Getting the (dance) Party Started

One of the many wonderful things Latin America is known for around the world is its music and dance. A little cliched maybe, but think of all the dances and musicians that have come from this part of the world. Merengue, Bachata, Cha-Cha, Rumba, Tengo, Samba, Mambo, the list of dances goes on.

Typical Beloit dance party

I don't claim to be the best dancer in the world. Formal lessons started at 6 and ended at 12 when I realized I was never going to be able to do the splits and my mom was a little concerned about how riskAy the dance teams in high school were. My awkward, nearly 6ft teenage self could barely walk in a straight line without falling down, much less get down. But my alma mater, Beloit College, taught me how wonderful a good ol' dance party can be. In college I would say I could hold my own on a dance floor. A lot had to do with the fact  that I was surrounded by mostly midwestern, white, suburban kids.  As much as Latin America is known for dance, WASPs are very much known for having whatever the opposite of rhythm would be.

One of the host-brothers in Uganda showing how it's done

Both in Ghana and Uganda, I came to understand rather than being an awkward and humiliating contest of swagger which I would inevitably lose, dancing is once of the most joyful and uniting experiences one can partake in. Where there was music there was dancing, and where there wasn't music, someone would make some! Children able to walk could dance and women who had seen most of the years of their life pass by would not pass up an opportunity to feel their bodies alive and moving.  I finally understood what church was all about when I went to an Anglican service in Tamale Ghana. EVERYONE was dancing and singing and being happy for life and what they had. It was contagious and it was uplifting. In the U.S. it seems like people need their dances to be choreographed and planned within a certain structure in a certain place. In Ghana and Uganda, life is a dance, you just have to be open to hearing the music wherever and whenever you are.

Back to my life in Latin America. I was fully anticipating clubs and festivals in Panama to be full of life and dancing. To be honest I was pretty intimidated (going back to me being the tall, awkward girl). Crazy thing is: in Panama, NO ONE DANCES!

Emmanuel practicing

An over exaggeration? Yes, a little. I actually was spoiled to meet a group of guys who breakdance the first time I really went clubbing. (Check out this video of some of the guys in Newton's Enemies) Wow! I thought, not only are guys dancing, but they're better then the girls! Then I realized, my friends and I were the only girls who danced. The more I went out the more I saw the Panamanian women with their stilt-like stiletto heels and their treated hair standing off to the side, doing everything in their power to move as little as possible, less they mess up their perm. Men too, apart from the Bboys didn't seem to have much interest in dancing.

Or maybe they did...

Leave it up to Sam, one of the other Fulbrighters here in Panama, to get the dance party started. We went to a bar in Casco Viejo one Saturday night and we were loving the music, but hating the atmosphere. Though the place was packed, no one was dancing. We said to hell with it and 4 of us Fulbrighters just had our own dance party in the middle of the bar. Apparently that was all anyone needed. Within an hour the whole place was alive and poppin!

Photo by Hood Arts https://www.facebook.com/HoodArts

Another instance was at a different club. Again the music was great but the people were just standing around. "What kind of Latinos don't dance?!" cried Elizabeth. Elizabeth's family is from the Dominican Republic and she had been hoping to find some of the same Latin flavor in Panama. Some Ron Abuelo Rum and few Balboa beers in and 4 members of our group were making our way to the front of the dance floor. If they weren't going to use it, we would!

We danced our asses off and had a blast doing it. You could tell the DJ and MCs liked having people show their appreciation of their music. Similarly, back at Beloit, bands that would come to our school would inevitably have a great time because Beloiter's dance to anything! What is it to an artist if you just enjoy their work silently to yourself? Music, especially live music, is something to be experienced and shared.

Afterward we talked to a Panamanian woman who had been singing and actually dancing with us. She said Panamanian women don't like to dance, but they get jealous of those that do.  We had the attention of the whole club and we were doing it in tennis shoes and sweaty hair.

https://www.facebook.com/HoodArts

Poignant Responses

A few times during my research I have been struck by the responses I am given. The following are a few of the shockingly thought-provoking responses I have been given. Many times these responses would initially strike me as irrelevant or inaccurate, but upon further reflection I would realize the significance of the comment.

In one interview, I was asking an older Guna man and his father about the rejection of persons with albinism and the practice of killing babies with albinism that was common just a few decades ago.

"I hear they kill black people in the United States. Why?"

No, children who are born black in the U.S. are not traditionally buried alive. At first I wanted to say, no you aren't killed for being black in the U.S. anymore and also, what the hell does that have to do with albinos who were killed here? Yes, there is discrimination, but you aren't killed for just being black; also people in the U.S. understand that black skin is just a genetically-based process of melanin production. The Guna's killed albino children because they did not understand what the condition was. But before I could say it, the words got caught in my throat. Guna's who had albinism were killed and rejected based upon widely-held false perceptions of what their physical appearance meant. U.S. citizens who have a higher rate of melanin production (blacks in particularly) are killed and rejected based upon widely-held false perceptions of what their physical appearance means... 

When I asked the head of Nargana, Sailar Iguayoikiler, about the discriminatory words of one man in Guna Yala, he told me:

"Every culture has racists. Look at France"

Even if I find one man who thinks albinos should be "eliminated" I cannot let that completely overshadow the fact that for the most part, persons with albinism are well understood and accepted in the communities of Guna Yala. Evidence of one man's ignorance does not negate the fact that as a whole, the Guna are incredibly accepting people.




In an attempt to comfort a girl with albinism who is teased by her classmates, Dr. Gioconda explained, that in Panama, she is teased by people with dark skin because of her blond hair and light skin, but if they were to go to the U.S. or Norway she would be fine, because

"[In the U.S., Holland and Norway] being dark-skinned is bad"

The truth of this hurt when the Doctor said it. It hurt that this might be a comforting thing for a child to hear. No doubt the 10 year old child could take comfort in the fact that there is somewhere where she would be accepted and her tormentors rejected. But how horrible is that reality? 

These and other words of people have caused me to reflect upon the culture I come from and to analyze the mentality I had initially with regards to the Guna people. These and other humbling realizations have further broken down feelings of foreignness when it comes to learning about this other culture. I suppose we can all find common ground in even our least flattering of traits.

Backward Backwards

After spending so much time in Guna Yala I began to forget the importance of the work I am doing here.

Stepping on the island of Ustupu/Ogubsucun, the most heavily populated island in Guna Yala, I hardly walked a 20 yards without seeing someone with albinism surrounded by family and friends. One buff young man was schooling his peers in soccer outside the Centro de Salud, a stunning girl with flowing blond hair helped her family around the house. Another boy played guitar and sung with his band. On Nargana a young boy with albinism was clearly the ring-leader of his group of friends, running freely around the island. The only worry these people seemed to have as a result of their condition was how to access sunscreen, sunglasses and covering clothing.

In my interviews of people without albinism I was consistently told how intelligent persons with albinism are and how they are typically extraordinary musicians. People admit that not too long ago persons with albinism were rejected and even killed at birth, but that now they are completely accepted in their society. And it shows. People with albinism are teachers, lawyers, famous musicians, and governing officials. They hold positions of power in society while persons with albinism in Uganda are an exception if they are even able to attend school.

Unfortunately, coming back to Panama City has shown me how much more work still must be done. Ironically, I have come to see the highly-developed and wealthy Panama City culture has some “uncivilized “ undertones.

Tuesday, I was invited by Dr. Gioconda to come meet a couple whose daughter was dealing with issues above and beyond protection from the sun. I stood in the examining room and listened to this beautiful little girl’s mother explain how the girl is tortured daily by her Second grade classmates, and how her teacher has done nothing.

Gioconda asked the girl if she had any friends. The girl, sitting on the examining bed quietly shook her head, no, with the tiniest smile of embarrassment. I turned to look at her mom who was looking at her daughter with tears welling up in her eyes, arms wrapped around herself. You could see the mother’s yearning just to hold her child and tell her it was ok. But then you also saw the painful recognition in her eyes that it wasn’t ok, and that no amount of comfort from even a mother can make up for being an adolescent child without a single friend. We even learn that the girl’s own cousin refuses to play with the girl because of her condition.

Gioconda explained to the little girl that she is not so different. That many people around the world have white skin and light blond hair. That in places like the US and Norway she would be completely normal, while the brown and black kids who now tease her would be rejected.

Then Gioconda told the young girl that it was time to stand up for herself. She was first to tell the teacher that she was tired of being picked on every day. And when the kids continue to hit her and bite her and the teacher does nothing it would be time to take matters into her own hands, and that “matter” would be the melanin-rich hair of her torturers.

“Now, biting will leave a mark, so it is better to grab the hair and pull like this. That way it won’t leave a mark”

Besides the lessons in self-defense, Dr. Gioconda set up an appointment for the girl to see a psychologist and wrote a note to the head of the school.

Gioconda introduced me to the parents as an intelligent university student sent here just for this reason. While it is true, it felt like such an empty description. Right now, I have nothing to offer these parents and this young girl whose young life is a nightmare solely because of a slight chemical change in her body that she has no power over. It is so surreal to know that only a few miles north, in the mother’s birthplace of Ustupu, this girl would never have to worry about this sort of rejection.

Many Panamanians stick their nose up at the “primitive” lifestyle of the Guna people, yet this City is full of primitive ideas when it comes to treatment of those who are different. Like the country I come from, Panama City is rife with homophobia, and obsessed with color hierarchy. Within that pool of discrimination albinos are also left to drown in the hatred and ignorance. "Backward" is a relative direction. The more I learn from the people in Guna Yala the more I am convinced that yes, they are facing another direction from the “civilized” world, and that the "civilized" world should learn to turn around.