UGGUBSENI and ISBERYALA, Guna Yala, Panama — “Our ancestors fought for this land,” says Jair Goporas, 21. He leans forwards into the dim glow of a bare bulb, his eyes shining from a face streaked with red and black paint. “Our ancestors told us: Don’t forget what happened here.” In a square just outside the small concrete house Goporas sits in, shouts of celebration fill the air. The sun slips behind the hills of the mainland, and night falls on a crowd that flashes with scarlet body paint and the vivid colours of the traditional dress made of mola, a hand-made textile worn by the Indigenous Guna woman. As one of the 2,500 inhabitants of the island of Uggubseni, located in the Guna Yala provincial-level Indigenous region, or comarca, of Panama, Goporas has been raised on stories of the past. The island has spent the month of February participating in region-wide celebrations to mark the centenary of the Guna Revolution. During the bloody 1925 revolt, the Indigenous Guna expelled repressive Panamanian authorities and established their autonomy in the region. Today, Guna Yala remains an autonomous comarca with its own laws, though the Panamanian state retains its obligation to protect and support the region. A representative body, the Guna General Congress, controls access to Guna Yala, manages engagement with the Panamanian government, and prohibits most commercial activity by external businesses in the region. Each Guna community maintains its own local government, led by a chief known as a Saila. On this…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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