he largest population of Panamanians in the United States lives in Brooklyn, with roughly 30,000 in the NYC metropolitan area. In the second half of the 20th century, Panamanians formed a substantial community in and around Crown Heights and Flatbush, within the larger Afro-Caribbean community of central Brooklyn. Every fall, the community celebrates Panamanian separation from Colombia with a parade and street fair. Although most Panamanians in Panama are native speakers of a (Caribbean) variety of Spanish, the majority of New York Panamanians are Afro-Panamanians from the Caribbean Coast, for whom a distinctive English variety testifies to a distinctive history.