The Famous Panama Hat, Made in Ecuador.

Panama hats are not actually from Panama, they are all made in Ecuador. It takes two to three days to make one basic hat or up to eight months to weave a very fine quality hat, the material used is called ''paja toquillales'' and is cultivated on the coastal parts of Ecuador. The toquillales come from a plant called Carludovica palmata. They are prepared by a process of boiling and drying to remove the chlorophyll from the toquillales before they are ready for weaving.

Carludovica palmata.

Ecuador's hat making towns are Cuenca, and Biblián, two towns in the Southern Andean highlands, in addition to Jipijapa and Montecristo, which are located near the north western coast of Ecuador, where these kinds of hats were made in a variety of older and different styles and have been worn for centuries by Coastal and Andean indigenous people before the Spanish invaded South America.

Although Cuenca is the most well-known hat making town among tourists because of it's unique and well preserved colonial architecture and the four rivers that run through Cuenca, which makes it the most aesthetically attractive city destination in Ecuador.

The misleading name, requires a look into the history of the Ecuadorian hat that ended up being called the ‘ Panama hat’’. Panama has been a key strategic business route in Central America and started to boom when the French began construction of the canal in 1881, but the American president, Roosevelt, finished the construction of the Panama canal in 1914, creating shipping access via the Isthmus of Panama elevating Maritime business between the Atlantic and Pacific coast.

The Ecuadorian hats were worn by many of the Panama canal construction workers and President Roosevelt was photographed donning the hat, these photos regularly showed up in the American press which contributed to their booming export to the USA. During the Californian Gold Rush which started in 1849, many Gold prospectors on their way to and from California would buy the Ecuadorian hats and so business boomed for the Ecuadorian hat sellers in Panama and so the Ecuadorian hat became known as the Panama hat from then onwards.

by

CS

Photos of the hats are the author's own.