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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project CYNTHIA FARRELL JOHNSON Interviewed by: Peter Eicher Initial interview date: May 11, 2018 Copyright 2021 ADST INTERVIEW Q: Good afternoon. This is Peter Eicher. It’s May 11, 2018, and I’m interviewing Cynthia Farrell Johnson for the ADST Oral History Program. This is the first interview session. Good afternoon, Cynthia. JOHNSON: Good afternoon, Peter. Q: Well, let’s start at the beginning. Maybe you can tell us when and where you were born. JOHNSON: I was born on August 28 in New York City. My parents, Arthur and Linnet Farrell, immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1940s, after World War II. They came from Panama and settled in New York City on the West Side, West 98th Street, across from Central Park. I’m told that’s where my older sister used to run around and play, and we’ve got lots of nice pictures from that period in the 1950s. But just before I was born, we moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. That’s where I grew up, attending public schools in New York City from kindergarten through the 12th grade. I had the good fortune of being admitted to High School of Art and Design, a vocational school for commercial and art. While I had wanted to go to work and do something in the art field, my father was not having any of that. He said you will go to college and you will like it. And so, although I had dreamed of going to Pratt Institute—I lived about six blocks from the campus—I also wanted the real college experience of going away to school. So, I ended up going to State University of New York in New Paltz which was also a lot cheaper, and not that far from home. Q: Okay. And your parents came from Panama; what brought them? Were they Panamanian? JOHNSON: Yes, my parents were Panamanian, of West Indian descent. My father’s side of the family was Barbadian. Myrtle Seale Farrell and Thomas Lewis Farrell were both from Barbados but met and married in Panama. In the 1980s, I actually got to visit the remaining relatives that we were aware of in Barbados, which would have been a great- 1 aunt, Maude Rose, and a cousin, Oliver Chandler. Sadly, all have since died, and I don’t know of any other family members, although I’m sure there are still some there. My mother’s family was originally from Jamaica, and unfortunately, we never were able to find any relatives there. I’m sure there’s some; with ancestry.com maybe one day I’ll track them down. So, the grandparents, Grace Whitter Barton and Charles Barton, traveled to Panama, and it was interesting because my paternal grandfather went to Panama from Barbados to work on the canal, as did so many West Indians. But my maternal grandparents traveled there because my grandfather was working for someone who I guess had business there and there were some opportunities, so he migrated. My mother was born in New Providence, which is in Colón Province, and to get to and from Colón City, they would use a kayuka, a canoe, to go across Gatun Lake because it was quicker than taking the road, which was pretty wretched. Even in the 1970s, when I first visited Panama to meet my uncles, aunt and cousins, we took the bus up there and it was a rough ride. Bus service was kind of spotty and yes, it was kind of a difficult route. I hear since then it’s been much improved. Unfortunately, my uncle sold the family home, which backed onto the lake. It would have been nice to have kept it around for this time in our lives as a winter get-away spot. Q: It sure would, yes. What did your father do? JOHNSON: My father was a printer. And that’s also an interesting story because, let’s see, his father—my father was born in Silver City, which is a whole other story. Q: In Panama? JOHNSON: In Panama. Silver City was in the Canal Zone and it was the town where silver workers lived. Now, one thing that a lot of folks don’t always realize about the Canal Zone is that a lot of southerners worked there and were involved in running the Canal Zone, and so they brought some of their cultural practices there. There was a gold payroll and a silver payroll; the gold was for the engineers and doctors and professionals, and the silver payroll was for the laborers. But somehow it ended up being that there were silver water fountains and gold water fountains, silver bathrooms and gold bathrooms, and all this kind of thing, so there was a Silver City. And my father was only able to go as far as Silver City Junior High School because silver people weren’t allowed to go to Balboa High School; only gold people. But I digress. My father was born and lived in Silver City until age 13, when his father died. His father died while at work, and since it was a company town my grandmother and the family had to move into Colón City, which was also traumatic because in addition to losing his father he was told by the Panamanian government that he wasn’t a Panamanian citizen because he was born in Silver City, and of course, the Americans said, “well, you’re not an American citizen, you’re Barbadian”. The Barbadians said, “well, you weren’t born in Barbados so you’re not one of our citizens”. Apparently, he had to go through many gyrations before he got legal status and citizenship in Panama. Perhaps that’s why he did not return to Panama until I ended up being assigned there later on in the Foreign Service. It was probably 2 because of his memories of these difficulties. I mean, you’re 13-years-old and you lose your house and then all of a sudden, you’re told you don’t exist! Q: How did he end up in the United States? JOHNSON: His older brother, Samuel E. Farrell, migrated for education and then little by little each family member followed—he had an older sister, Olga Marcano, and his mother, Myrtle Seale Farrell, who one by one arrived in the U.S. And then there was my mother. I guess by then they were engaged, because they hadn’t gotten married yet. When he went up to the States she followed shortly thereafter and they actually got married in Ephesus Seventh-Day Adventist Church that is still an active congregation in Harlem (New York City). Q: Great. And that was- went to New York? JOHNSON: Yes, to New York. And apparently a lot of the West Indians who lived in Panama either settled in New York or Los Angeles because after World War II many of the job opportunities that had existed in Colón and in Panama disappeared. Since they were bilingual English speakers, it was easy for them to make their way up to the U.S. if they had worked for the United States Government or for the Canal Company in some way, shape or form. I’m assuming that made it a little easier. But back to your question: what did my father do? When he moved into Colón and was growing up, he got a job at “The Star and Herald,” which was the English language newspaper in Panama City, with a sister newspaper, “La Estrella de Panamá.” He worked there for a little while, but I think he got homesick for Colón so ended up going back to Colón and got a job working at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church’s Pacific Press. The church had a publishing house and printing operation down there. He learned that skill there, so when he came to New York he continued in that profession, getting work as a printer and he did that for many, many years. I used to go with him sometimes when he had to work on the weekend if they had a big job. The Green & Sisselman plant was located at 34 Hubert Street in Lower Manhattan. Today it’s condos, but back then it was right by the elevated West Side Highway. I remember going many a Sunday with him to keep him company and looking out the window and watching all these cars whiz by on the West Side Highway. A few years ago, when I was in New York visiting my sister Betty, just hanging out, I said let’s go see where Daddy’s old job used to be, and we could not believe how the whole neighborhood had changed. It was totally transformed. The elevated West Side Highway had been torn down and was at street level, and the old printing plant had become a fancy condo building. It had been beautifully renovated. And I was just like wow! Q: So, it kind of foreshadowed your career in public affairs, huh? JOHNSON: Oh, indeed, because when I ended up being assigned to Panama I was the press officer. When my dad came to visit me we went down to “La Estrella’s” offices; they were still publishing the English language paper at that time. So I said well, show 3 me where you used to work or where you used to hang out. And unbelievably, the same gentleman who used to sit with him at the door to one of the work areas was there on a break, and he looks up at my father and says, “Eh, how you doing, where you been?” And this is like after 30 years or something.