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Graves Matter: Panama Sacred Burial Grounds

A Panama Central American Cemetery Preservation Project

The CGM Cemetery Preservation Foundation restores and protects ancestral burial sites of Panamanians of West Indian descent at Corozal, Gatun, and Mount Hope Cemeteries.

Join the African American Research Library and Cultural Center for our annual Graves Matter conversation in celebration of Black History Month.  This year's topic of discussion will focus on the histories and genealogies of South Florida's Panamanian community.   Speakers and participants will explore connections to Panamanians buried in three burial sites in Panama, Central America.

THE COROZAL, GATUN, MT. HOPE CEMETERY PRESERVATION FOUNDATION honors three significant burial grounds in Panama, Central America. CGM Foundation actively promotes the restoration and preservation of ancestral burial sites of Panamanians of West Indian descent.  These sites include Corozal, Gatun Cemeteries in Panama City on the Pacific, and Mount Hope cemeteries in Colon on the Atlantic side of the canal. To achieve their mission, the organization has successfully worked with the Republic of Panama, resulting in the continued maintenance of Corozal Cemetery and a recently erected monument dedicated to the men and women who worked on the construction of the Panama Canal and their descendants. A new initiative is focused on establishing maintenance and a better understanding of the burials at Mount Hope in Colon, Panama that has been in use since the 1850s.

Speakers include representatives from the CGM Cemetery Preservation Foundation (Panama, Central America and Florida, USA); the Panama Canal Museum Collection and the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), and George A. Smathers Library, University of Florida, Gainesville, and the South Florida Panamanian Association

CGM Cemetery Preservation Foundation

UF Panama Canal Museum Collection 

So Flo Panama Association 

About the African American Research Library and Cultural Center 

The Broward County African American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) is located in the Sistrunk community, one of the oldest historically Black communities named for one of Fort Lauderdale’s first Black physicians. Opening to the public on October 26, 2002, AARLCC became the third public library of its kind in the United States dedicated to the study of Black history and culture. The 60,000 square-foot Center serves as a repository of materials related to the local, national, and international voices of the African diaspora with more than 85,000 books, manuscripts, artifacts, framed art, print, photography, audiovisual, and documents held in our Adult Services Section and Special Collections. The Youth Services Section features a special collection of Coretta Scott King Award books and the Ashley Bryan Art Collection from illustrators of African Descent. AARLCC also features a 5,000 sq. ft. museum, a 300-seat state-of-the-art theatre, and a Computer Training Center.

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