Guna Yala, formerly known as San Blas, is a comarca indígena in northeast Panama. Guna Yala is home to the indigenous people known as the Gunas. Its capital is Gaigirgordub. It is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea, on the south by the Darién Province and Emberá-Wounaan, on the east by Colombia, and on the west by the province of Colón.
The Guna are an indigenous people of Panama and Colombia. Guna people live in three politically autonomous comarcas or autonomous reservations in Panama, and in a few small villages in Colombia. There are also communities of Guna people in Panama City, Colón, and other cities. Most Guna live on small islands off the coast of the comarca of Guna Yala known as the San Blas Islands. The other two Guna comarcas in Panama are Kuna de Madugandí and Kuna de Wargandí. They are Guna-speaking people who once occupied the central region of what is now Panama and the neighboring San Blas Islands and still survive in marginal areas.
A comarca is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain, and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term marca, meaning a "march, mark", plus the prefix co-, meaning "together, jointly".
The Mola or Molas is a hand-made textile that forms part of the traditional women's clothing of the indigenous Guna people from Panamá. Their clothing includes a patterned wrapped skirt (saburet), a red and yellow headscarf (musue), arm and leg beads (wini), a gold nose ring (olasu) and earrings in addition to the mola blouse (dulemor). Two groups, Choco and Cuna lived side by side without intermarriage and without adopting a similar culture. In Dulegaya, the Guna's native language, "mola" means "shirt" or "clothing". The mola originated with the tradition of Guna women painting their bodies with geometric designs, using available natural colors; at a certain point, after the arrival of the Spanish, these same designs were woven in cotton, and later still, sewn using cloth "acquired by trade from the ships that came to barter for coconuts during the 19th century".
The Kuna language, spoken by the Kuna people of Panama and Colombia, belongs to the Chibchan language family.
Narganá or Yandup in the Guna language is one of the islands belonging to the Guna Yala, an autonomous territory or comarca in Panama. The culture in Nargana is influenced heavily by Panama and most people there are bilingual speaking both Spanish and the Kuna language. The island has an area of 5.5 hectares and is completely overbuilt, and could be walked around in less than 10 minutes. There is a small hospital and school on the island. The nearest populated island, Corazón de Jesús, is connected to Nargana by a concrete bridge. Both islands are among the most westernized of the San Blas Islands.
Abya Yala, which in the Kuna language ('Abiayala') means "land in its full maturity", "land of vital blood" or "saved land", is the name used by the Indigenous American Guna people who inhabit the geographic region called the Darién Gap, between what is now northwest Colombia and southeast Panama, to refer to the American continent since Pre-Columbian times.
Ukupseni or Uggubseni, also called Playón Chico, is one of the most populous islands in the Guna Yala territory of Panama, 100 metres (330 ft) from the mainland. The literal translation for Ukupseni is 'little beach' in English, or playa chica in Spanish, thus Playón Chico is a mistranslation, which means roughly 'Little Big Beach'.
Achutupo is an island town in the San Blas archipelago of Panama, located .7 kilometres (0.4 mi) off the Kuna Yala comarca (district) coast. The island is sometimes called Isla Perro or Dog Island. It has a total area of around 0.1 km2, with a population density of around 15,860 people per km2, resulting in Achutupo being one of the most densely populated islands in the world.
Cartí Sugtupu is an island in the San Blas Archipelago in the Guna Yala province of Panama. It is the southernmost and largest of four populated Carti Islands, and it lies 1200 meters off the northern coast of mainland Panama. The island is densely populated and houses a small harbour and a museum.
Rio Sidra is a densely populated island town in the San Blas Archipelago of the Kuna Yala comarca of Panama. Among the native Guna population, the island is called, Urgandi. The island is 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) off Panama's north coast. Rio Sidra is a municipality or corregimiento of Narganá.
The Emberá, also known in the historical literature as the Chocó or Katío Indians are an indigenous people of Panama and Colombia. In the Emberá language, the word ẽberá can be used to mean person, man, or indigenous person, depending on the context in which it is used. There are approximately 33,000 people living in Panama and 50,000 in Colombia who identify as Emberá.
Playón Chico Airport is an airport serving Ukupseni, an island in the San Blas Archipelago in the Guna Yala comarca of Panama.
Guna de Madungandí or Madungandí, formerly known as Kuna de Madugandí is a comarca indígena and corregimiento in Chepo District, Panamá Province, Panama with a population of 4,271 as of 2010. It was created by Law 24 of January 12, 1996. Its population as of 2000 was 3,305.
The Cayos Limones or Lemon Keys are a group of Caribbean islands in the San Blas Archipelago in Guna Yala province of Panama. As part of the autonomous Guna Yala indigenous territory it is mainly populated by the Guna indigenous People. The islands in Cayos Limones are sparsely populated. The most notable of the islands are Isla de Perro and Chichimen, both are situated near substantial reefs making them ideal for snorkeling, as they contain several sunken ships. The economy is mainly based on tourism, fishing and coconut harvesting. The Keys are connected to the other islands of the archipelago and to the mainland by taxi-boat, normally through the other islands of El Porvenir or Carti Sugtupu.
Joel Fred Sherzer was an American anthropological linguist known for his research with the Guna people of Panama and his focus on verbal art and discourse-centered approaches to linguistic research. He co-founded the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America. Sherzer completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 and thereafter taught at the University of Texas at Austin for his entire career.
The San Blas Rebellion, Guna Revolution or Revolution of Tule was an uprising by the Kuna, to declare independence, in the San Blas Islands, in February 1925.
Petita Ayarza Pérez is a Panamanian Indigenous political leader and businesswoman. In the 2019 general election, she became the first Guna woman to run for a seat as deputy and be elected to the National Assembly of Panama.
Moraggedub or Mormaketupu also called Isla Maquina is a densely populated island in the San Blas Archipelago, a group of islands off the coast of northeast Panama specifically in the Guna Yala Region. The island is part of the municipality or corregimiento of Narganá.
Narvagandub Dummad is an island off the northeast coast of Panama. The Spanish colonizers called this island, Naranjos Grandes or Big Orange Trees. The island is part of the chain of islands named San Blas Islands, which stretches from the east of the Panama Canal up to the border of Colombia. The archipelago is inhabited by the Guna people, a Native American ethnic group that resides in border areas of Panama and northern Colombia. Their language is part of the Chibchan language family
