The Rebels of the past will return: memory and resistance Guaymí

Abstract

For Panama the end of the Colombian period represented the beginning of the process of constitution of a new sociopolitical map, sowing the bases for the nascent nation that will drag a scheme of polarized relations based on skin color, language and ethnicity. The system of exploitation of the Indian in force between 1880-1903 was based on class relations, particularized by the interethnic relations of domination inherited from the conquest and the colony.The study of the 1880-1903 period leaves as its main conclusion that both the Guaimí people of the late nineteenth century and their current descendants are notably dynamic societies, capable of generating their own changes and alliances because of their collective interests. In this context, the following questions arise: what is the relevance of Guaymí participation in the war of a thousand days and the process of independence of Panama from the contemporary indigenous movement? In what contexts do these stories arise? How is the relationship characterized? between myth, history and utopia?