7. Historically there has been an invisible line that has segregated Jamaican music and other Latin dance styles. But that line was breached in Panama, a country with a significant Jamaican population that had migrated south to work on the Panama Canal in the early 20th century.
9. Since the opening of the Panama Railroad Co. many Caribbeans needed jobs. Another wave of Jamaican and Caribbean migration to Panama came in the 1880s as a result of a French company’s attempt to build a canal across Panama. The attempt ultimately failed, but preceded U.S. efforts to build the Panama Canal in the last decade of the 19th century.
