MEMORIA
M AYO D E 2 0 1 7
Foto: Tomada de Miviot
The Wilcox house
and institutional neglect
There is a constant struggle between modernity
and antiquity, and both have their reasons. In the
backward? Indigenous communities, the elders are
esteemed by their wisdom; in urban areas, a nuisance.
tity.
I
t is not new that electoral promises and laws are being violated, or that historical
buildings are being demolished. With so little inheritance left, envy countries that
have found in their conservation not only a profitable business, but a sign of iden-
Most of the Colonial architectural heritage was lost in the fires of 1885, 1915 and 1940.
The Wilcox house, built in 1913, was an icon of the prosperity that Colon once had and its
identity. In 2016 it housed 115 humble families and was evicted due to its poor conditions.
A suitable fire ended it. Sinaproc and the Miviot want to demolish it; The INAC and many
groups ask to keep it, since Varela had promised to restore it, and even presented how it
would remain (but left its inhabitants in subhuman conditions); they also accept that the
law prohibits demolishing it. If the law says it, it’s over, one would think.
Colon, first Aspinwall, was created in 1852 by the American company that construc-
ted the railroad like a terminal of this. It knew the boom with the French channel, and
much more with the current channel. In 1904, when the work was finished (in which only
foreigners were contracted), that great working mass was left without work. It concluded
half a century of the most murderous works history knew, and all three with clear racial
segregation. After giving their life or health for the work, the recognition that the society
did to them was to harden the laws against them. Housing buildings for rent, such as the
Wilcox house, proliferated there for those workers who preferred to stay and brought their
families. Persecuted until the 1940s, its settlement has given Panama the present, varied,
the melting pot of races. The Wilcox house is a great homage that remains in Colon and,
rebuilt, can be magnificent.
No se ha llegado a esta situación de repente. En 104 años, la casa ha sido maltratada
por sus moradores y desatendida de manera sistemática por sus dueños, primero, y luego
por las autoridades. Nadie movió un dedo hasta que ha quedado en ruinas. Yo vengo de
una ciudad con dos mil cien años, donde hay muchísimos restos romanos, medievales y
renacentistas, todavía; la propia casa de mi abuela tiene más de doscientos años, y sigue
en pie, como tantísimas otras. Por eso aseguro que llegar a este extremo es una desidia
intencional.
We have not come to this situation all of a sudden. In 104 years, the house has been
mistreated by its residents and systematically neglected by its owners, first, and then by
the authorities. No one moved a finger until it has been ruined. I come from a city with
two thousand one hundred years, where there are many Roman remains, medieval and
Renaissance, still; my grandmother’s own house is more than two hundred years old, and
it is still standing, like so many others. That is why I assert that reaching this end is an
intentional neglect.
The house 9090 of Colon is not habitable, we better lay it down. Sincerely, the Parthe-
non of Athens is not it either: let’s put it to him.
Foto: Tomada de @Miviot
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