The Panama Hat Is Made in Ecuador — Epoche A2
The panama hat is Ecuadorian. It is woven by hand from the split straw of the toquilla palm, in the coastal town of Montecristi and in the highland city of Cuenca, and it was made there long before the Panama Canal existed. The name is a travelling accident, and it is worth following. The cause is trade. Ecuador's hats went north to Panama, because Panama was where the ships of the world met. A traveller crossing from one ocean to the other bought a hat, wore it home, and named it after the place where he bought it. Then the canal was dug. Thousands of men worked under a sun that punished bare heads, and the light straw hat sold in shopfuls. When a United States president came to inspect the works, he was photographed in one, and the photograph went everywhere. The name was fixed. The effect has lasted. The finest hats still come from Ecuador — the best of them woven so tightly and so evenly that the hat can be rolled up, carried in a tube, and shaken back into shape. UNESCO now lists the weaving as living heritage of the world. The weavers are Ecuadorian. The straw is Ecuadorian. Only the name left the country, and it has never come back.