Reputación, racismo, género y honor en las cortes municipales de la Ciudad de Panamá, 1914-1917

Abstract

. Objective/Context: To analyze the elements that constituted the category of “honor” in Panama City during the period following the construction of the Canal, concerning race and gender; and to understand how migrant West Indian women negotiated these expectations of honor. Methodology: The research stems from an analysis of Panamanian legal codes to define “honor” as a socio-cultural construct and to understand moral anxieties about West Indian immigration. The cases of the Calidonia district in Panama City are also analyzed to observe the intervention of Afro-Antillean women in public and legal spheres of the state. Originality: In addition to analyzing a novel documentary source, such as the Panama City corregiduría cases, this article compiles the historiography on honor in Latin America and shows how this concept devel-oped in Panama during the US imperial incursion and the construction of the Canal, and how Afro-Antillean immigrant women navigated Panamanian discourses of honor through their vulgar public quarrels, in which they asserted their own moral values and social status. Conclusions: The cases show that Afro-Antillean immigrant women did not fight for honor but for reputation and personal