Notes6a

•  1879 Frenchman and Suez Canal builder, Ferdinand de Lesseps, begins building the Panama Canal. After 6 years 1/3 was completed but 20,000 men died from illness and the company would go bankrupt.

•  1903 Theodore Roosevelt sees the Sea as Power and signs a treaty with Panama to complete the canal.

• 1905 John Stevens a former railroad line engineer would be hired to pick up where the French left off. But first the task of sanitary conditions, housing with screens, fumigation, new sewers, sidewalks and pipe water. All were efforts to stop the mosquito from spreading malaria. Once the town was created, it attracted workers that were willing to stay. • His plan would be to the key to the success of the Panama Canal. Stevens would quit abruptly without explanation.

• President Roosevelt would hire a man that could not quit, a civil engineer named Col. George Goethals. He would continue the project until it’s completion. • August 1914 the first steamer would enter the locks of the Panama Canal. • The total cost would be $639 million dollars and loss of life 5,609 .

Americans, “Mirrors of the Heart”

The Aymara are a native group of Indian people from the Andes region once subjects of the Inca Empire and Spanish of the 16 century. Once considered the lowest social class, they are today suffering from discrimination.

• In the Dominican Republic, the ethnic groups consist of white 16%, black 11%, mixed 73%. •  Straight hair is considered ‘good’ hair and curly ‘bad’ hair. • In Hispaniola, they are proud of the purity of their Spanish blood. • The prejudice against Blacks is still ongoing today.

• In Haiti, Creoles are a mixed race of African and French. Socially, the darker skinned people are are thought of as lower class. Darks sometimes deny their heritage, saying they are of Indian Origin.