Guayaquil Straw

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Tad Davis

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Nov 3, 2025, 6:41:37 PMNov 3
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In the Peru-based novella Martin Paz, Verne describes hats made out of “Guayaquil straw.” I wasn’t able to find a description of this anywhere, but I have a tentative explanation. 
 
Weaving hats from toquilla fibers (fibers from the Carludovica or toquilla “palm” tree, not a true palm but resembling one) was a popular and profitable activity in nearby Ecuador, where the port of Guayaquil is located. These hats became known as Panama hats when they were shipped out of Guayaquil to Panama and thence to the rest of the world. (Teddy Roosevelt had one.) This is all contemporaneous with the apparent time of the story, which seems to be roughly the 1830s. 
 
The fibers were in fact known as toquilla straw—still are, I think. The association with Guayaquil is at one remove but not wholly off the wall. 
 
Not being in a position to comb the French literature on the subject, if any, I may have missed a more direct connection. Has anyone else delved into this very minor, very obscure bit of Verniana?
 
(My knowledge of Spanish is even worse than my knowledge of French. DeepL tells me “toquilla” means “shawl,” the apparent connection being… what? woven shawls and woven hats?)
 
Tad Davis

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Tad Davis
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Jean-Louis Trudel

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Nov 4, 2025, 11:52:18 AMNov 4
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Greetings,

I'm not going to add much. A bit of searching basically confirms all
that, but there are some suggestions that the term "Panama hat" only
came about when Teddy Roosevelt wore one, after possibly picking it up
from the workers building the Panama canal who wore them. Since Verne
uses the term "paille de Guayaquil" in the 1830s and there's a Gabriel
Ferry book from around 1860 where peasants in Guaymas, Mexico, are
wearing hats made with "paille de Guayaquil", that does suggest the
term "Panama hat" entered the French lexicon relatively late.

Jean-Louis Trudel
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Tad Davis

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Nov 4, 2025, 12:12:53 PMNov 4
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All good points. I think in what I’m writing up, it would behove me to say “the kind of hat that later came to be known as a Panama hat.”

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Tad Davis
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Jean-Louis Trudel

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Nov 4, 2025, 1:36:05 PMNov 4
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Greetings,

Let's complicate things. This dictionary page
(https://www.dicocitations.com/dico-mot-definition/96805/panama.php)
provides a few examples in French of the panama as a hat known before
Teddy Roosevelt, though all the references are post-Verne. And it's
asserted the proper name for this kind of hat in the region is
Jipijapa, after the Ecuadorian city it "really" comes from. FWIW.

Jean-Louis Trudel
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Tad Davis

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Nov 4, 2025, 2:11:13 PMNov 4
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My footnote is getting longer and longer!

— 
Tad Davis
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William Butcher

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Nov 4, 2025, 5:56:43 PMNov 4
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You could fudge it: correponding to a panama hat; or: more or less a panama hat.

Concision is probably as important as absolute precision.

bill
From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Tad Davis <tad.dav...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 3:11 AM
To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>; jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [JVF] Guayaquil Straw
 

Tad Davis

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Nov 4, 2025, 6:07:12 PMNov 4
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“Concision is probably as important as absolute precision.”
 
C’mon, Bill, you know me better than that. 
 
People have called me many things over the years, but “concise” has never been one of them. 

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Tad Davis
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William Butcher

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Nov 4, 2025, 6:38:02 PMNov 4
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But you never actually waste words either. I still think you should have somehow gone into literary matters, rather than PCs, but then again, maybe i'm trying to justify my own life choice...
Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 7:06 AM

Tad Davis

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Nov 5, 2025, 12:16:26 AMNov 5
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I did try. 47 years ago I got an MFA in theater with a concentration in playwriting. Even had a few local productions to my credit. But I found myself with a family to support and no arts-related job prospects. The computer stuff was an accident. I needed money and found a training program—I was, in fact, in the last cohort for this program before they made a degree in computer science one of the requirements for admission. The good part is that this unlooked-for career path left me in a position where now, in my retirement, I can write as many footnotes as I want!
 
And Verne is just the kind of allusive writer to inspire footnoting frenzy—and a determination to make improving my (currently mediocre) ability to read French a priority.

— 
Tad Davis
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William Butcher

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Nov 5, 2025, 6:10:35 PMNov 5
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The best critics, it seems to me, are often those with some sort of scientific training behind them, to help avoid mere waffle.


Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 1:16 PM
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rfb...@aol.com

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Nov 11, 2025, 7:43:49 AM (9 days ago) Nov 11
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Since the French were involved in isthmian canal projects in Panama long before the Americans (John LeCarre's TAILOR OF PANAMA opens by pointing out that led to a French expression "Quelle Panama!" about messy situations), it would hardly be surprising if they were also earlier about the headgear.

The French presence in Panama was also why President Benjamin Harrison among other Americans would've preferred a Nicaraguan canal route. (He very nearly got Congressional authorization.)
Ross



On Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at 05:56:44 PM EST, William Butcher <wbutch...@gmail.com> wrote:







You could fudge it: correponding to a panama hat; or: more or less a panama hat.




Concision is probably as important as absolute precision.




bill


________________________________
From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Tad Davis <tad.dav...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 3:11 AM
To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>; jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [JVF] Guayaquil Straw
 




My footnote is getting longer and longer!




— Tad Davistad.d...@gmail.com
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