El Instituto Nacional de Panamá: Enlightenment, Liberation, and the Formation of Panamanian National Identity 1907-1964

What is it about?

In 1907, the Instituto Nacional opened as the flagship secondary school whose mission was to educate the people of Panama and shape the future thinkers of Panama. Grounded in the secular principles of individual thought and national pride and built in the shadow of the U.S. Canal Zone’s Ancon Hill, the Instituto Nacional became the voice of national consciousness, monitoring the political events that unfolded in the Canal Zone and Panama and expressing the nation’s desire for total sovereignty throughout the isthmus. This study, based on Panamanian archival documents and interviews of former students, administrators, and teachers of the Instituto Nacional, explores the fusion of European, American and Latin American ideas, educational approaches, and faculty that came together in the Instituto Nacional to forge a uniquely Panamanian national identity.

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