Mr. Prez, Carib workers vital for Panama Canal

Knowing about the major contributions made by Caribbean laborers in the construction of the monumental Panama Canal, I had to respond to a recent claim by President Trump, boasting that Americans “dug out” the water-filled passage that linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans — revolutionizing international maritime travel.

I learned about the Caribbean workers from “Diggers,” the 1984 Roman Foster-directed documentary “about the black men who came from the West Indies to work on the construction of the Panama Canal from 1881 to 1914.”

During both the French and American canal initiatives, the bulk of the Caribbean workers were recruited from Barbados, Jamaica and St. Lucia. And tens of thousands of Caribbean people became part of Panama’s population after the canal work ended.

In the Canal Zone, skilled positions were given to white workers, while it was mainly Caribbean workers who performed the manual labor, cut brush, dug ditches, transported equipment and supplies, and did the dangerous job of handling and detonating dynamite used to remove huge rocks and other obstructions — all done in sweltering temperatures.

In the 90-minute film, narrated by actor Brock Peters, Foster used archival footage, still photographs and interviews with some of the surviving 12 elderly Caribbean diggers who were recruited to build the canal. “Diggers” aired nationally on Public Broadcasting Service television stations in 1985.

In 2018, the Conversation academic website and Smithsonian Magazine published an article by then-Yale University Ph.D. candidate Caroline Lieffers on “the Panama Canal’s forgotten casualties,” which mentions Foster’s film.

Noting that the Caribbean workers used “dynamite, picks and coal-fired steam shovels” in extreme heat, Lieffers said, “They lived like second-class citizens, subject to a Jim Crow-like regime, with bad food, long hours and low pay. And constant danger.”

Yes, the U.S. paid for the successful construction, but in his recent speech at his Tulsa, Okla., campaign rally, Trump seemed to say Americans “dug out” the historic canal, when imported Caribbean workers worked and died while carving and blasting through more than 50 miles of sweltering, disease-ridden jungle to create the important Atlantic-Pacific-linking waterway.

Reflecting on the prevalent racial discrimination in the U.S. at the time, all the black Caribbean and black American workers lived and labored under racially segregated designations.

“Separate towns, quarters, schools, libraries, recreation facilities, transportation, rest rooms and drinking fountains were assigned according to whether the employee appeared on the ‘gold’ or ‘silver’ payroll,” according to the National Archives. “Signs were posted to let all employees know which facilities were for their use only,” and blacks were paid less than white workers.

After France’s late-1800s unsuccessful attempt to create the long-soughtafter 51-mile route and greatly improve international maritime travel, the United States took up the challenge in 1904. Ten years later, the canal was reality, and U.S. officials made groundbreaking inroads into the elimination of mosquito-borne malaria and yellow fever through pioneering insect control measures.

Carib ‘Icons’ posters

The COVID-19 crisis has delayed the citywide debut of the 2020 edition “Caribbean American Icons” digital poster displays. But it’s going to happen, following June’s celebration of National Caribbean American Heritage Month.

Usually coinciding with Heritage Month, this year’s eye-catching, educational posters were delayed by the COVID-19 crisis, said Shelley Worrell, founder of the Brooklyn-based caribBEING cultural organization.

But the latest “Caribbean American Icons” is on the way, said Worrell. “We will be featuring black revolutionaries this time around,” she said, adding that “the campaign is postponed until August-September.”

For information, visit www.caribbeing.com, and to find a Link near you, visit link.nyc. Also visit nyc.gov/DoITT for more information on the Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications.

She’s got talent, loyalty

It was not the finals of the “America’s Got Talent” television show, but Jamaica-born singer Shevon Nieto is an amazing winner in many respects.

The former Jamaican Olympic runner advanced from the “AGT” preliminaries and had the judges riveted with her singing of “Through the Good & the Bad,” a song she wrote and dedicated to her husband, Jamie, “to express my love for him and commitment to our marriage.”

Before they were married, Nieto’s then-boyfriend Jaime — a two-time Jamaican Olympic high jumper — was paralyzed in a 2016 training accident. Nieto is selling downloads of the song to help fund her husband’s recovery.

Buy Nieto’s “Through the Good & the Bad” song at shevonmusic.com and follow her “AGT” progress at nbc.com/americas-got-talent.