With a distance of just about 1,000 km between them, Panama and Jamaica have had a long history of interaction. While migration to Panama had been occurring for years prior, the construction of the Panama Railroad (1850–1855) and the Panama Canal (1891–1914) demanded a large labor force that brought in upwards of fifty-thousand West Indians, mostly from Jamaica (Richardson 211).
By the late 1970s, many descendants from these Jamaican immigrants still remained in Panama, but not without racial conflict. Despite the cultural and biological mixing of Panamanians prior to West Indian immigration, Panama’s nation-building rhetoric has relied on an interpretation of mestizaje that “encouraged cultural uniformity and, in turn, fashioned a national anti-black sentiment” (Watson). In addition to the perceived racial differences between “black” West Indians and “Spanish” Afro-Panamanians, linguistic and religious differences between the groups threatened mestizaje’s ideology of a culturally uniform nation.
Reggae en espanol, also known as plena or bultrón, was birthed in Panamanian barrios such as Río Abajo and Parque Lefevre (Watson) combines Jamaican reggae’s distinct music with new Spanish lyrics by Panamanian vocalists. However, reggae en espanol is more than simply the sum of its parts, and should be considered as an act of transculturation. Cuban essayist Fernando Ortiz Fernandez writes that “transculturation is a set of ongoing transmutations; it is full of creativity and never ceases; it is irreversible. It is always a process in which we give something in exchange for what we receive: the two parts of the equation end up being modified. From this process springs out a new reality, which is not a patchwork of features, but a new phenomenon, original and independent” (qtd. in Lecture 5).
Many early reggae en espanol recordings are translations of popular Jamaican reggae songs. Yet the discrepancies between translations from patois to Spanish reveal the shifts in thematic content in this new genre. In his article “Translation or Transformation: Gender in Hispanic Reggae”, Joseph Pereria notes that “Straight transfers across cultural borders have not taken place. The receiving culture [of Panamanian reggaeseros] has adapted… more eurocentric imagery [and] avoidance of more violent expressions [towards traditional authority images]” (88). Thus, reggae en espanol displays clear thematic departures from Jamaican reggae and early dancehall, and must be considered a product of transculturation as opposed to a simple imitation or iteration.
Mixing Jamaican beats from reggae and early dancehall with Spanish lyrics that “addressed the whimsical and/or quotidian experiences of young Panamanians” (Balaji and Sigler 98), Panamanian reggaeseros such as El General, Nando Boom, and Renato would come to create a new genre beyond mere translation of popular Jamaican songs.
References
Knight, Franklin W., and Colin A. Palmer. The Modern Caribbean. University of North Carolina Press Books, 1989.
“Map of the Caribbean.” The Economist, 28 Feb. 2014, www.economist.com/americas-view/2014/02/28/ripple-effects.
Pereira, Joseph. “Translation or Transformation: Gender in Hispanic Reggae.” Social and Economic Studies, vol. 47, no. 1, 1998.
Stephenson Watson, Sonja. “‘Reading’ National Identity in Panama through Renato, a First Generation Panamanian Reggae En Español Artist.” Alter/Nativas, vol. 2, 2014.
