What is the culture of El Valle de Anton, Panama?

There are cultural events in El Valle in the dry season; two or three concerts which are held in the church, which has great acoustic properties. We have had jazz concerts and classical music concerts, too. One of the top hotels in the Valley (locals refer to El Valle de Anton as “the Valley”) has had some opera nights where they had opera singers come. They do not perform operas but they do sing arias.

 

The culture in El Valle depends on...

There are cultural events in El Valle in the dry season; two or three concerts which are held in the church, which has great acoustic properties. We have had jazz concerts and classical music concerts, too. One of the top hotels in the Valley (locals refer to El Valle de Anton as “the Valley”) has had some opera nights where they had opera singers come. They do not perform operas but they do sing arias.

 

The culture in El Valle depends on which of the three socio-economic classes we’re discussing: the natives (working folks who live in the Valley); the middle class / expats; and the country-club set. It depends on which group one belongs to.

 

There are a number of native festivals during the course of the year. Some of them are religious and some of them are political, like the Independence Day. During festivals, the natives get together and have parades. The high schools, the fire department and one or two other groups have marching bands participating in the parades and they spend months in preparation for that.

 

I know an expat who is a former professional drummer and he has been working with one or two of the marching bands. He didn’t speak much Spanish and the members of the band do not speak much English but he is able to show them some things to help them improve their skills as drummers in a marching band.

 

There are some expats who participate in the summer recreation programs. The expat community and a foundation put together by "the country-club set" have had a couple of summer recreation programs which take place in the first quarter of the year. They have dance lessons, guitar lessons, and art classes for the kids who are on vacation. The Association for the Sustainable Development of El Valle de Anton has training programs for young people. They teach the young people a trade or how to be clerks in a store. All of these are a part of the cultural aspects of things.