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Experiencing The Fiestas Patrias In Quebro, Panama

Happy Birthday, Panama! Quebro Celebrates Fiestas Patrias

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Nov 12, 2020
in In Focus: Panama, Lifestyle, Panama, Travel
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Celebrating fiestas patrias in Panama

iStock/MarcPo

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Woman dressed in a pollera

Theodore Roosevelt wanted to extend U.S. power and reach. He wanted a strong navy, and he wanted his naval force to be able to move quickly between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.

That required a waterway that didn’t exist, so Roosevelt decided he’d build one.

He made a straightforward deal with the Republic of Gran Colombia—cash for the rights to build a canal.

But the Colombians got cold feet. They were only eight decades free of their Spanish conquerors. They didn’t want to swap one overlord for another.

All right, thought Roosevelt, if the Colombians won’t cooperate… maybe the Panamanians will.

Panama, like Colombia, had gained independence from Spain in 1821. But the little isthmus of a nation feared that trying to go it alone might leave the door open to re-colonization by the Spaniards… so they opted, grudgingly, to hitch their wagon to the Colombian republic.

Roosevelt approached the Panamanians and suggested that the United States might be OK with the idea of a Panamanian revolt against Colombia… if the resulting Republic of Panama, once formed, would go along with his canal plan.

Bolstered by that support, on Nov. 3, 1903, Panamanian nationalists launched a revolution. Three days later, the United States recognized the new Republic of Panama… and Roosevelt went to work in earnest on the construction of the Panama Canal.

Each of the 116 years since, Panamanians have celebrated the anniversary of that revolt. They don’t see it as an independence day. They remember instead, later this month, the date of their independence from Spain. Rather, Nov. 3 is a separation day.

Because, if you ask a Panamanian, he’ll tell you he’s not a former Colombian. He’s a former Spaniard…

Proud of the nation he and his fellows have created for themselves since kicking their Spanish colonizers back across the Pond.

“Nov. 3 is my favorite day of the year,” Los Islotes employee Dalys told me last Friday. On this day, we Panamanians forget everything negative. This is the one day when we set aside all differences and troubles and simply feel pride in our homeland. It’s a very emotional day for us.”

“What will Quebro do to celebrate?” I asked Dalys.

“What else?” she replied. “We will throw a party!

“In fact, we will have two parties,” Dalys continued.

“We celebrate our separation from Colombia on Nov. 3. Then, on Nov. 4, we have the Día de la Bandera… or Flag Day. Both days, the events will begin at the Quebro school. The whole town will meet there each morning.

“Children with the best grades have the right to show our tricolor ribbon over their traditional outfits. The ribbon bears the colors of our flag, and wearing it is considered an honor.

children wearing montuno

“Each day, we will sing the national anthem while we raise our flag. Then the children will compete in games and races.

“We are lucky because our Quebro school currently has a small band. On Nov. 3, the band members will lead a parade through town.

“The highlight of the day on Nov. 4 is the naming of our town queen, who, crowned, is driven through the village in a wooden carriage. We all follow along behind dancing to the music of the tambor, a traditional Panamanian drum.

“It’s a day of real joy.

“You and Sr. Lief should come to see for yourselves,” Dalys invited last Friday.

So Sunday at 11 a.m. and again Monday morning about the same time, Lief and I drove from Los Islotes to the heart of Quebro, where we were met by the entire community… all 400 strong singing and dancing in the streets.

This year Quebro elected a pre-kinder queen. The adorable 5-year-old did her community proud. She sat atop the flower-strewn ox cart with big wooden wheels in her white pollera smiling and waving indefatigably to her adoring townsfolk all around.

white pollera smiling and waving
Lief and I and our fellow citizens of Quebro followed our little queen, most on foot but some on horseback, from her school to the center of the village a half-hour away.

“Buenos días!” one caballero called to me as he passed. “Un abrazo?” he asked with a smile as he extended his arm down from his horse with a flourish.
With hugs, handshakes, and kisses… tipped hats and swaying hips… whooping and hollering… we bopped and two-stepped our way through town… understanding why Dalys says this is her favorite day of the year.

Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, In Focus: Panama

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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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