Panama and Barbados: A bridge built by people

One Caribbean Nation.

Daily Nation Barbados , Tuesday, August 18, 2026

                                              BARBADIAN WORKERS played a significant role in the construction of                                                the Panama Canal 

by BOLÍVAR JACK BARRIOS LA FONTAINE

 THE STRONGEST BRIDGES between nations are not always built through treaties, trade agreements, or official visits. More often, they are built quietly by ordinary people whose lives cross borders in search of opportunity, carrying with them their traditions, memories and aspirations. The relationship between Panama and Barbados is a remarkable example of this truth. Long before modern diplomacy connected our governments, people connected our societies, creating a bond that continues to shape both countries today. At the beginning of the 20th century, Panama became the site of one of the world’s greatest engineering achievements: the Panama Canal. The project demanded an immense workforce, attracting thousands of migrants from across the Caribbean. Among them, Barbadians played an especially significant role. They arrived not only with their labour and technical skills, but also with a rich cultural heritage forged through resilience, community and a deep sense of identity. For many of these migrants, the journey was marked by sacrifice. Working conditions were difficult, the tropical climate unforgiving, and opportunities uncertain. Yet despite these challenges, Barbadian workers became indispensable to the canal’s construction and to the communities that emerged around it. Many ultimately chose to make Panama their permanent home, raising families, contributing to the country’s development and becoming an integral part of its multicultural identity.

 Enriched social fabric 

Their contribution extended far beyond the canal itself. They transformed neighbourhoods, established churches and schools, nurtured businesses and enriched Panama’s social fabric with customs that continue to resonate generations later. Today, the legacy of Barbadian migration remains visible not only in family names and historical records, but also in the traditions, values and cultural expressions that continue to unite both nations across the Caribbean Sea. Perhaps nowhere is this shared heritage more evident than in food. Cuisine has a unique ability to preserve history, passing it from one generation to the next without books or monuments. Recipes travel with people, adapting to new environments while retaining the memories of the places from which they came. When Barbadians settled in Panama, they brought culinary traditions rooted in African heritage, island ingenuity and communal life. Coconut, seafood, root vegetables, spices and slow-cooked stews became familiar elements within Afro Caribbean communities along the canal and Panama’s Caribbean coast. Over time, these traditions blended naturally with local ingredients and Panamanian tastes, creating dishes that are neither exclusively Barbadian nor exclusively Panamanian, but unmistakably shared. One of the clearest examples is found in a humble yet meaningful dish: souse in Barbados and saus in Panama. Though each country prepares it with local variations, both versions reflect the same culinary philosophy, making creative use of preserved meats, citrus, spices, and patience. In both societies, the dish is associated with weekends, celebrations and family gatherings. More than a recipe, it is a living reminder of the migration that connected our peoples more than a century ago. Like food, music travels effortlessly across borders. It preserves memory, creates community and builds connections where words often fail. The musical traditions of Barbados and Panama reveal a common Caribbean rhythm born from shared African heritage and strengthened through migration. Barbados is home to vibrant traditions such as calypso, soca, spouge and tuk music, genres that blend celebration with storytelling and collective identity. Panama’s musical landscape reflects a parallel evolution. Afro Caribbean communities, including many of Barbadian descent, introduced rhythms that gradually merged with local influences while preserving their Caribbean roots. The similarities are unmistakable. The central role of percussion, call and-response traditions, and music designed for participation rather than observation reveal shared cultural grammar. Whether during Crop Over in Barbados or Carnival in Panama, music transforms public spaces into celebrations of belonging, where history is experienced collectively rather than simply remembered. I experienced this connection personally during an evening in Bridgetown. While speaking with a Barbadian friend named Richie, we began exchanging music from across the Caribbean. What initially seemed like different languages quickly revealed a common pulse. We realised that the sounds of Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Panama reflected centuries of shared history both in English and Spanish. 

Lesson for diplomacy

 Richie later visited Panama and confirmed what we had discussed: although the music had evolved with local influences, it never felt foreign. It felt familiar, as if the Caribbean had crossed the isthmus and found a home in Panama City – in its neighbourhoods, its rhythms, and its people – continuing to live on the shores of the Pacific. This is why the relationship between Panama and Barbados offers an important lesson for diplomacy today. International relations are often understood through institutions, treaties and political dialogue. While these remain essential, they are strongest when supported by genuine human connections. Trust is easier to build when societies already recognise themselves in one another through shared history, culture, and memory. The historical relationship between our two countries demonstrates that cultural diplomacy is not something governments invent but something they inherit. The migration of Barbadian workers created relationships that continue to facilitate cooperation in education, tourism, commerce and multilateral engagement. These exchanges are contemporary expressions of a much older connection.

 Strengthen relationship

 Looking ahead, this shared history offers an opportunity rather than merely a legacy. New generations travel between Barbados and Panama not out of necessity, as many migrants once did, but for education, business, tourism and friendship. Students, artists, entrepreneurs and visitors continue to strengthen a relationship whose foundations were laid by workers more than a century ago. In an increasingly fragmented world, the story of Panama and Barbados reminds us that the most enduring international partnerships are human. Geography may separate islands and isthmuses, governments may change, and political priorities may evolve, but relationships rooted in people possess remarkable resilience. They are carried into family and friends’ histories, celebrated through music, remembered around dinner tables, and renewed through every new encounter. Panama has long described itself as the bridge of the world. Our relationship with Barbados reminds us that the most meaningful bridges are not only those built of concrete and steel, but those built by people.

 Bolívar Jack Barrios La Fontaine is a career diplomat.

 Panama and Barbados: A bridge built by people BARBADIAN WORKERS played a significant role in the construction of the Panama Canal. (FP)