The Legend of the Panama Hat

The first Spaniards in the new world,, discovering strange headgear being worn by some of the natives, took this light translucent material for vampire skin. For a people who were already subjugated by these pompous invaders, it was amusing to deceive them with such stories. Archeological discoveries of ceramic figures wearing curious hats have been made on the Ecuadorian coast as far back as 4,000 B.C. These hats, and the stories associated with them, are the predecessors of what we now know as the Panama hat.