Fine Montecristi Panama Hat by Domingo Carranza Hats
Montecristi Hats / Learn all about the wonderful Montecristi hats
- Montecristi Fine Hat
- UNESCO
- Ecuador not Panama
- Pile is the town
We come to one of the most controversial points in the history of fine hats. Some of the recurring questions I get are, how come Panama hats are from Ecuador? Aren’t hats woven in Panama? Are all Panama hats the same?
Well, for no one is more painful than for an artisan from Pile in the Montecristi canton to hear that his art and his hats are known all over the world under the name of Panama. It is well known that this name was given to our treasure, by the journalists who covered President Roosevelt’s visit to the works of the inter-oceanic canal in Panama, when he arrived where the workers were waiting for him, wearing a beautiful hat with a black ribbon and whose photograph was front page of hundreds of media around the world. From then on, everyone mistakenly assumed that this hat was a typical product of the country the president was visiting.
Read full storyMontecristi the Manaba town where the fine Panama hats come from
The great business and incredible revolution that was for Ecuador the export of hundreds of thousands of hats destined to the workers of the channel, meant at the same time the loss of identity of the hat, like an Ecuadorian artisan icon. But thus is chance, at that moment nobody thought of the incredible repercussions of this mistake. Thus we find ourselves in the modern era of the hat, where claiming authorship was only partially possible from 2013 when UNESCO recognizes the toquilla straw fine hat woven in Ecuador, as intangible heritage of humanity.
