Hanging Out with a Villain

After living almost 10 years in the Republic of Panamá, I finally made it to Panamá Viejo—the historical site where the city of Panamá was originally founded in 1519, only to be destroyed by pirates serving under the Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan, in 1671.

In this photograph I am standing next to a bust honoring Pedro Arias de Ávila, better known in history books as Pedrarias Dávila. He is the founder of Panamá City, hence the tribute.

What prompted me to pose alongside Pedrarias is that, in Nicaragua, the idea of paying any sort of homage to the Governor of Castilla del Oro—as the southern half of the Central American isthmus was known back then—is inconceivable. In Nicaragua’s tortured history, in which dastardly personages abound, Pedrarias Dávila’s name ranks at the top of the list. His treatment of the indigenous population was decidedly genocidal and to a great extent is held responsible for the creation for Black Legend, which haunt Spain’s conquest of the Americas to this day. And Pedrarias’ own countrymen were not exempt from his wrath, as witnessed by the beheading of his own son-in-law, Vasco Núñez de Balboa.

The leadership of the Panama Viejo Historical Society dedicated the monument as part of their attempt to rehabilitate Pedrarias’ historical image. In response to this, I wrote “When Historians are Correct,” which appeared in The Panama News. (Click here to read)