PANAMA HATS are not from Panamá

True, they are from Ecuador.
The how and when they ended up being called PANAMA HATS is nevertheless connected with Panamá and... Theodore Roosevelt.
These hats are made of a special material called Paja Toquilla (Toquilla Straw). Hence the real name in English should be TOQUILLA STRAW HAT which is Spanish is SOMBRERO DE PAJA TOQUILLA which is what we call them in Ecuador.
In order to export these hats to Europe or Asia these hats were first sent to Panamá and then sent to their final destinations. It was there that they renamed the hats according to the place they were sent from and that was Panamá. All of this happened before the construction of the Panamá Canal which started at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was then that Thedore Roosevelt came to Panamá to oversee the works and was photographed wearing one of our hats. It was then that the name Panamá was attached to the Paja Toquilla Hat and so it has remained until our days.
TOQUILLA STRAW HATS  are not cheap because they are hand made and each one is a piece of artwork that will perhaps be lost to us in time since the best of them are produced in a place called Montecristi in the Manabí province where some of the best hat weavers still exist. And those weavers are getting old and sadly their apprentices are not as talented. Besides there is competition coming from Southeastern Asia where they are producing hats as well: their quality is good but not as good as the Montecristi hats, nevertheless, the price seems to play a decisive role since as all good copies Asian hats are also cheaper.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do you say MIRADOR in English?

Image
"Hmm, why do I have this nagging feeling that someone is watching me watching?" In Spanish, a MIRADOR is any place that allows a privileged view of the surroundings. In English, a MIRADOR is a VIEWPOINT or a LOOKOUT. Another possible translation is VANTAGE POINT, though in a tourist context this term is a bit less common.
Read more

The Maps of Ship-Trap Island

Image
Once I had my high school students read The Most Dangerous Game, a short story by Richard Connell. Rainsford, the main character, is a professional hunter traveling by ship to his next hunting area, accidentally ends up in an island called Ship- Trap island. When he goes into the island he finds there are two men living in a palace in the island. One of them is a Cossack general and the other, his brutish servant.  The Cossack is called general Zaroff who is also  a game hunter but has become bored of hunting regular game and now uses the island's unique position to capture sailors from shipwrecks. He lets them go first and next after some time he hunts them down. Rainford's arrival who is worldwide famous presents Zaroff with a rare opportunity to find excitement in hunting again by hunting another hunter. Little does Zaroff know that Rainsford is The Most Dangerous Game in the World and hunting him will not be easy at all. My students enjoyed themselves at reading...
Read more

How do you say EXAMEN SUPLETORIO in English?

Image
Darn! I wonder if there's a Make Up exam for this Make up exam! I remember that long ago I asked my distinguished and knowledgeable colleagues of that time to enlighten me and tell me the right English word for what we know in Ecuador as EXAMEN SUPLETORIO or EXAMEN DE RECUPERACION.  After hearing Recovery exam or Supplemenary test and even Supletory exam, I was not convinced so I decided to go to a higher authority and looked up one of those encyclopedic dictionaries from Oxford or Cambridge university (these were the pre-browser times) and found the right expression is MAKE UP EXAM which is taken when an exam has been missed or when a student needs to change one score with a more favorable one. The British say RECUPERATION EXAM which is perhaps more practical since to some people the term Make Up is confusing. Make-up is the word for the wearing of cosmetics. There are Make-up tests which are oriented to future Make-up artists.
Read more