The Adligat Association for Culture, Art, and International Cooperation and the Svetozar Marković University Library have discovered evidence that Serbs participated not only in the construction of the canal but also in laying its foundation.
Under the patronage of Professor Aleksandar Jerkov, Viktor Lazić and Adam Sofronijević conducted research on the connections between Serbia and Serbs with the Panama Canal over a period of one hundred years – from 1881 to 1981 – in the rich fund of Adligat’s Museum of Books and Travel and the Museum of Serbian Literature, as well as in the periodical fund of the University Library.
Among hundreds of pages of material, letters stand out from an unknown author, a Serbian worker who arrived in Panama in the year the canal construction began – 1881 – found in the newspaper “Otadžbina” in the Legacy of the Leko family, which Vera and Danica Leko bequeathed to Adligat a decade ago.
At a time when most workers were illiterate, a Banat Serb vividly describes life in work camps, snake and insect attacks, socializing with natives, traveling by train, the appearance of cities he passes through and lives in, thus providing extremely important data from a certain time.
One Serb gave voice to tens of thousands of souls, nameless workers, many of whom lost their lives building one of the most significant projects in the history of the planet, and provides a wealth of unknown historical and ethnographic facts that are of paramount importance to scientists, according to Adligat.
The discovered material has been digitized and will soon be handed over at a solemn ceremony to the National Library of Panama in Panama City. The honorary president of Adligat, Viktor Lazić, held a series of meetings at this institution with director Maria Brenes and other librarians and experts of Panamanian culture. An agreement was reached to sign a cooperation protocol and long-term and diverse cooperation in the coming period.
“Any new information about the history of the Panama Canal is significant, both for us in Panama and in a global context, as the canal is used by more than 170 countries. We are very surprised, even excited by the fact that historical evidence of the construction of the canal has been found in a distant country like Serbia. We will expand our knowledge of our own history thanks to you,” said Diana Rivas, the culture manager in charge of public relations at the National Library of Panama.
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Source: Blic.rs, Photo: Adligat