19th and 20th centuries, Casco Antiguo (which translates to "Old (Historical) Quarter") faded into gang-infested poverty and disrepair. [2]

It's only been in the past 10 years or so that people have been putting money into restoring and revitalizing Casco Antiguo.  Piece by piece, in apparent random order, bits of buildings are bought up by investors for eventual restoration.  Word on the street is that it is most often foreign private investment and business, but the businesses do employ locals.

To find out what it was like 10 years ago, we called up a small venture called Fortaleza Tours to see Casco Antiguo through the eyes of ex-gang members, when this was their turf and most "other" people did not dare pass this way.

The Esperanza Social Venture Club was formed when five gang members from the Ciudad de Dios gang (named from the "City of God" gang in Brazil, on which the movie of that name is based) decided survival depended on cleaning up the neighbourhood rather than shooting it down.  A large police raid had recently invaded their gang base in an abandoned old building, where the gangs and their families were squatting.  When I asked Jafet, one of our ex-gang tour leaders, what in particular brought him to see this change, he said simply that, at the time, he had a new young daughter, and wanted to see her grow up.

American Trade Hotel - originally a business centre for US business and trade, before becoming abandoned
and taken over as gang lookout and squatter local, then being restored and re-opened in 2013 as a fancy hotel

(I did try to find photos of the building pre-restoration, but none surfaced...).

While the hotel's initial history as a trade centre is maintained
through the its name - American Trade Hotel, its gang history during
the 2000's is maintained in a hallway across the main entrance of the
hotel - lined with wallpaper made up of photos of the resident gang
emblems and member "signatures" which once covered the inner
building walls

Translator Saint James

Jafet and Chino (half Chinese, half Panamanian, hence his nickname "Chino"), the other ex-gang tour guide with us, spoke to us through Fortaleza's regular English translator, Saint James.  Saint James was a character unto himself, another Panamanian who lived a number of years in the USA and served in the US Air Force, before retiring back to Panama.  When he heard about the Esperanza Social Venture Club, and their efforts to support themselves and their families through the Fortaleza Tours initiative, he offered himself to them as a translator.  Perhaps through the bond of one battle-weary veteran to another.  He obviously knew them and their story well, for during the tour he quite often added information and insights, and cracked his own jokes.  Jafet and Chino did not smile much.

The walk took us back past our old haunt, the Nefarious Hostel Experience, at the edge of the neighbourhood El Chorrillo, which we were advised by Saint James "one does not go".  Victor, the owner, was outside.  To my relief, he greeted our wave and hello with a wave and hello back.  To my surprise, he greeted Jafet and Chino with handshakes and a quick chat.  A-ha...  The decrepit hostel...  Being restored...  What was Victor's story...?

At the end of the walk, when I thanked each of them, I said to Jafet that I would have liked to hear more about his own personal story.  I later read an article in the Huffington Post about Fortaleza, in which the author experienced the same feeling after going on the tour: "[Jafet] spoke about general conditions for poor people and gang members in the neighborhood, and how things have changed. He didn't speak too much about his own personal activities. A teardrop tattoo next to one of his eyes may be a clue to more of his past." [4]

After the tour, when conducting my regular ramblings, I saw the decrepit buildings next to the shiny sparkly restored ones with new appreciation.  They were the homes of many of the ex-gang families, who squatted there, decorating and furnishing to the best of their abilities with money they might make feeding tourists, perhaps working for the new businesses in town, and the proceeds of the Fortaleza Tours.  They were self-sufficient, figuring out how to get water and power of their own accord (ie. splicing wires into the town's main power lines).  When a new investor came along, and decided this was the building they wanted, the families were turned out and on their own to find and set up again somewhere else.

I didn't take pictures of the squatter homes, bullet-ridden walls, stoic-looking local people going about their daily home lives - although many happily waved to us, some chatted, as we made our rounds with Jafet, Chino and Saint James.

This is Casco Antiguo in character transition.  I'm pretty sure if one day I return, it will not be the same as it is in February 2015.

Postcard - doors of Casco Antiguo