Oral history interview with Dorotea Bryce

Dorotea Bryce explained her parents originated from Panama, and her grandparents from Jamaica; the migration of her grandparents from Jamaica to Panama; and why her grandmother migrated from Jamaica to Nicaragua to Costa Rica to Panama. She also explained the historical tension between Spain and England, the economic benefit of living in the Canal Zone, the disadvantages for Black people with traditionally Spanish surnames, the pressure when people began migrating from Caribbean, changing of names to hide historical descent, and the migration of families looking for work as enterprises emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. Bryce described the school systems in Panama, the students, and the school she attended, including a typical school day. She attended school in the late 1940s before integration. After she finished school in Panama, she attended an American high school in the Canal Zone. She explained the difference between the two school systems, one for the children of West Indian workers and the other for children of Americans who were working on the canal. Bryce also talked about growing up and racial discrimination in the Canal Zone. Bryce discussed the Panamanian president Arnulfo Arias Madrid; Omar Torrijos, Manuel Noriega, and treaties signed; the 1963 dispute of the Panamanian flag in the Canal Zone when 9 Panamanians killed; the various national identification cards and the voting card for Panama; why some Panamanians identified as West Indian and others as Latino; why she does not consider herself West Indian or Jamaican; and her identity as Afro-Latina. She also briefly discussed ackee (yellow fruit) as served by Jamaicans, Panamanian music, and the song she sings at the beginning of ACMA_AV000734_A. Bryce talked briefly about arriving in the United States in 1960 at the beginning of desegregation, the Embassy in the United States, her job as secretary in Department of Romance Languages in Nebraska, and time in California. She talked more about the annual Panamanian Reunion held in different parts of the United States, and why she does not attend the reunion; and the formation, mission, activities, events, and demise of the Afro-Latino Institute, an organization to promote Afro-Latino cultures of the Americas in the Washington, DC area. Interview is in English, Spanish, and minimal of a third language or dialect. The contents sound more like a discussion than an interview, and also might be incomplete (recording sounds like it starts in middle). Digital audio files include white noise and static, and some crinkling (going through photographs) and other background noise. Interviewee can be heard clearly for the most part. Interviewers' voices are very soft and difficult to hear for the most part.