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Colón, (Pop 240,000) is a sea port on the Caribbean Sea coast of Panama. It lies near the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal.

It is the capital of Panama’s Colón Province and has been called Panama’s second city.

The city was founded by Americans in 1850. Americans lured to California by the Gold Rush of 1849 felt it was easier and safer to take a ship to Colon and then ride the Panama Railroad across the 55 miles of the Panama isthmus to Panama City. There, they boarded a ship for San Fransisco, California.

During the Americans building and administration of the Panama Canal, much of Colón was in the Canal zone (five miles either side of the canal) and not accessible to Panamanians.

Before the canal, for a number of years the United States community called it Aspinwall but the city’s Hispanic community called it Colón, in honor of Christopher Columbus (his real name was Cristobal Colón).

In 1885, much of the city was burned during a civil war in Colombia, which Colón was a part of and again in a massive fire in 1915 right after the completion of the canal.

In 1948, the southeastern corner of Manzanillo Island was designated the Colón Free Trade Zone. It is the second largest (after Hong Kong). Free Trade Zone it the world. It has expanded through land reclamation on the Folks River and annexation of parts of France Field (now Enrique Adolfo Jiménez Airport) and Coco Solo.

Politically-instigated riots in the 1960s destroyed the city’s beautiful municipal palace and signaled the start of the city’s decline, which was further accelerated by the military dictatorships of Omar Torrijos Herrera and Manuel Noriega from 1968-1989.

Since the late 1960s, Colón has been in serious economic and social decline. In recent times, the unemployment rate has hovered around 40% and the poverty rate is even greater than that. Drug addiction and poverty have contributed to crime and violence issues which successive Panamanian governments have not addressed effectively.

Colón is connected to Panama by the railway, the Panama Canal and a highway that will soon give way to a modern express way, now under construction.

The award wining national dress of Panama is called the Pollera.
When they wear the embroidery dress, they wear an elaborate pearl decoration known as “tembleques”.

The Kuna Indians, one of seven indigenous tribes of Panama, live on the Northern coast in an area they own and govern. They are famous to sociologists because the men stay home and take care of the children while the women work.

The work they do is sewing. They sew a decorative piece of appliqué fabric known as a Mola. Mola is the Kuna Indian word for Blouse. Most Molas have a black background and they cut and sew other colored pieces of fabric on them.

The decorations on it are hand sewn and are usually of natural things like animals, plants, birds, fish.

The Pollera has won awards as the best national dress in the world.