Product Description

Growing up in La Boca, Canal Zone, gave me the opportunity to see and know men and women who worked on the Panama Canal during and after its construction, including my father who was born in Gorgona, Canal Zone, one of the many pre-construction towns that today are under water. The Panama Canal had long been built by the time I was born, but in the thirties and forties as a young boy, I was able to listen to the stories of surviving diggers and canal workers. They were not much different from the stories of the three diggers I have written about in Part II Messrs. Leslie, Thompson, and Gallimore. It is well known that these African-Caribbean workers were exploited, mistreated, and underpaid under the system of the Canal Zone in the early 1900s, which was an extension of the prevailing racial policies in the United States at the time. Panamanians of African descent bore the brunt of discrimination and racism brought to the isthmus by the United States canal enterprise. As a boy growing up in the Canal Zone, I always felt like two persons one who was too busy living life to care, and another who was witnessing it, if you can imagine being in a play and observing it at the same time. As a witness, I couldn t understand (until much later) half of what was going on politically, but I knew that something didn t seem right when, as a boy, I couldn t walk through certain (white) neighborhoods without being arrested for loitering, or when I couldn t pick a mango off the ground that fell off a tree that nobody wanted without being arrested or treated like a thief. It seemed to me it was better to fill my belly than to let it rot on the ground. I couldn t understand either why we had to live in segregated parts of the Canal Zone, and why our sections didn t look as fancy with fine brick buildings and lawns, like the white sections with fewer families living in them. I couldn t understand why we had to shop in a different store, eat in a different restaurant, or go to a different clubhouse, movie theatre, or school. I didn t understand why the places where we lived and shopped were called silver and the places white people lived and shopped were called gold and why the water fountains and the toilets were labeled silver and gold and we couldn t use the gold service or drink the gold water. As a boy, I knew all of this was wrong at least the witness in me knew but I did what everybody else did made the best of the situation and went about living anyway. I personally didn t let discrimination bother me too much then at least the person in me who was living and enjoying nature and making the most of life didn t let it bother him. The other person, the witness, was more serious and quiet most of the time, because I pushed him aside until I was much older.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2705720 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-17
• Binding: Paperback
• 195 pages

Review
Dear John: Yesterday, upon my return from Panama, Velma Armstrong gave me a copy of your book, Songs and Stories of a Digger s Son as a Kwanzaa present. Permit me to congratulate you for this invaluable contribution to the history of the descendents of those indefatigable and courageous Caribbean men and women the diggers, who made the mighty oceans wed and paved a pathway to the seas. Given the continuous dwindling of our numbers and what, from my perspective, has been a systemic strategy to exclude our history and culture from the Panamanian educational curriculum, your book is both timely and necessary. As you are aware, I have been deeply concerned over the loss of our culture and our heritage, which I shared in my work The Last Buffalo:Are People of Caribbean Ancestry and Endangered Species? Your Songs and Stories of a Diggers Son must become a part of an ongoing attempt designed to avoid the extinction of that last buffalo. What made the book for me, irreplaceable was the manner in which you recreated images of a people and past that I knew so well and how you brought them to life. Pepper Martin and Revered Alphonse is an example. Our public swimming pool Calmetto is another. Further your choice of the poetic form was extremely helpful and on target since our generation was raised on poetry . I wonder if those who came after us share that love?. If they do not, it is their loss. Again, please accept my sincerest congratulations. You have added another weapon to the literary arsenal we need if we are to keep our history and culture alive and well. Sincerely, Dr. Carlos E. Russell --Dr. Carlos E. Russell, Author, Producer, Community Leader, Historian

Songs and Stories of a Digger s Son, written by John Weldon Evans and published by TJMF Publishing is a rather personal account of life, as he lived it, in the once vibrant town of La Boca, Canal Zone. His inspiration for writing the book, he admits, was that, These memories are too precious to be lost forever. For this reason I was motivated to record some of them in Songs and Stories. We agree with him. John Evans was born in La Boca and attended La Boca Elementary, Junior High, and Normal Training School during the 1930s and 1940s. You can refer to our article on La Boca, Canal Zone for a basic history of this once dynamic Silver Township. He taught in the Canal Zone colored schools in the towns of Silver City and La Boca, Canal Zone, until 1956 when he, like many other Canal Zone youths, left to further his education and career in the United States. In the U.S. he received his Bachelor of Arts degree and two Master of Arts degrees. He worked as a lecturer and subsequently as an administrator at the State University of New York Manhattan Educational Opportunity Center, administered by the Borough of Manhattan Community College, where he served as Associate Director in charge of Academic Affairs until retiring in May, 2009. It was in December of 2008 that John published a book of poetry and stories about his experiences as a young man growing up in the silver town of La Boca, Canal Zone. We are thrilled that one of the sons of our venerable ancestors has been blessed with the time and skill to document in a very appealing way his life as a digger s son. We, of the Silver People Heritage Foundation, highly recommend this book for everyone but especially for students of Black history and American history in general. --Lydia M. Reid - Silver People Heritage Foundation

About the Author
John Weldon Evans was born in La Boca, Canal Zone and attended La Boca Elementary, Junior High, and Normal Training School during the nineteen thirties and forties. He taught in the Canal Zone colored schools in the towns of Silver City and La Boca, C.Z. until the year 1956 when he, like many other Canal Zone youths, left to further their education and careers in the U.S.A. In the U.S., he achieved a B.A. and two M.A. degrees, and worked as a lecturer, and later an administrator at the State University of New York Manhattan Educational Opportunity Center, where he is currently serving as Associate Director in charge of Academic Affairs.