The Great Divide

by Cristina Henríquez

the fact that it looked so familiar was both a disappointment and a relief.

It was possible, Francisco would think later, that every human being only gets a certain allotment of joy and theirs had come in a windfall,

The United States had attempted to negotiate a treaty with the government in Bogotá in which they had offered to pay $10 million, plus $250,000 every year for one hundred years, if Bogotá gave them the rights and sovereignty over an area of land six miles wide for the length of the canal. Joaquín

It was not until later that Joaquín and Francisco understood just what the United States had done. They had not simply stood up to the government in Bogotá; they had tacitly offered military support to the separatists in Panamá. For if the separation occurred, then the United States could try anew to negotiate a treaty for the canal—only this time with a country that wanted it anyway. One day in November 1903 people heard that two Colombian generals had been jailed, and they saw the Colombian ship in the harbor retreat, and word spread that the Republic of Panamá had been born.

To be independent and to be sovereign were two different things. Panamá, detaching itself from Colombia, had merely done an about-face and attached itself to the United States instead.

“We are not a people to whom things can be done.” “No.” “We are a people who can do things!”