The Great Divide

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism and enslavement.

Francisco Aquino is a Panamanian fisherman. Experienced at his trade, he has been fishing Panama’s coastal waters for many years. He is characterized initially through his troubled relationship with son Omar, but additionally through his opposition to the canal project and through his tragic marriage to Omar’s mother. Francisco represents the kinds of individuals whose stories have been “lost” to history as accounts of the canal’s construction have typically excluded the opinions and experiences of Panamanian citizens like Francisco.

Francisco’s fraught relationship with his son Omar speaks to the way that the construction of the Panama Canal impacted families. Although he and Omar already struggled because Omar was ill-at-ease on the water and did not share his father’s dedication to fishing, Omar’s willingness to take a job on the canal construction project was a blow to Francisco. When he hears of his son’s decision, Francisco is upset, and he cries out: “You are one of them now” (37). Although the new job exacerbated a pre-existing spirit of conflict between the two, Francisco is deeply opposed to the construction of the canal. He understands that the project is rooted in imperialism and that it will be much more beneficial to the United States than it will be to Panama.