Panamanian Americans (Spanish: panameño-americano, norteamericano de origen panameño or estadounidense de origen panameño) are Americans of Panamanian descent.

The Panamanian population at the 2010 Census was 165,456.

The largest populations of Panamanians in the United States reside in Brooklyn and South Florida.

Many Panamanians reside near army based cities. These cities include Fayetteville, NC - Fort Bragg, Killeen, TX - Fort Hood, Columbus, GA - Fort Stewart, Colorado Springs, CO - Fort Carson, Clarksville, TN - Fort Campbell, El Paso, TX - Fort Bliss and in the vicinity of Fort Dix in New Jersey. Cities home to Navy and Air Force bases also lay claim to a concentration of Panamanians. These include San Antonio, Hampton Roads, Jacksonville, San Diego and Tampa.

History

The number of Panamanians who emigrated to the U.S. prior to 1960 is unknown, as the Census Bureau counted them in the category of "others". By the beginning of the 20th century, the number of immigrants entering the U.S. from Panama was approximately 1,000 per year. After World War II, the number of Panamanians entering the U.S. country decreased but this changed in 1965, when immigration law allowed a maximum of 120,000 annual immigrants in the U.S. This law favored a remarkable migration from Panama, which made it one of the main migratory flows from Central America to the United States in the 1970s. Over 86,000 American people of Panamanian descent were registered in the 1990 U.S. Census.^[2]

Demographics

Notable people

• Rolando Blackman - former NBA player
• Tatyana Ali - actress and singer
• Linda Martín Alcoff - philosopher
• Ra Un Nefer Amen - founder of the Pan-African religious organization Ausar Auset Society, dedicated to providing Afrocentric-based spiritual training to people of African descent
• Cirie Fields - American reality TV contestant, famously known for competing on ‘Survivor’.
• Nancy Ames - American folk singer and songwriter; granddaughter of former President of Panama Ricardo Joaquín Alfaro
• Gwen Ifill - American Peabody Award-winning journalist, television newscaster, and author, daughter of a Panamanian immigrant of Bajan descent
• Braulio Baeza - American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey
• Cliff Clinkscales - basketball player
• Tyson Beckford - actor and model
• Uri Berenguer - play-by-play announcer for the Boston Red Sox Spanish Beisbol Network
• A. R. Bernard - founder, Senior Pastor and CEO of Christian Cultural Center (CCC), in Brooklyn, New York; born in Panama and emigrated to New York with his family when he was four
• Aloe Blacc - singer
• Roberto Blades - Panamanian salsa singer
• Rubén Blades - salsa singer
• Jordana Brewster - actress
• Pop Smoke - rapper form New York; of Panamanian and Jamaican descent
• Jeff Buckley (1966–1997) - American singer-songwriter and guitarist; son of musician Tim Buckley; his mother was a Panama Canal Zonian of mixed Greek, French, American and Panamanian descent^[3]
• Rod Carew - Baseball Hall of Famer
• Eddie Castro - Panamanian-born jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing
• El Chombo - American-born Panamanian producer and artist
• Billy Cobham - Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader; Panamanian born, American raised^[4]
• Emayatzy Corinealdi - American film and television actress
• Ed Cota - American professional basketball player
• Melissa De Sousa - actress
• Ruben Douglas - professional basketball player
• Roberto Durán - Boxing Hall of Famer
• Adrian Fenty - American politician who served as the sixth mayor of the District of Columbia
• Gary Forbes - Panamanian professional basketball player who plays for the Houston Rockets
• Hulk Hogan - professional wrestler; of Italian, French and Panamanian descent^[5]
• Sam Hoger - American mixed martial artist
• David Iglesias - American attorney from Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Shoshana Johnson - former United States soldier; first black or Latina prisoner of war in the military history of the U.S.; Panamanian born and American raised
• Kaliii - rapper from Roswell, Georgia; of Panamanian descent
• Clark Kent
• Olga F. Linares - Panamanian–American academic anthropologist and archaeologist
• John McCain - American politician, long-time U.S. Senator from Arizona from 1987-2018, and 2008 Republican nominee for President of the United States; was born in Panama to parents who were serving in the U.S. Navy, but raised in the United States
• Scott A. Muller - American-born Panamanian Olympic slalom canoer
• Sigrid Nunez - American writer
• Demitrius Omphroy - American-born Panamanian soccer player; of Panamanian and Filipino descent^[6]
• Jeremy Renner - American actor; maternal grandmother was born in Colón
• J. August Richards - American actor; known for his portrayal of vampire hunter Charles Gunn on the WB cult television series Angel; of Panamanian descent^[7]
• Mariano Rivera - New York Yankees pitcher
• Michele Ruiz - broadcaster and founder of SaberHacer.com
• Christian Duke - American lawyer and activist
• Clarence Samuels (1900–1983) - first photographer of Latino American of African descent in the United States Coast Guard and first to command a cutter
• Tessa Thompson - American actress of Afro-Panamanian and Mexican descent
• Daphne Rubin-Vega - Panamanian-born American dancer, singer-songwriter and actress.
• Jorge Velásquez - thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey
• Nick Verreos - American fashion designer and contestant on the second season of the reality television program Project Runway; Greek-American father and Panamanian mother
• Juan Williams - journalist and political analyst
• Anthony Michaels - tattoo artist

See also

• Panama–United States relations

References

Further reading

• Dean, Rosetta Sharp. "Panamanian Americans." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 3, Gale, 2014), pp. 449-457. online
• Dolan, Edward F. Panama and the United States: Their Canal, Their Stormy Years (1990).
• Mejía, Germán. The United States Discovers Panama: The Writings of Soldiers, Scholars, Scientists, and Scoundrels, 1850-1905 (2004).