The Coconut Business is Booming…The Kuna Yala, native people of the San Blas Islands

The Kuna Yala do not like the name San Blas Islands since it was given by the Spanish and prefer simply Kuna Yala. The 55,000 population are autonomous and have their own strict laws. Among these, intermarrying is prohibited and no one who is not a Kuna may own property. Each village has three chiefs, or Sailas, who hold authority in the village, and three Caciques rule the nation. Of the Caciques, one will be elected supreme leader of the Kuna Nation. While the islands have no electricity (and certainly no huts littered with satellite dishes), they do get drinking water using an underground system from the mainland.

Coconuts are their main item of trade, and every coconut even on the beach belongs to someone. I met a Coconut Guard today and he informed me that it is his job to watch the coconuts on one stretch of Chichime Island for 4 months. After that time he will be replaced, and then sent to guard a different grove of coconuts. While he must have been exaggerating, he told me that his stretch of the island will produce one to two thousand coconuts, that Colombian boats will purchase for $15 each. If this is true, I need to invest in an island outside of the Kuna nation!

The Kunas hold “congreso” to discuss community issues and enforce laws and penalties. Breaking Kuna law can result in being penalized by filling barrels with coral remnants to be used for landfill (again, that pesky global warming is slowly turning small islands into mere shoals). One Kuna man received 10 barrels of landfill as punishment for hitting his wife. After complaining that his aggression was provoked by his wife, she received the same punishment.

Once or twice a year the Kuna have a spiritual celebration called the “chicha” ritual. An intoxicating sugarcane beverage is brewed for months ahead using a special press. The “chicha” is then drunk in the “chicha hut”, tourists lucky enough to be in the area are welcome to partake. I think the chicha would help the pain of my pinche 3rd degree burns, but alas I saw no chicha brewing during my trek around the island today.

The Kuna Yala also stitch “molas” which are Panama’s most famous handicraft, in addition to intricate beaded bracelets. The women paddle by each visiting boat, dressed in embroidered fabric, wrists heavy with beaded bracelets, noses pierced in the middle, and look to bargain their perfect souvenirs to arriving travelers.

Interestingly enough, the Kuna is a matrilineal society in which the women control the money and chose their husbands (who could ask for anything more?). Transvestites are also common, and are often accompanied by children to make the role even more convincing. Homosexuality refreshingly has no stigma here.

This place just keeps getting better and better! I feel so lucky that I’ve gotten to see firsthand that places like this still exist! But if you’re not Kuna, don’t expect to raise your children here. Now, about buying my own island…

written by

kate_hansen2005 on July 2, 2010 from San Blas Islands, Panama

from the travel blog: Confessions of a Flashpacker, A California Girl’s Search for the Perfect Beach…

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