by Manuel Antonio Noriega
March 11, 1997
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The Conquests & Interventions in Panama
by Manuel Antonio Noriega
March 11, 1997
Vasco Nuñez de Balboa had already traveled some distance into the lands of the isthmus when upon this unforeseen journey he arrived at an area of peaceful Indians, living in the confluence of two great and navigable lowland rivers. The rivers were connected to each other by the laws of ebb and flow. The Spaniards observed that when the tides receded, the waters withdrew in a raging torrent toward the sea. The Indians told the conquerors that the river, which they called the Tuira, ran its course “to the great salty seas,” something that made no sense at all to Balboa’s troops. But when the tide rose, seawater ran upstream into the Tuira. This unique ebb and flow of the tides between the two mighty rivers can be seen still where the Spaniards built the fortress of Yaviza, a staging point for their continuing incursion into what would become known as Panama.
Yaviza was the same name the Spaniards gave to the natives, whom they heard shout excitedly, when the tide came in and they ran to fill their cauldrons with fresh water while they could, “Yavi-za!, Yavi-za!”—“The water is coming, the water is coming.”
It was from this fort on the shores of the Rio Chucunaque, which was fed by the waters of the Chico, which in turn ran into the greatest and most voluminous river of Darien, the Tuira, that Balboa set sail in 1511 for the west coast of Panama. The settlement was already known by the name Santa MarĂa de la Antigua del Darien.
Here, in an open field, in the shadow of the venerable walls, with the echoes of the river, by the ancient and forgotten first Spanish fortress on the isthmus, Jose del Carmen MejĂa came as a teacher. His students were the people who lived nearby and he taught them no matter their age or previous education. Elsa and Alberto Ayala were there; so was Aida Moreno. Also sitting in the shade of the fortress were Fernando and EliĂ©cer Alguero; Manuel Aguirre; Chichi, Edy and Yolanda Lay; Teresa, Rafael and Hilario MejĂa; MatĂas Ayala and one more—me, in the arms of my mother, MarĂa Felix Moreno MejĂa.