The Heterogeneous Isthmus: Transnationalism and Cultural Differentiation in Panama THOMAS J. SIGLER The Uni versity of Queensland, Austr a lia KALI-AHSET AMEN Emory Uni versity, USA K. ANGELIQUE DWYER Gustavus Adolphus College, USA This article addresses understandings of race and ethnicity within Latin American research by examining and arguing for an increasingly transna- tional interpretation of identity through an analytical engagement with the changing politics of difference in Panama. Applying historiographical and ethnographic approaches, we interrogate ethno-racial differentiation from a transnational perspective, concluding that dominant national dis- courses on identity in Panama have shifted in response to transnational alliances and pressures, and that a monolithic nationalism driven by the narrative of panameñismo (a national political discourse in Panama pred- icated upon the concept of a monolithic and singular Panamanian culture) has given way to an ethno-racial climate in which the politics of iden- tity and representation are approached more pluralistically and arguably more equitably. Keywords: central America, ethnicity, identity politics, Panama, race. La posición geográfica de Panamá, como también diversas circunstancias históricas, constituye causa principal de la existencia de diversos grupos humanos en el Istmo. (Malgrat, 1994: 389) The geographical position of Panama, as well as its diverse historical circumstances, constitutes the principal cause of the existence of diverse groups of humans on the isthmus. Ethno-racial group identity in Latin America and the Caribbean has been both a formative social element as well as a salient political issue throughout the region (Hale, 1997; Quijano, 2000; Dzidzienyo and Oboler, 2005; Jiménez Román and Flores, 2010). Although tension between indigenous, Afro-descended, mestizo, and other 229