Diablo, Panama 2018

I spent a year documenting a community of boat builders in Diablo who worked, and in some cases, lived, in makeshift workshops along the canal. As the Panama Canal Authorities began kicking them out in order to build a new port, I arrived one day to find Angel in the process of trying to save his boat.

“Once you get the boat in the water,” I asked him, “where will you go?”

“To Pedro González Island,” he responded, “where it’s calmer and I can go fishing.”

At the time, I had not heard of Pedro González. Two years later I was brought there on an assignment to photograph a massive resort project that has been rearranging life on the island and taking land away from the locals.

As we approached the shore, I recognized her freshly painted hull glowing on the sand. A few days later, I spotted Angel in the shade near the beach.  We walked over to Doña Nora together. The boat had been towed here, he told me, and although she's still not ready for the water, at least she has a view of the sea.

Part of the exhibition ¡Grítalo! Las campanas doblan por ti: Dos siglos de vida republicana en Panamá in the Spanish Cultural Center in Panama.

Curated by Adrienne Samos