Panamanian Americans (Spanish: panameño-americano, norteamericano de origen panameño or estadounidense de origen panameño) are Americans of Panamanian descent.
The Panamanian population at the 2010 Census was 165,456.
The largest populations of Panamanians in the United States reside in Brooklyn and South Florida.
The number of Panamanians who emigrated to the U.S. prior to 1960 is unknown, as the Census Bureau counted them in the category of "others". By the beginning of the 20th century, the number of immigrants entering the U.S. from Panama was approximately 1,000 per year. After World War II, the number of Panamanians entering the U.S. country decreased but this changed in 1965, when immigration law allowed a maximum of 120,000 annual immigrants in the U.S. This law favored a remarkable migration from Panama, which made it one of the main migratory flows from Central America to the United States in the 1970s. Over 86,000 American people of Panamanian descent were registered in the 1990 U.S. Census.[2]
Demographics
States
The 10 U.S. states with the largest population of Panamanians (Source: 2010 Census):
Ra Un Nefer Amen - founder of the Pan-African religious organization Ausar Auset Society, dedicated to providing Afrocentric-based spiritual training to people of African descent
Cirie Fields - American reality TV contestant, famously known for competing on ‘Survivor’.
Uri Berenguer - play-by-play announcer for the Boston Red Sox Spanish Beisbol Network
A. R. Bernard - founder, Senior Pastor and CEO of Christian Cultural Center (CCC), in Brooklyn, New York; born in Panama and emigrated to New York with his family when he was four
David Iglesias - American attorney from Albuquerque, New Mexico
Shoshana Johnson - former United States soldier; first black or Latina prisoner of war in the military history of the U.S.; Panamanian born and American raised
Kaliii - rapper from Roswell, Georgia; of Panamanian descent
Clarence Samuels (1900–1983) - first photographer of Latino American of African descent in the United States Coast Guard and first to command a cutter
Tessa Thompson - American actress of Afro-Panamanian and Mexican descent
Daphne Rubin-Vega - Panamanian-born American dancer, singer-songwriter and actress.
Jorge Velásquez - thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey
Nick Verreos - American fashion designer and contestant on the second season of the reality television program Project Runway; Greek-American father and Panamanian mother
Dean, Rosetta Sharp. "Panamanian Americans." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 3, Gale, 2014), pp. 449-457. online
Dolan, Edward F. Panama and the United States: Their Canal, Their Stormy Years (1990).
Mejía, Germán. The United States Discovers Panama: The Writings of Soldiers, Scholars, Scientists, and Scoundrels, 1850-1905 (2004).
