Mayors urge to imitate work

Visiting Parita is like returning to the colonial past of the Spanish presence in the homeland; its central park and the church are faithful witnesses of a past that summarizes a legacy synthesized in customs and traditions that are not too far from today’s Spain, vivid example of respect for those architectural monuments that can still be rescued.

This district, located in the province of Herrera, is a showcase of that colonial legacy that today is sought to be saved through the Castilla del Oro Foundation, a nonprofit organization that is betting on rural and religious tourism, seldom explored products in the Isthmus of Panama.

Not surprisingly, Parita is part of this mythical scene which Spanish explorers spoke of in their travel reports to refer to an area rich in gold which the provinces of Coclé, Herrera, Los Santos, Veraguas and most recently Colón were part of.

Parita had the privilege of sharing with a rare traveler, one with an enormous historical load on his back, the Duke of Veragua, Cristobal Colón de Carvajal, twentieth descendant of the bold Genoese explorer who bordered the Panamanian coastline on his fourth voyage to the Isthmus of Panama.

Authoritative voices referred to this visit and the work being done by the Castilla del Oro Foundation, strongly supported by the Panamanian businessman Richard Feifer Carles.

Los Santos’ Mayor Eudocio Pérez: For us, sharing with the Spanish is to identify with our motherland and to know that we are not motherless. We have a whole culture. We who represent people who have that colonial heritage are well when we share with Spain, when we share with organizations such as Castilla del Oro which comes to teach us how to get beyond what history is.

We have shared a lot with Castilla del Oro, when we share with them we are more covered by that motherly love coming from Spain.

Today’s event not only honors the custom, but allows the people of Parita and these Castilla del Oro representatives who come straight from Spain to see and pick up the traditions that still survive and come from the colony.

I congratulate the people of Parita for this evening since it brings us together even further.

Calobre’s Mayor Héctor Saldaña García: We are here due to an invitation by the mayor. I found it a very significant event since we are projecting to our visitors, in this case the Castilla del Oro Foundation from Spain, our traditions and customs, many of them inherited from Spain.

Truly, this coordination between our group in Panama with the group from Spain is a very important point because we are trying that the country’s inland areas be strategic points not only for locals to visit but also people from outside and that it also represents potential economic development and improved quality of life for our people in the countryside.

On the foundation’s work, it has come about little by little, with a firm pace though, projecting and developing these areas that have been bereft of financial support. It [the foundation] is giving them that special touch, giving life to our municipalities, which have been underdeveloped.

Our inland municipalities need a foundation such as this one to project this cultural interest, such interest as before, but we have to regain our customs and traditions.

We believe and are confident that with Castilla del Oro we will make it. God first, we have a foundation that is projecting what we want.

Ocú’s Mayor Juan Alberto Baxter: It is an act that must be repeated because it ties our people’s folklore and traditions.

The Castilla del Oro Foundation has been very supportive and is helping us to strengthen our ties with Spain, highlighting and rescuing traditions that are being lost, as well as the architectural beauties; we have the San Sebastian de Ocú inn.

They are supporting us through the foundation with the legal recognition and the remodeling architects to try that Ocú’s historical monument is not lost.

Parita’s Mayor Alejo Soto Millán: Honestly, it has been a great, fruitful job. We have received support from the foundation which is an honor for us to give these people an act like this one.

The work we are doing with Castilla del Oro is a very good job for what rural tourism is. We traveled to Spain, we have seen something different and that is what we want to bring to Parita and not just to Parita but to other districts as well.

Castilla del Oro is a great support and we want to exploit that and move this town forward. On the experience in Spain, the mayor called it extraordinary, especially the culture that there is.

Las Tablas District’s Mayor Edison González: We are delighted and proud that there is a foundation concerned with our region’s tourism potential and cultural potential as well. We have seen folkloric demonstrations of various kinds. Dirty Devils, the dance of the devils, the “manitos” of Ocú, the “tamborito” are representations of our folklore, which some say is being lost. With events like these we feel proud of our culture and our tradition, sometimes inherited from our Spanish ancestors who came to this land and left us a great cultural heritage nowadays.

Castilla del Oro seeks to recover folklore and this region’s tourism development. From our point of view, the foundation’s work is great because no one was interested in calling the main actors from the communities -as local governments are- and involving them in these issues.

We are the ones who spend 365 days a year with the communities and Castilla del Oro took us into account to develop these projects because they know we spend every single day with our people; we are not inside an air conditioned ministry and the fact that they took the local government into account for this great project fills us with satisfaction.

We have expressed our interest in collaborating with everything possible; we already traveled to Spain to acquire new experiences.  In this trip we learned that the culture, folklore and traditions of a town can become a source of income; we have not seen that here, we saw cultural activities as a way to entertain ourselves but not as something that would appeal to the tourists. This is about implementing a dynamic that will allow us to market the pollera, the tamborito, the dances, the monumental churches like the one in Parita, the Patrona Santa Librada in Las Tablas, this helps the economy and allows cash flow

There are a lot of unemployed people here, this is an opportunity for many people from Los Santos and Herrera to get back into the market and take advantage of the range of offerings that will develop.

Related posts:

1. Remodeling of the San Francisco de la Montaña church tower in hands of Castilla del Oro Foundation
2. Spanish government will offer direct aid to municipalities in Coclé
3. Religious tourism produces wealth
4. Richard Fifer Vision
5. Portobelo welcomes an old acquaintance