Objective/Context:

To analyze the elements that constituted the category of “honor” in Panama City during the period following the construction of the Canal, concerning race and gender; and to understand how migrant West Indian women negotiated these expectations of honor.

Methodology:

The research stems from an analysis of Panamanian legal codes to define “honor” as a socio-cultural construct and to understand moral anxieties about West Indian immigration. The cases of the Calidonia district in Panama City are also analyzed to observe the intervention of Afro-Antillean women in public and legal spheres of the state.

Originality:

In addition to analyzing a novel documentary source, such as the Panama City corregiduría cases, this article compiles the historiography on honor in Latin America and shows how this concept developed in Panama during the US imperial incursion and the construction of the Canal, and how Afro-Antillean immigrant women navigated Panamanian discourses of honor through their vulgar public quarrels, in which they asserted their own moral values and social status.

Conclusions:

The cases show that Afro-Antillean immigrant women did not fight for honor but for reputation and personal worth, presenting a counter-discourse to the dominant notions of honor and virtue. With their vulgar public lawsuits, they forced a local institution to listen to their grievances and thus negotiated a form of belonging to the new Panamanian state, reinforced their social ties and defended their reputations.

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