National heroes of Panama

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Panama, 1 cent, 1968.

From Wikipedia:

Urracá or Ubarragá Maniá Tigrí was an amerindian Ngäbe chieftain or cacique who fought effectively against the Spanish conquistadors. Captured at one point, Urracá managed to escape a Spanish bound ship and rejoin his own people, thus continuing to lead the fight against the Spanish until his death in 1531. He is also remembered as el caudillo amerindio de Veragua, adversary of the Spanish Empire, the great rebel in the current territory of Panama, and the one who faced the Spanish conquistadors.

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Panama, 1 centesimo, 1975.  Urracá.

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Victoriano Lorenzo.

From Wikipedia:

Victoriano Lorenzo is considered one of the great heroes of Panamanian history, although his story and motives are sometimes debated by different sectors in his homeland. Born when the isthmus was still a part of Colombia, which was a part of the former Gran Colombia, Lorenzo died during the Thousand Days War shortly after which Panama gained its separation after many different attempts dating back to 1830.

Born sometime around the 1870s to poor campesinos in what is now the province of Cocle, Lorenzo was considered a Cholo, of predominantly indigenous blood with drops of Europe and Africa but with a more Hispanic cultural background.

An elected official outside of the provincial capital of Penonome, Lorenzo was quick to take arms at the advent of the Thousand Days War in alliance with the Liberals led in part by Panamanian patriot Belisario Porras. He led troops in a Pacific coast skirmish which killed a conservative mayor and garnered him arms from the Liberals. He commanded his troops into battle in Aguadulce in January 1902, in which over 750 troops were killed or wounded on both sides, and his Liberal allies claimed 700 prisoners. Later that year, when hundreds of Liberal troops came from Nicaragua, Lorenzo sent his secretary, Papi Aizpuru, to meet them.

Becoming one of the most wanted men by the Colombian central government,[citation needed] General Lorenzo and his wife, Lorenza Ibarra, led his soldiers to a base in the mountains known as La Trinchera, where he turned to guerrilla war to advance his cause, and averted many assassination attempts by white Conservatives and traitors.

The end of the Thousand Days War resulted in a defeat for the Liberals. General Benjamin Herrera, who had previously fought alongside Lorenzo in Aguadulce, signed a peace treaty with the Conservatives. Victoriano Lorenzo and his followers refused to give up their arms and insisted on continuing their struggle. After Herrera ordered his arrest, Lorenzo was lured into an ambush. Captive, he was rushed through court proceedings and prepared for execution. Victoriano Lorenzo was executed on May 15, 1903, within six months from Panama's separation from Colombia. He is buried in the Amador Cemetery.

A hero during his day, Lorenzo became a national legend in Panama. But questions remain, both about Lorenzo's ultimate motives and his death. Lorenzo is considered by some to have waged a war that was ultimately with separation in mind, while others see it as a class war against white elites.

Today, several monuments and plaques exist in Cocle and Veraguas in Lorenzo's honor, and official events celebrating his life and remembering his execution are held both at the commemoration of his death and on the November 3 Separation Day. Panama's controversial figure Hugo Spadafora organized a contingent of his countrymen to fight against Nicaragua's Somoza regime in 1976 known as the Victoriano Lorenzo Brigade.

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Panama. 2½ centesimos, 1976.    Victoriano Lorenzo.

This coin is only 10 mm in diameter.

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Carlos Juan Finlay.

From Wikipedia:

Carlos Juan Finlay (1833-1915) was a Spanish-Cuban epidemiologist.

He was recognised as a pioneer in the research of yellow fever.

He determined that it was transmitted through mosquitoes.

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Panama, 5 centesimos, 1975.  Carlos Finlay.

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Manuel Amador Guerrero.

From Wikipedia:

Manuel Amador Guerrero (1833-1909) was the first president of Panama from 20 February 1904 to 1 October 1908. He was a member of the Conservative Party.

Very little is known about his childhood and teenage years. He was born in Turbaco, Colombia, when Panama was part of that country. He came to Panama in 1855 and started working on the Panama Railroad as a doctor. He worked also more than twenty years on the Santo Tomás Hospital. His most important work was as chief doctor of the Panama Railroad. This job was crucial in the role he played in gaining Panamanian independence from Colombia. He was an important player in the independence movement of 1903.

After his presidency Amador retired from public life and died soon after in his house on San Felipe. His last coherent words were to express his wish that the National Anthem was played as his body was lowered to his grave site, a wish that was realized.

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Panama, 10 centesimos, 1981. 

Manuel Amador Guerrero.

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Justo Arosemena Quesada.

From Wikipedia:

Justo Arosemena Quesada (1817-1896) was a statesman, writer, lawyer and politician from Panama.

He lived during the period of union with Colombia.


He dedicated his life to the cause of the autonomy of the Isthmus of Panama in and as a part of Colombia.

He is regarded as "the most illustrious of the Panamanian and father of Panamanian nationality."

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Panama, 25 centesimos, 1978. 

Justo Arosemena.

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Ferdinand Marie.

From Wikipedia:

Ferdinand Marie, Vicomte de Lesseps GCSI (1805-1894) was a French diplomat and later developer of the Suez Canal, which in 1869 joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, substantially reducing sailing distances and times between Europe and East Asia.

He attempted to repeat this success with an effort to build a Panama Canal at sea-level during the 1880s, but the project was devastated by epidemics of malaria and yellow fever in the area, as well as beset by financial problems, and the planned de Lesseps Panama Canal was never completed. Eventually, the project was bought out by the United States who solved the medical problems and changed the design to a non-sea-level canal with locks. It was completed in 1914.

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Panama, 50 centesimos, 1975.  Fernando de Lesseps.

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Belisario Porras Barahona.

From Wikipedia:

Belisario Porras Barahona (1856-1942) was a Panamanian journalist and politician. He served three terms as President of Panama soon after its independence from Colombia.

Porras was born on the thirty-fifth anniversary of Panama's declaration of independence from Spain. Raised by his grandmother, his early education was paid for by his father in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, which Panama was a province of at the time. He joined his father when he went to secondary school, went on to study law at the National University in 1874, and won a scholarship from the Colombian government to study in Belgium from where he later returned to the Panamanian

Working as a reporter, he aligned himself with the local Colombian Liberal Party, and was soon the target of persecution by the reigning Conservative government in Bogotá. Exiled to Nicaragua and El Salvador, he took jobs as a professor and a reporter.

As the Thousand Days War began in Colombia, the Liberals in Panama sent for Porras to lead the invasion of the Isthmus in 1900. Working with General Victoriano Lorenzo and others, he began his struggle from Costa Rica in the West. He organized a volunteer army and reached the capital where he was defeated in the Battle of Calidonia Bridge. Porras returned to exile until 1904, after his homeland had acquired its independence, and became a diplomat until becoming president in 1912. The Panama Canal was finished during his first term in office.

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Panama, 5 balboas, 1975.  Belisario Porras.

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Panama, 1 balboa, 1975.  Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.

From Wikipedia:

Vasco Nuñez de Balboa (1475-1519) was a Spanish conquistador, explorer and administrator. He is best known for leading the first European expedition to sight the Pacific Ocean (or the "South Sea" as he referred to it). He founded the settlement of Santa Maria de la Antigua del Darién in present-day Panama, although it no longer exists. He fell foul of fellow conquistador Pedrarías Dávila in 1519, who arrested him on false charges of treason and had him beheaded in January 1519. Balboa is still remembered and venerated in Panama as a heroic explorer.

See also: Vasco Núñez de Balboa, national hero of Panama.