One Hundred Years of Geography in Panama

(1903-2003)

Alberto Arturo McKay

Panama university

With the consolidation and celebration of the independence of Panama (1903) the different areas
that included the different scientific fields were considered and within them was Geography. In
America, the development of geography was carried out with the support of different
educational, research, public institutions, etc. Which leads them to study Geographical science. It
has its beginnings in ancient Greece where several figures had contributions of great value to this
science, then the Arabs made this science re-emerge in the modern age, thus contributing to the
discovery of America. In the modern age (19th century) Von Humboldt and Karl Ritter stood
out, who introduced scientific Geography; Humboldt carried out different expeditions in search
of having valid arguments to verify his investigations of America and projects which he began to
disseminate at that time. The creation of the current republic and the current institutions were the
impetus for scientific geography in Panama, which had greater development thanks to the union
of many local, continental and global factors during the last 100 years.

1. Background of Geography in Panama

During the colonial period, Panama was part of the Royal Spanish Crown, depending totally on
it, the peace and administration of the territories was under the power of the Court of Santa Fe
and Bogotá. After its independence in 1821, Panama chose to join New Granada; Panama
wanted to create its own government but the moment the Panamanian population saw that their
dreams were frustrated by the form of government that existed in New Granada, they decided to
separate definitively in 1903. During the period of union with Colombia, the cartographer
Giovanni Codazzi created maps and explored the territory and New Granada, being the
inspiration for many other explorers and scientists, thus benefiting the Panamanian territory.
Projects were created for the construction of an interoceanic canal in Panama, accepted in 1879
by the Geographical Society of the time, leading to the construction of the canal by the French
between 1880 and 1889. There were Panamanian contributions during the 19th century, then in
1838 geographical studies began in primary schools, followed in 1841 by the University of the
Istmo including courses on the subject in its study plans. Panama, being a sovereign state,
created the Boys' School and with the help of German educators, knowledge of geography,
including that of Panama, continues to be taught.
At the end of the 19th century, many Panamanians dedicated themselves to the development of
Geography, others to cartography, studying in centers in the United States and Europe, the
following standing out: Engineer Pedro José Sosa had a great influence on French books. Ramón
Maximiliano Valdés, from Penonomé, created the work Geography of the Isthmus of Panama in
1889. The engineer Abel Martiano of C. Bravo, made maps and studies of the border between
Colombia-Costa Rica in 1894 and was part of the Colombian delegation that defended the state
thesis on boundaries before the European arbitration bodies. By Decree No. 906 of 1903, the
central government designated him a founding member of the Geographical Society of
Colombia, a position he retained even after the separation of November 3, 1903.

When Colombia separated, geography presented several problems due to the failure of the
French canal and the Thousand Days War.

2. Preparatory stage for the development of Panamanian Geography. 1903-1931

One of the social measures of the first Panamanian governments of the 20th century was the rise,
from insufficiencies and ruins, of a public, democratic, religious and modern education system.
As a mandatory text, since 1904, the Secretariat of Public Instruction and Justice adopted the
work Geography of Panama by Ramón Maximiliano Valdés, of which five editions were made
between 1905 and 1925. Thus we have that Dr. Ramón Maximiliano Valdés, jurist, conservative
leader and author of the aforementioned book, was President of the Republic from 1916 to 1918.
Based on Codazzi's map of 1853, Manuel María Valdés, Max Karl Lemm and 20 other
professionals prepared the physical-political map of Panama that was printed at the Rand Mc
Nally house in Chicago in 1910, at a scale of 1:500,000. . Graduated from the Panama Normal
School for Men and Kelvin College in Liverpool, Great Britain, he studied at the Teacher
College of Columbia University, United States, where he obtained a master's degree in
Education. In the exercise of his profession as a teacher, he cultivated Geography in a special
way, a fact that allowed him to publish the work Geography of Panama, in London, in 1928,
which was a school text for the third grade of the primary level or base of the programs. officers
until 1953.

Other important events of the time were the publication of the book Descriptive Geography of
Panama by Manuel Mara Alba in 1928 and the participation of Panama in the creation of the Pan
American Institute of Geography and History, PAIGH, during the Sixth International American
Conference, held in Havana. , Cuba, in 1928. At the end of the third decade of the 20th century,
the teaching of Geography was consolidated at the primary and secondary levels of the regular
educational system and basic teaching materials were available to teach it.
3. Emergence and development of Panamanian scientific geography: 1931-1962

On January 2, 1931, the violent phase of the so-called Communal Action Revolution occurred in
Panama. Its program, based on nationalist, social, democratic principles and, later, on the idea of
the ordering intervention of the State, was applied from 1931 to 1941 and had, among its
numerous effects, academic and scientific development. A great effort was made to organize
higher education which resulted, with the issuance of Decree No. 29 of May 29, 1935, in the
founding of the National University of Panama during the presidential administration of Dr.
Harmonio Arias Madrid. At the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, the German professor
Werner Bohnstedt, a graduate of the University of Kiel, taught Economic Geography, the first
chair in the specialty.
His ties with Panama began when he married the Panamanian lady Eusebia Lasso de la Vega,
daughter of Professor Melchor Lasso de la Vega, who at the time held the position of Special
Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister of Panama before the Espada government. The great
problems of the Spanish War caused the couple to settle in Panama in 1937. Like Bohnstedt and
many intellectuals persecuted in Spain, Austria and Germany, Professor Ángel Rubio was
welcomed by the second government of the Communal Action Revolution, that of Dr. Juan
Demóstenes Arosemena. He is, in fact, named professor of geography at the National Institute,
where he taught and produced texts of great scientific value from 1937 to 1939.
The Political Constitution of March 2, 1946 and two of its legal developments, laws N 46 and N
47 of September 24, 1946, reinforced the teaching of geography as an autonomous discipline.
The Constitution, in its article 81, made the teaching of National geography mandatory in private
schools. Law No. 46 of 1946 developed university autonomy and, in this way, freed geography
from the effects of government trends favorable to the replacement of its teaching with that of
Social Studies.

Research on the geography of Panama was another of Professor Rubio's significant

contributions. Thanks to his solid naturalistic, cartographic, archival, library and historical
knowledge, he collects a large number of documentary, bibliographic, statistical and cartographic
sources. Many of them were colonial, but in most cases they are modern documents of a
technical and specialized type, derived from government management or from the planning,
construction and administration operations of the Panama Canal by the government of the United
States. . Criticized and interpreted, they were confronted with the products of their numerous
field trips, frequently carried out for didactic purposes. Among the numerous final fruits of these
research works we have, in didactics, the book Iniciación Geografica of 1942 in Cartógrafa, the
Elementary Geographic Atlas of Panama of 1947 in Physical Geography, Regions and
Morphological Compartments of the Isthmus of Panama of 1949, The Natural Peace of 1950 and
Los ros panameños of 1956 in Political geography of the Seas, The platforms and continental
sockets of 1959 and, in Human geography, Panamanian rural housing of 1950.
In 1958, Professor Rubio was a delegate of Panama to the United Nations Conference on the Sea
that met in Geneva, Switzerland, in which he defended the Panamanian thesis of a territorial sea
of 12 nautical miles in extension, then rejected by the major powers. He did other work in
Professional Geography for the Ministry of Public Works and the Inter-American Agricultural
Cooperation Service. In the international field, Professor Rubio attended numerous conferences
in Europe and America and worked hard at the service of the Pan American Institute of
Geography and History from 1944 until his death. In this organization he was President of the
National Section of Panama, member of the Cartographic Commission, President of the Pan
American Committee on Urban Geography and author of numerous works, among which were
his frequent collaborations with the Revista de Geography de América and the book Bibliografa.
of Urban Geography of America of 1961. In 1961 he was decorated by the governments of
Argentina and Paraguay, as well as by the I. Q. g. H. In his memory, a street and a high school in
Panama City are named after him.

4.1. Geography and education

In the late 1940s and 1950s, the North American curricular model of Social Studies was
established in secondary education. In 1953 he did so in primary school and, based on these
advances, he always aspires to reinstate himself at the University of Panama, from where he had
been removed in 1942 and 1949. However, due to a political change that occurred in the
leadership of the State in October 1960, favorable to democratic and nationalist tendencies, the
North American current lost strength to the Panamanian nationalist pedagogue. For this reason,
there were drastic curricular changes, among which the elimination of Social Studies from all
secondary education stood out. The curriculum for the first cycles, or current pre-media
education, was established by Decree N 96 of March 29, 1961. This includes two hours of
geography per week and the programs determined contents of geography of Panama in the first
year, geography of America in the second year, and Universal geography in the third year.
The latter occurred between 1973 and 1979, during the Educational Reform, an unconsulted
project of statist inspiration that was also applied in Peru, which was withdrawn due to strong
pressure from the community. In that short period, the defenders of the project managed to
restore the teaching of Social Sciences at the entire secondary level and create at the University
of Panama a short career of Professor of Final Cycle of General Basic Education with a Major in
Social Sciences, from poor geographical content The curricular transformations of 1961 closed
possibilities for restarting the career of Professor of Social Studies at the University of Panama
and when the Educational Reform finally achieved it for the area of Social Sciences, the total
repeal of the experiment in 1979 closed them again. with the aggravating factor that the titles
issued in this modality were invalidated. In contrast, the changes of 1961 and 1969 stimulated
the training of Secondary Education Teachers with specialization in geography and History, after
obtaining a bachelor's degree in these specialties. As a consequence, there was a considerable
increase in enrollment in these courses, both on the central campus and in the various regional
centers, which allowed all geography chairs in secondary schools and at the higher level to be
Served by specialists with a university degree. Demands for geographical knowledge and
teaching materials, including texts, reference works and maps, also increased. One of the figures
who had great preponderance in the initial phase of this situation was Professor Raquel Mara De
León Pinillo. I was born in Panama City on April 24, 1917. She studied at the Escuela Normal de
Institutoras where she graduated as an undergraduate teacher. After teaching primary school in
rural schools in the province of Con and in the capital, he entered the University of Panama,
where he stood out both in his academic performance and in the student struggles of the
Federation of Students of Panama. Her higher studies, directed by Professor Ángel Rubio,
allowed her to obtain the title of Geography and History Teacher in 1944 and serve as professors
in secondary schools in Panama City. In 1956, Professor De León was the first among
Panamanians to achieve a postgraduate degree in geography which consisted of a master's degree
at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, obtained after completing a thesis on the teaching
of geography in Panama. After returning to peace, she was director of the Liceo de Señoritas,
professor of geography at the University of Panama, Director of the Geography Department of
said university and Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1962 to 1983 she was
President of the National Section of Panama of the Pan American Institute of Geography and
History, an organization where she also held the positions of President of the Pan American
Committee for the Teaching of Geography and Texts and President of the Committee for the
Teaching of Geography in the Americas. Central, the Caribbean and Mixco. I also work for the
Geography Teaching Commission of the International Geographic Union and for UNESCO.
Professor De León stimulates the progress of Panamanian geography in the areas of research,
administration and dissemination. Proof of this is that in 1965 I directed the edition of the first
official atlas of Panama. However, he made the greatest contributions in the field of teaching. In
the sixties he campaigned against the curricular modality of Social Studies at the secondary
level, which contributed to the change towards teaching geography, History and Civic Education
separately. I develop an extensive program of methodological talks for teachers, train hundreds
of graduates of the career of Geography and History Teacher through the subject Special
Methodologist and Teaching Practice and, with the support of the PAIGH and the government of
France, organize courses of updating of knowledge, as well as educational techniques and
methods, for the benefit of secondary school teachers and university professors. I also promote
the entry of Panamanians to postgraduate programs in universities in Europe and America, as
well as in the Pan American Center for Geographic Studies and Research, CEPEIGE, academic
body of the Geography Commission of the PAIGH, created in 1973, whose headquarters are in
Quito, Ecuador. Another educational contribution of this distinguished professor was the
establishment, starting in 1966, of the Geographic Weeks at the University of Panama, which
were extended to all secondary schools in La Paz through Executive Decree N 639 of November
27, 1967.
Professor Consuelo Tampone, graduated from the Normal School of Santiago and trained by
Professor Rubio, graduated as a Professor of Geography and History and specialized in the
Autonomous University of Mixco. Although his research work is important, he has also
supported the development of the teaching of geography. He has taught classes at the secondary
and higher levels, in addition to directing the Geography Department at the University of
Panama. He has published materials for teaching geography in I. Q. g. H. and she is the author of
the first cycle text The Old World and its Regions, winner of competitions in the Ministry of
Education. In 2000 the Faculty of Humanities awarded her the Teacher for Excellence award.
The masterful Rita Dara Carrillo, Professor of Geography and History at the Universidad
Panamá and postgraduate at Northwestern University, United States, has taught at the secondary
and university levels, particularly at the National Institute and the University of Panama. On the
other hand, she holds the position of National Geography Supervisor in the Ministry of
Education. One of his most important contributions to education has been the text Human and
Economic Geography, approved by said ministry for the fifth years of high school. Professor
Acela Pujol Gámez completed her secondary studies at the Santiago Normal School.

Through the movement that, in 2002, achieved the strengthening of the teaching of this discipline
at the pre-middle, high school and university levels, through the issuance of a law. Professor
Judith de Velásquez also completed her secondary studies at the Juan Demóstenes Arosemena
Normal School. Subsequently, she obtained the degrees of Bachelor and Professor in geography
and History at the University of Panama. Work as a secondary education teacher at the National
Institute and, at the university level, at the central campus and the Regional University Center of
Con. He has worked in the Ministry of Education in different specialized technical positions
related to population. With the participation of Professor Josh Nínive, he published the
geography text of Panama for seventh grade at the pre-media level or first year of high school.
Another teaching level in which Panamanian geographers have recently stood out is the
postgraduate level. This began in 1993 at the University of Panama, under the direction of Dr.
Ana Hernández de Pitt, who coordinates the first geographic master's degree in Panama. Other
geographers who have collaborated with the strengthening of the postgraduate programs in said
academic center have been the Panamanian professors Alberto Arturo McKay, Rebeca Sandilla,
Mario Julio De León, Jaime Cabra, Las Ford Douglas, Omisos Solanilla, Mara Adames, Lorenzo
Rodríguez and Professor Gilberto Cabrera Tremió, from the University of Havana, Cuba. At the
National Autonomous University of Chiriquí, under the direction of professors Roger Sánchez
and Gloria de Martínez, the Master's degree in geography with an emphasis on Geographic
Information Systems began in 1999. Due to the fact that Chiriquí is a border province, professors
from Costa Rica such as Guillermo Carvajal, Mario Chavarría and Gilbert Vargas Ullate have
collaborated in this program.
Some State agencies such as the Ministry of Health and certain private institutions have or have
set up special offices where geography is cultivated. Private universities, on the other hand, teach
some isolated courses in this discipline. However, the organizations that develop this science in a
solid and permanent manner are the Department of Geography of the University of Panama, the
Department of Geography of the Autonomous University of Chiriquí, the Tommy Guardia
National Geographic Institute and the National Section of Panama of the Institute Pan American
Geography and History. The Geography Department of the University of Panama was
established in 1939. In 2002, at the University Central Campus, it had 39 professors and 15
assistants. On the other hand, there are geography teachers in almost all the Regional Centers and
Teaching Extensions of the University of Panama. For research purposes, it has the Ángel Rubio
Geographic Research Section. Teaching activities are carried out through seminars, cultural
courses or support for other schools of the Faculty of Humanities and other university faculties.

The Department of Geography of the Autonomous University of Chiriquí was established in

1994 when this higher center was created by Law N 26 of August 30, 1994. However, the degree
in geography and history began in 1976, when the current UNACHI was a Regional Center of
the University of Panama. Currently, it continues to offer this last degree, in addition to those in
Tourism, Natural Resources and postgraduate courses. The Tommy Guardia National
Geographic Institute was created by Cabinet Decree No. 8 of January 16, 1969 as a dependency
of the Ministry of Public Works. The Institute does cartographic, geodetic and photogrammetric
work, but also has a Geography Department and a Geographic Information System. The Pan
American Institute of Geography and History, made up of twenty-two countries, was created in
1928 and transformed in 1948 into a specialized organization of the Organization of American
States. Promotes, coordinates, disseminates and carries out cartographic, geophysical, historical
and geographical studies of interest to America. One of its Pan-American grains is the
Geography Commission. In each Member State, on the other hand, there are National Sections,
which are made up of numerous committees and working groups. Through the Pan American
Geography Commission and the National Section of Panama, the PAIGH supports the
development of Panamanian geography with project financing and scholarship offers. It also
convenes conferences, awards prizes, teaches courses and manages the Geographic Magazine.
Panamanian scholarship holders attend CEPEIGE courses annually in Quito, Ecuador. The
National Section of Panama of the PAIGH has a Geography Commission that directs numerous
Committees and Working Groups. All of these national organizations are based at the Tommy
Guardia National Geographic Institute.

Scientific production Geographic institutions, supported by other national agencies

and international, as well as the individual work of the authors, provide contributions to
Panamanian geographical development in the form of books, theses, reports, magazines, articles,
atlases and maps. They also carry out scientific extension activities. The Geography Department
of the University of Panama has an official organ that is the Tierra y Hombre Magazine, founded
in 1966 by Dr. Aura L. from Russian. Its latest edition is from October 2000 and includes articles
by professors Acela Pujol, Ellas López Otero, Mario J. De León, Casar Osorio, Real Martínez,
Consuelo Tampone, Elia Villarreal de Tapia and Rebeca Sandilla. It also publishes the newsletter
Geography Documents of the School of Professional Geographer.
Although the product is already old, dating back to 1977, the Institute intervened in the
production of the Atlas of the Panama Canal Treaty, which was very useful in monitoring the
process of return of land, water and goods to Panama by the United States. which, begun in
1979, was not completed until the end of 1999. The Pan American Institute of Geography and
History produced, in 2001, the compact disc The Panama Canal Atlas Multimedia. Organized
into six modules, it contains maps, texts, photos, videos, narrations and musical curtains. The
work was done in Panama under the direction of two Peruvian researchers, Dr. Josh Matos Mar,
consultant, and the masterful Carolina Vaso Zevallos, geographer and administrator, Head of
Technical Assistance at the PAIGH. Panamanian geographers who worked on the work were
Alberto McKay, Mario Pineda Falconete, Flex Sánchez and Xenia Batista. One of the state
institutions that periodically provides geographical materials is the Ministry of Health. In fact, he
published medical atlases in 1970, 1975 and 1998. The one from this last year is titled National
Atlas of Health and

Atmosphere. It was coordinated by Ligia Castro de Denos and advised by both Dr. Ligia Herrera
and Professor Josh Barahona. It has 76 plates with their respective comments. Other units that
have also made geographical publications in the context of their general programs are the
institutes of the University of Panama. In 1991, the Institute of National Studies produced the
book Natural Disasters and Risk Zones in Panama Conditions and Prevention Options, which
was directed by Dr. Ligia Herrera. The Institute of the Panama Canal and International Studies,
in 1999, provided the administrative political map of Panama, made by Mario Pineda Falconete.
This, 31 reissued in 2003, presents the changes introduced by the creation of numerous
administrative constituencies, among them, the Ngbe-Bugle indigenous region. In 2003, the
Institute of National Studies also published Regions of Socioeconomic Development of Panama
by Ligia Herrera, a 134-page book containing abundant statistical tables, graphs and maps.
Dr. Ligia Herrera Jurado has a degree and Professor in Geography and History from the
University of Panama. In 1967 he received as a Doctor of Philosophy with a specialty in
geography. He has worked at the Latin American Demographic Center in Santiago de Chile, at
the Mixco College and at the Ministry of Health of Panama where he directed the 1970 Atlas of
Medical Geography. Professor Mario Pineda Falconete is also a Graduate and Professor in
Geography and History from the University of Panama and a candidate for the Master's degree in
Environmental Education from the same institution. He is a professor of geography at the
University of Panama and a member of the Panama National Section of the PAIGH. His main
technical specialization is Geometrics, an area in which he has been trained through numerous
courses taught by the Technological University of Panama, the Environmental Research System,
the Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics of Mixco and other agencies.