Chapter XXIII: Panama and the Great Canal

The slender connecting link between the two Americas is sometimes not considered a part of Central America. But surely it should be, now that it is a separate republic and not a part of Colombia in South America. Formerly called the Isthmus of Darien, it is the narrowest part of the Americas, at one point being only thirty-five miles wide.

Porto Bello, on the Atlantic coast of Darien, and now of little importance, was the first place on the American continents settled by white men. On September 1, 1513, the Spanish explorer Balboa set out from there with an expedition of 190 white men and a party of Indians, to see whether there was truth in the rumor that a great sea lay to the westward. Until then the men who followed Columbus across the Atlantic thought the land he had discovered was a part of Asia. Balboa fought his way through unfriendly tribes and difficult country for twenty-five days before he reached a hill from which, as Keats says,

“He stared at the Pacific, and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise,
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.”

(The poet made the curious mistake of crediting this discovery to “stout Cortés.”)

Balboa, after discovering the Pacific, went down to the shore and took
possession of the ocean for the Spanish crown.
]

We say that Balboa discovered the Pacific, and in a sense he did, though in reality millions of people had seen it and men had sailed upon it for centuries before that. Erecting a crude cross on the hill from which he first viewed the ocean, he pushed on down to the coast, which he reached four days later. Rushing into the water, he claimed possession of the ocean and all the lands bordering on it in the name of the king of Spain. Of course Balboa did not know that this ocean washed the shores not only of North and South America, but of Asia, Australia, and hundreds of islands.

A ruin at Porto Bello, supposed to have been the Custom House during
Spanish rule.
]

Canal Zone. Photos by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

The Panama Railroad’s handsome station in Panama City. How sharply it
contrasts with the picture above!
]

In 1519 Panama City was founded on the Pacific side of Darien, and became the outfitting base for expeditions to Peru, the first one led by Pizarro, who began the conquest of South America for Spain. The Spaniards built, between Porto Bello and Panama City, a road that for many years was one of the richest trade routes in the world. All the gold and treasures sent from Peru to Spain passed over it. When the natural wealth of Peru declined, Panama slumped. No new settlers came and many of its old residents died from malaria and yellow fever. Finally it became so unimportant that it lost its rank as a separate dependency of Spain and was made a province of the viceroyalty of New Granada, which included the present republic of Colombia.

During the gold rush to California, Panama again became important. Many men chose to go by way of Panama rather than make the long, dangerous journey across the United States. Three Americans, seeing their opportunity, secured from Colombia a concession to build a railroad across the Isthmus. The first rails were laid in 1850, and five years later the Atlantic and Pacific were joined by the first continental railway, forty-seven miles long. By the time it was finished it had taken in $2,000,000. It carried 1,200,000 passengers in one year, beside much freight, including $50,000,000 worth of uncoined gold, sent from California to New York. The fare for that forty-seven miles was twenty-five dollars, and passengers had to pay extra for their baggage and mining outfits. To-day one can cross the isthmus in about four hours, as comfortably as if going from New York to Baltimore, and at about one-tenth the fare of the early days.

Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

Balboa from Ancon Hill, showing Canal Zone administration building in
right foreground, schoolhouse (left foreground), baseball park, and
harbor.
]

Culebra Cut in 1913 when the canal was being dug.
]

Canal Zone. Photos by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

Gaillard Cut at Gold and Contractor’s Hills.
]

Gatun Locks, with Gatun Lake beyond.
]

Canal Zone. Photos by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

A steamship in the Middle East Chamber, Gatun Locks.
]

Building the Canal

Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

A relief map of the Canal Zone shows mountainous region through which
the canal passes.

Long before the railroad was built, people had begun to think of digging a canal across the narrowest part of the Americas. By such a short cut, ships could save thousands of miles between the two oceans. The French, who had recently finished the Suez Canal, started this job in the New World. But they soon discovered that Panama, with a rocky mountain chain running through it, was not Suez, where they had only to dig a ditch through a desert, in ground so soft and flat that they could simply throw the earth up on the banks. One assessment after another was levied on the French stockholders, until thousands of them had lost the savings of a lifetime. Ferdinand De Lesseps, engineer of the enterprise, was arrested, charged with stealing the stockholders’ money. But the difficulties of the task were chiefly to blame, and the French gave it up. Mosquitoes killed thousands of workmen by transmitting malaria and yellow fever. The French did not realize that it would be necessary to exterminate the mosquitoes before men could live long enough on the Isthmus of Panama to dig a canal.

Many Americans still thought the Nicaraguan route better for a canal between the two oceans, but the United States finally took over the French rights to the Panama Canal. We paid the French $40,000,000 and gave the new Republic of Panama $10,000,000 for the privilege of running the canal across its territory. We also promised to pay Panama $250,000 a year rental forever (beginning in 1913 when the canal was expected to be finished) for a strip of land ten miles wide across the isthmus and extending three miles into the sea at either end. The fact that Colombia earlier refused to sell or rent this land to us led the people of Panama to declare their independence. Finally, after years of argument, we gave Colombia $25,000,000 for the loss of her isthmian province.

Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

The Great Gatun Spillway Dam, Panama Canal, which takes care of the
overflow of water.
]

On May 8, 1904, we took over the Canal Zone and what the French had left there. For ten years that small strip of land was the busiest place on earth. As a member of the Canal Zone police force I spent six months there when the canal was nearing completion. One of my tasks was to help take a census of Canal Zone residents. We found 62,810 people, of whom 37,428 were employees of Uncle Sam, and helping in one way or another to dig the canal. Only 5,228 of the residents were Americans; nearly half were British subjects, mostly black people from the West Indies; the others came from more than fifty different countries.

Map of the Canal Zone showing plainly that the Pacific end of the
Canal is farther east than the Atlantic end.
]

In the Canal Zone, Americans live in such houses as these.
]

Photos from Ford Educational Weekly

American children at Balboa attend school in this fine building.
]

Natives of Panama outside the city live in such huts as this.
]

Photos from Ford Educational Weekly

A street of native houses in the old City of Panama.
]

Some of the men ran huge steam shovels that gnawed their way through the cordillera or “backbone” of the Americas, which here is only a few hundred feet high. To dig through those comparatively low rock hills was a formidable job. A miniature state grew up along the canal, with everything from ice plants to office buildings. There were dozens of towns, and thousands upon thousands of comfortable two-story screened bungalows to house American and other employees. We spent $43,000 a year just to keep down the mosquitoes that had driven out the French. Hundreds of trainloads of rock and earth were carried to the end of the Zone every working day and dumped in the sea or in out-of-the-way places. All this went on until the canal was opened in 1914, and even after that there was still digging and dredging and other work to do. The successful completion of the canal was made possible only by the energy and devotion of Colonel Goethals, General Gorgas and their associates. From the very beginning it was realized that the canal was a medical as well as an engineering problem. Without sanitation and preventive medicine the enterprise would surely have failed.

Ideal Living Conditions

The Panama Canal Zone has become a wonderful place in which to live. The American Government runs everything, even the stores, the laundries, the restaurants, the hospitals, the rebuilt railroad. The several thousand Americans and many workmen of other nationalities who remain there to look after the canal do not use money in the stores, but pay with tickets issued to all government employees. The Canal Zone now has a lower death rate than the average American city or the United States as a whole. The thousands of American children who are born and live there have splendid schools, magnificent playgrounds, and a perpetual summer. They become wonderful swimmers, for they can swim outdoors every day in the year.

Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

In the Canal Zone outdoor swimming is possible all the year round.
Some splendid swimmers have been developed there, and they begin
early. This picture shows the youngest members of the famous Red,
White and Blue Swimming Troupe at the Balboa Pool.
]

American women in Panama keep house rather differently from those in the United States. They have plenty of servants. There are no stoves, except for cooking, but electric lights burn day and night in clothes closets to keep the clothing from mildewing. Light and power come from the Spillway, over which flows the surplus water from Gatun Lake. Electricity costs the government very little and the employees nothing at all. The air from the land is like that of July at home, but almost always a soft, cool, refreshing breeze blows in from the ocean. There is a yearly rainy season, yet even that is not so very unpleasant.

A trip across the Canal Zone is like a ride through botanical gardens. Strange trees, many of them enormous, often with air plants and orchids growing on them, stand forth above the dense jungle. Clumps of feathery bamboo wave like huge ostrich feathers in the breeze. There are delicious alligator pears, papayas that look like muskmelons, mangoes. Some of the finest pineapples in the world grow on Taboga, one of the several small islands at the Pacific end of the canal, a favorite place for picnics and short vacations. There are few more delightful places in the world than the Canal Zone, and if you ever have a chance to go there, by all means do so.

Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

Delicious pineapples grow in the Canal Zone.
]

Not long ago I had the pleasure of visiting the Canal Zone again. It was hard to realize that the great cut had been made by steam shovels. To-day it looks like a natural valley. From fifty to seventy vessels can be passed through the canal in a single day, depending on their size. Electric locomotives known as “mules” draw ships through the three locks at each end of Gatun Lake, which is eighty-five feet above the oceans. Huge steel doors, high as a ten-story building, open and shut noiselessly. Water rushes in or pours out through enormous concrete pipes, and quickly lifts or lowers a ship. Then another gate ahead opens, the “mules” tow the ship into the next lock, and the process is repeated. Great liners or war vessels are handled as easily as the smallest sailboats.

The Republic of Panama

The Canal Zone is only a very small part of the Republic of Panama, though to Americans and to the world at large it seems far more important than the rest. Panama has 32,400 square miles and about 400,000 inhabitants, outside the Canal Zone. There are numerous streams, one of them navigable for a hundred miles. Much of the republic is mountainous. Outside the limits of the Canal Zone it is the least developed of any Central American country. There are no cities of any size besides Colón and Panama City, at the two ends of the canal. Although these are inside the ten by fifty mile strip, they are not governed by the United States, though our government exercises its influence to keep them cleaner than most Central American cities.

Colón was long known as Aspinwall. “Colón” being Spanish for Columbus—a far more important man than the Englishman Aspinwall who once lived there—Colombia long ago refused to receive letters addressed to Aspinwall or to harbor ships whose papers used the offending name. So that name died out, and only now and then does an “old-timer” still use it. Colón is rather a commonplace city, with checkerboard streets and wooden shops and houses, but it is much more up-to-date than most cities of Central America.

Papaya fruit is very large and grows in clusters. These trees are on
Bracho Plantation, Panama.
]

Canal Zone. Photos by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

Cacao trees, Las Cascadas Plantation, Panama. The flat cars carry
drying trays.
]

Panama City, capital of the republic, is a more interesting place. Its history alone makes it worth visiting. Old Panama City was founded more than a hundred years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. In 1671 it was destroyed by the famous English pirate Henry Morgan, who killed and tortured many people and carried off 175 donkey-loads of treasure. (Some of the valuables he left behind have been discovered recently.) Later Morgan bought his pardon from King Charles II, was knighted, and became governor of Jamaica. The present city was built in 1673, about five miles from the old one. The ruins of the first city are a favorite place for Canal Zone picnics.

The Panama City of to-day is built on a rocky projection almost surrounded by the sea. A huge stone wall thirty feet high nearly encircles it. It has well-paved streets, trolley cars, water and sewerage systems. On one side of the central _plaza_, where both Panamanians and Americans promenade, is the bishop’s palace, and on another the cathedral, its twin towers covered with mother-of-pearl. The best buildings in the town were erected after Panama declared its independence. Some of its stores and customs remind one of the United States. Yet many of the people still do their work out on shaded sidewalks, in the old Spanish-American fashion. Women sit there sewing, and so do tailors. If we stop in the _plaza_ to rest, men, women, and even children offer us lottery tickets. It is forbidden to sell them in the Canal Zone, but they may be had in Panama City or Colón.

Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

A San Blas Indian climbing a coconut tree.
]

One of the amusing things to see at Panama is the sun _rising from the Pacific_. “The Pacific!” you exclaim. “Why, only people in Japan or Hawaii could do that.” However, if you look carefully at the map on page 269 you will find that a person at Panama City actually could see the sun come up out of the Pacific Ocean. Since South America lies far east of North America, the land connecting them has to run east-west more than north-south. But it does not run straight at all. The outline of Central America makes one think of a roller coaster, with a number of loops that form gulfs. On one of these gulfs is Panama City. It is twenty-three miles farther east than the Atlantic entrance to the canal, and it is so placed on the Gulf of Panama that one looks eastward across the water.

Products and People

The Republic of Panama has the usual tropical products. Chiriquí Province, much of which is 3,000 feet above sea level, is noted for its grazing lands and its excellent cattle. “Panama hats,” by the way, were never made in Panama, but in Colombia and Ecuador. They got their name from being carried across the isthmus on their way to the United States and Europe. Panama Republic has only the beginning of a railway system and practically no roads at all. More than half its territory is uninhabited, and only a small part of the rest is cultivated. The average Panamanian works only enough to procure the bare necessities of life. His food, shelter, and clothing are of the simplest. Yet the country has large areas of very fertile land, and other valuable resources, and in time it may become a wealthy member of the family of nations.

The most interesting people in the Republic of Panama are the San Blas Indians, whose territory begins about fifty miles below the Canal Zone and continues to the border of Colombia. They are small but very sturdy, with remarkable chests and shoulders, and are expert boatmen and swimmers. They navigate the Atlantic coast in fifteen-foot dugouts, and sometimes bring fish and fruit to Colón. Although they treat white men politely in the daytime, the San Blas Indians seldom allow strangers to stay in their territory after dark. Having preserved their tribal identity through four centuries since the white man’s arrival, they propose to remain independent just as long as possible. Therefore they never intermarry with the whites, and no one has been successful in persuading them to give up the primitive life of their forefathers.

Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

A San Blas Indian family standing in front of their home.
]

* * * * *

Here we are at the end of Central America! It has been a pleasant and an interesting, if sometimes a rather rough, journey. Those of you who wish, may start for home, boarding a fast comfortable steamer at Colón or Panama City; but I am going on to South America, and I shall be glad to have anyone come along who would like to visit the countries of that great continent.

Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer

Ruins of old Panama—Cathedral tower, showing rounded opening in which
there was once a spiral staircase to the belfry.
]

PRONUNCIATION LIST

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The pronunciation of Spanish will not be found
difficult, as the number of sounds is few, and there is little
variation. There are some differences between Spanish as spoken in
Spain and Spanish as spoken in Latin America, and since this book
relates to Mexico and Central America it seems best to indicate sounds
as they would be given there. Some words in this book, also, are of
Indian origin, and are therefore pronounced somewhat differently. One
who is interested to go more deeply into the matter will find
information under “A Guide to Pronunciation” in _Webster’s New
International Dictionary_. The symbols of that dictionary have been
used in the following list.

abrazo (ä-brä´sō)
acabala (ä-kä-bä´lä)
Acajutla (ä-kä-hoot´lä)
adiós (ä-dē-ōs´)
administrador (äd-mē-në-strä-dôr´)
adobe (ä-dō´bā)
Agua (ä´gwä)
agua-miel (ä-gwä-myĕl´)
Aguascalientes (ä-gwäs-käl-yĕn´tās)
Alhóndiga (ä-lôn´dē-gä)
Alvarado (äl-vä-rä´dō)
Amapala (ä-mä-pä´lä)
Amatitlán ( ä-mä-tē-tlän´)
americanisado (â-mā-rē-kän-ē-sä´dō)
Anáhuac (ä-nä´wäk)
Antigua (än-tē´gwä)
Atitlán (ä-tē-tlän´)
atole (ä-tō´lā)
Ayutla (ä-yoot´lä)

Belize (bĕ-lēz´)
Bogotá (bō-gō-tä´)
Boquilla (bō-kē´lyä)
Bracho (brä´chō)
bravos (brä´vōs)

caballero (kä-bä-lyā´rō)
Cabrera (kä-brā´rä)
Calles (kä´lyās)
camino real (kä-mëē´nō rā-äl´)
Campeche (käm-pā´chā)
Carranza (kä-rrän´sä)
Cartago (kär-tä´gō)
Celaya (sā-lä´yä)
cesta (sĕs´tä)
Chapala (chä-pä´lä)
Chichenitza (chē-chĕn-ët´zä)
Chihuahua (chē-wä´wä)
chile con carne (chē´lā kôn
kär´nā)
Chiriquí (chē-rē-kē´)
Cholula (chō-loo´lä)
chuchos (choo’chōs)
Ciudad Juárez (syoo-däd’ hwä’rās)
Ciudad Vieja (syoo-däd’ vyā’-hä)
Coahuila (kō-ä-wē’lä)
Coatepeque (kō-ä-tā-pā’kā; _Eng._, kō-ä’tā-pĕk)
Cobán (kō-bän’)
Colón (kō-lôn’)
colonias (kô-lō-nē’äs)
comandancia (kō-män-dän’-syä)
Comayagua (kō-mä-yä’gwä)
conquistadores (kôn-kēs-tä-dō’-rās)
Copán (kō-pän’)
Córdoba (kôr’dō-vä)
Corinto (kō-rēn’tō)
Cortés (kôr-tās’; _Eng._, kôr’-tĕz)
Cuernavaca (kwĕr-nä-vä’kä)
Cuscatlán (koos-kät-län’)

Darien (dä-rē-ĕn’; _Eng._, dä-rĭ-ĕn’)
Darío, Rubén (dä-rē’ō, roo-bĕn’)
Diaz (dē’äs)
Dolores Hidalgo (dō-lō’rās ē-däl’gō)
Durango (doo-räng’gō)

El Paso (ĕl pä’-sō; _Eng._, ĕl pă’sō)
Escuintla (ĕs-kwēn’-tlä)
Estados Unidos Mexicanos (ĕs-tä’dōs oo-nē’dōs mĕx-ē-kä’nōs)
Estrada (ĕs-trä’dä)

fiesta (fyĕs’tä)
Fonseca (fōn-sā’kä)
Fuego (fwā’gō)

Gallegos (gä-lyā’gōs)
garrotero (gä-rrō-tā’rō)
Gatun (gä-toon’)
Guadalajara (gwä-dä-lä-hä’rä)
Guadalupe (gwä-dä-loo’pā)
guajalote (gwä-hā-lō’tā)
guajalotl (gwä-hä-lōtl’)
Guanajuato (gwä-nä-hwä’tō)
Guaracha (gwä-rä’chä)
guaraches (gwä-rä’chās)

hacendados (ä-sĕn-dä’dōs)
hacienda (ä-siĕn’dä; _Eng._, hä-sĭ-ĕn’dä)
Hidalgo (ē-däl’gō)
Huerta (hwĕr’tä)
huipil (hwē-pēl’)
Huitzilopochtli (hwēt-zēl-ō-pôch’tlē)

Irapuato (ē-rä-pwä’tō)
Ixtaccihuatl (ēx-täk-sē’hwätl)
Izalco (ē-säl’kō)

jaí alaí (hī ä-lī’)
Jalisco (hä-lēs’kō)
jefe político (hĕ’fā pō-lē’tē-kō)
Juanacatlán (hwän-ä-kät-län’)
Juárez (hwä’rās)

Laredo (lä-rā’dō)
Las Cascadas (läs käs-kä’däs)
La Unión (lä oo-nē-ōn’)
León (lā-ōn’)

machete (mä-chā’tā)
Managua (mä-nä´gwä)
mano (mä´nō)
mansos (män´sōs)
Mariscal (mä-rēs-käl´)
Mérida (mā´rē-dä)
mescal (mĕs-kăl´; _Mex._, mexcalli—mĕks-kä´lyē)
mesquite (mĕs-kē´tā; _Eng._, mĕs´kēt)
mestizos (mĕs-tē´sōs)
Michoacán (mē-chō-ä-kän´)
milpa (mĭl’pä)
Misskitos (mĭs-kē´tōs)
Momotombo (mō-mō-tôm´bō)
Montezuma (mŏn-tĕ-zoo´mä)
Morelia (mō-rā´lyä)
Morelos (mō-rā´lōs)
Mosquitos (môs-kē´tōs)
Motagua (mō-tä´gwä)
mozo (mō´sō)

Nahua (nä´wä)
Nayarit (nä-yä-rēt´)
Nueva (nwā´vä)
Nuevo Laredo (nwā´vō lä-rā´dō)

Oaxaca (wä-hä´kä)
Obregón (ō-brā-gōn´)
O´ Donoju (ō-dôn-ō-hoo´)
Orizaba (ō-rē-sä´bä)

Pachuca (pä-choo´kä)
paseo (pä-sā´ō)
patio (pät´yō)
Pátzcuaro (päs´kwä-rō)
pela ’os (pā-lä´ōs)
pelota (pā-lō´tä)
Peregrina (pā-rā-grē´nä)
Pespire (pĕs-pē´rā)
Picacho (pē-kä´chō)
piñatas (pē-nyä´täs)
Pingüico (pĭng-gwē´kō)
plaza (plä´sä; _Eng._, plä´zä)
Plaza de la República (plä´sä dā lä rā-poo´blē-kä)
Poas (pō´äs)
Popocatepetl (pō-pō-kä-tā´pĕtl)
porrónes (pō-rrō´nās)
portales (pôr-tä´lās)
portero (pôr-tā´rō)
Port Limón (pôrt lē-mōn´)
Potrerillos (pō-trā-rē´lyōs)
Puebla (pwā´blä)
Puerto Barríos (pwĕr´tō bä-rrē´ōs)
Puerto Cortés (pwĕr´tō kôrtās´)
pulque (pool´kā)
pulquería (pool-kā-rē´ä)
Puntarenas (poon-tä-rā´näs)

Querétaro (kā-rā´tä-rö)
Quetzalcoatl (kāt-zäl-kō-ätl´)
Quezaltenango (kā-säl-tā-näng´gō)
Quintana Roo (kēn-tä´nä rō´ō)
Quiriguá (kē-rē-goo-ä´)

reales (rā-äl´ās)
reboso (rā-bō´sō)
Retalhuleu (rā-täl-oo-lā´uh)
rhizome (rī´zōm)
Rio Bravo del Norte (rē´ō brävō dĕl nôr´tā)
Rio Grande (rē´ō grän´dā)
rurales (roo-rä´lās)

Sacasa (sä-kä´sä)
Saltillo (sāl-tē´lyō)
San Blas (sän bläs´)
San Jacinto (sän hä-sēn´tō)
San Jerónimo (sän hā-rō´nē-mō)
San José (sän hō-sā´)
San Juan Bautista (sän hwän bou-tēs´tä)
San Juancito (sän hwän-sē´tō)
San Juan del Norte (sän hwän dĕl nôr´tā)
San Juan del Río (sän hwän dĕl rē´ō)
San Luis Potosí (sän loo-ēs´ pō-tō-sē´)
Santa Lucrecia (sän´tä loo-krā´syä)
Santa Rosa (sän´tä rō´sä)
Santiago (sän-tē-ä´gō)
sarapes (sā-rä´pās)
señor (sā-nyôr´)
señoritas (sā-nyō-rē´täs)
servidor de usted (sĕr-vē-dōr´ dā oo-stĕd´)
Sierra Madre (sē-ā´rrä mä´drā)
siesta (sē-ĕs´tä)
Silao (sē-lä´ō)
Sinaloa (sē-nä-lō´a)
sombrero (sôm-brā´rō)
Sonora (sō-nō´rä)
sopita (sō-pē´tä)
Suchiate (soo´chē-ä´tā)

Tabasco (tä-bäs´kō)
tamales (tä-mä´lās)
Tampico (täm-pē´kō)
tanda (tän´dä)
Tarascan (tä-räs´kän)
Tegucigalpa (tā-goo-sē-gäl´pä)
Tehuantepec (tā-wän-tā-pĕk´)
Tenochtitlán (tĕn-ôch-te-tlän´)
teocalli (tā-ō-kä´lyē)
Teotihuacán (tā-ō-tē-wä-kän´)
tequila (tā-kē´lä)
tiendas (tyĕn´däs)
tierras calientes (tyā´rräs kä-lyĕn´tās)
Tigre (tē´grā)
tipos populares (tē´pōs pō-poo-lä´rās)
Titicaca (tē´tē-kā´kā)
Tlaxcala (tläs-kä´lä)
tortilla (tôr-tē´lyä)
Trujillo (troo-hē´lyō)
Tzintzuntzán (tsĭn-tsoon-tsän´)

Uruapan (oo-roo-ä´pän)
Uxmal (ooz-mäl´)

Vera Cruz (vā´rä kroos´; _Eng._, vĕr´ä krooz´)
veta (vā´tä)
Villa (vē´lyä; popularly, in Mexico, vē´yä)

Xochimilco (hō-chē-mēl´kō)

yanqui (yäng´kē)
yaqui (yä´kē)

Zacapa (sä-kä´pā)
Zacatecas (sä-kä-tā´-käs)
Zamora (sä-mō´rä)
Zapata (sä-pä´tä)
zarzuelas (sär-swā´läs)
Zelaya (sā-lä´yā)
Zócalo (sō´kä-lō)
zopilotes (sō-pē-lō´tās)

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.