The Great Divide

“‘Why, we sailed to a swamp!’ John nodded. ‘That’s right, and we shall clean it up.’”

This passage portrays the prevailing attitudes that white imperialists held about Panama. Although Panamanian society was cohesive and Panamanian culture rich, north Americans like John saw the space as underdeveloped and backwards.

“He pointed to the top of the hill where a large white house stood alone, graced by the sun. It was two stories tall with a broad, screened veranda that swept across the front and wrapped around its sides.”

John and other wealthy north Americans in Panama built themselves grand mansions that stood in marked contrast to the kind of housing favored by locals. This mansion symbolizes north American involvement in Panama: Wealthy whites saw Panama as a set of resources to be plundered and extracted much wealth from the country without truly aiding the local economy, as reflected by the fact that the house stands alone but grand.

“Do you really believe that it’s possible to rid this pesthole of Malaria once and for all?”

John uses the word “pesthole” to describe Panama. On the surface, he refers to the mosquitos, but the word suggests that he looks at Panama and sees a disease-ridden swamp and not the thriving culture.

“The negroes here are not like the negroes back home. They will not do as you say, and it seems no amount of scolding can make them work faster than they do.”

This passage speaks to the novel’s depiction of the racism that characterized the region. The word “negroes” regardless of geographical location highlights the way racist attitudes attempt to subsume cultural difference and disregard Black people as individuals.

“Their hands blistered and bled from squeezing the handles of their picks and their shovels for hours on end. Their legs ached, their shoulders burned, their backs felt as though they were breaking, about to snap in two.”

The author wrote this novel in part to shed light on the plight of the workers who constructed the canal. The sensory description of the work highlights its physical toll, and the alliteration of “blistered and bled” creates a sonic relentlessness that matches the nature of the work.

“They had both come out light, and Lucille understood that the lightness meant they had the chance to become things that Lucille never could.”

Although only part of the novel’s broader interest in the intersection of race, gender, and class in Caribbean and Central American society, Ada’s light skin speaks to prevailing attitudes about race and desirability. Lucille acknowledges this colorism; the fact that the “lightness” is described in terms of what Lucille can’t do rather than what Ada can suggests that colorist attitudes do not create real advantage in a racist society.

“Valentina was forty four years old. She had spent the last twenty years in service to her son, Horacio.”

This passage speaks to the politics of gender roles and the limited options available to women across the class spectrum in Caribbean and Central American society. Each of the novel’s women is in some way limited by the expectations placed on her by society; here, Valentina struggle to define herself outside of the role of mother.

“She needed him to understand that Gatún was her.”

These lines, spoken by Valentina, illustrate the unbreakable ties that Panamanians had to their land. This novel uses the dichotomy between characters like Valentina and white outsiders to demonstrate the way that Panama was mined for resources by individuals with little care or concern for the country itself.

“The difference between the talk of La Separación this time and every time before was that now Panamanians had someone on their side who could ensure their success: the United States.”

This passage speaks to the way that foreign involvement shaped the fate of nations in Latin America. Panamanians were sure that the United States could help them declare independence from Colombia, but the US did so only to ensure the construction of a canal that would benefit its own trade.

“I was born here, in the Americas, therefore I am an American.”

This passage speaks to a rhetorical mistake particular to residents of the United States. The Americas is a region that encompasses Canada, the United States, and Central and South America. Therefore, “American” as an adjective refers to residents of this entire area. The United States of America often shortens its name to just America, and so its citizens refer to themselves as American. In other parts of the Americas, “American” is a general rather than specific term. This misuse is a point of contention among characters outside of the United States in the novel as they feel that it is a reflection of the United States’s arrogance and imperialism.

“You all received the paper saying that by April the entire town of Gatún will be forced to move to the eastern bank of the river so that here, where we are at this very moment, a dam can be built for the canal.”

Cristina Henríquez’s depiction of this phase of the canal is one of the ways in which she engages the United States’s imperialistic power in Latin America in order to further its own economic and political interests. The phrase “at this very moment” highlights the temporal urgency of the protests, since the canal planning is already underway.

“It’s important for a woman to use her own mind.”

This passage speaks to Marian’s characterization as well as to the novel’s interest in the politics of gender. Marian, Ada, Lucille, and various other female characters are shown to bristle against the more confining aspects of life for women of their era and to value independence.

“Ada stared at the doctor, dumbfounded. She wanted to point out that he himself had been late, and that if he had been here on time she would not have had to leave, to find fever pills on her own.”

Ada is blamed by multiple people for Marian Oswald’s death, a sign of both the inherent classism and racism among white society in Panama. Although Ada is a caring, competent caretaker, she is also biracial and working class and is treated poorly because of it.

“Both papers ran a full obituary that identified Marian Oswald as the wife of John Oswald and told that they had been married for eleven years with no children between them. Neither of the obituaries said anything about Marian’s degree in botany or the work she had done before she met John.”

Even after her death, Marian is reduced to the role of wife and (unsuccessful) mother. Her achievements and intellect are overlooked. This speaks to the sexism of society at this time and to the extreme limitations placed on women.

“My father does not want to hear anything that I say. We are not speaking to each other right now.”

These lines, spoken by Omar, reveal the fraught nature of his relationship with his father. Although Francisco objects to his son’s work on the canal on principle, he does not realize that Omar has taken the position in part out of a desire to experience friendship and community.

“They would sit side by side, creating a sort of barricade, although the real goal was to attract enough attention so that someone from the zone government or the Panamanian government or even the land commission would come.”

This passage, which describes the townspeople in Gatún’s proposed protest, speaks to the novel’s interest in regional politics and its thematic engagement with Grassroots Resistance Against Oppression. Although the villagers are disempowered, they stand up to the Panamanian government to try to save their town.

“What could he do? What was he honestly expected to do? He sighed. Lucille had told him herself once, in writing, to leave them alone.”

At this point in the narrative, Henry knows that his daughter by Lucille is dying, but he resolves to do nothing, because to intervene would risk incurring the wrath of his wife. The rhetorical questions suggest that he himself is not reflecting critically on his position as a white, wealthy man.

“Panama gave him the opportunity to leave Tennessee, to become something more than his family name.”

This passage speaks to John’s characterization, but also in a more generalized way to the attitudes of white Americans who moved to Panama during the boom years surrounding the construction of the canal. John wants to escape the confines of his family life and to define himself as something other than a Tennessee Oswald. And yet, he and so many of the other Americans in Panama failed to understand the country itself and to see it for all of its history and complexity. Panama is an opportunity to John, not a place unto itself.

“‘Always long days for us,’ Prince said. ‘Long days, short life.’”

The mostly Black and brown workforce tasked with the actual construction of the Panama canal were heavily exploited. Henríquez juxtaposes the terms “long” and “short” to mirror the inequality inherent in the working conditions on the canal.

“You people had this country for hundreds of years and you managed to make it a swamp. But we got rid of yellow fever and built bridges and towns. We paved your streets and gave you water that runs through pipes underground.”

These lines, spoken by Miller, embody the arrogance of white Americans in Panama. Men like Miller instead see the canal project through their own eyes. By having the novel’s antagonist deliver this opinion, Henríquez reinforces the novel’s point that Panama would have been better off without US intervention.

“After a time, people started arriving whom they did not recognize, people from outside of Gatún even.”

This passage speaks to the spirit of community evident in the novel as well as to the theme of Grassroots Resistance Against Oppression. Although it starts small, Valentina’s protest grows larger as people come from all over Panama to support them.

“Molly had seen photographs of Panama, but all the photographs showed one of two things, the canal or the jungle.”

This passage speaks to the way that Panama is perceived by outsiders. Multiple white characters in the novel dismiss the country as an unlivable “jungle” and see the resource of the canal as the nation’s only attribute.

“You were joining the people of Panama.”

These lines, spoken by Ada to Omar, capture the spirit of community that suffuses the novel. Omar has noted his support for the people of Gatún, but Ada tells him that it was actually all of Panama he was helping. Throughout the narrative, Panamanians and other Caribbean individuals in Panama come together in a spirit of support to help counter the influence of exploitive outsiders. That Omar and so many others join the protests at the end of the novel speaks to this phenomenon and suggests how cohesive Panamanian society was.