Panamanian Day Parade
The Afro-Panamanian community is strong in Brooklyn, and the culture is especially visible during Crown Heights’ annual Panamanian Day Parade — the largest celebration of the Central American nation’s independence and folklore outside of the Republic of Panama.
On Saturday, Panamanians from all over the U.S. converged for the festivities on Franklin Avenue: women kicked up the flouncy skirts of traditional polleras; numerous rows of marching bands and majorettes got in formation; revelers wore sinister black and red “diablo” costumes (symbolizing Spanish colonizers and slaveholders), while others dressed in tattered clothes as “congos” (representing Cimarrones, enslaved Africans who escaped and established independent communities in the hills of Panama); drummers banged on congas; and a sea of Panamanian flags waved in the autumn air. Big ups to the Day of Independence Committee of Panamanians in New York, Inc., which has been organizing this Brooklyn classic for the past 24 years!
