Sex and Standing in the Streets of Port Limón, Costa Rica
1890 - 1935
Lara Elizabeth Putnam
University of Michigan
magnolia@sol.racsa.co.cr
Prepared for delivery at the 1998 meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, The
Palmer House Hilton Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, September 24-26, 1998
A certain woman call me a one pant man
I shouldn't be in society
callin' myself a calipsonian
but she say she goin' to run me out the country
Me no no breda me no no
what I done this wicked woman
I only sing me sweet calipso
She say she goin' to run me out of the land
She went and call the police on me
tellin' them I'm running contraband
when the government came down and see
they glad was to leave the calipsonian
She went and call the authority
tellin' them I'm a forgeigner
they came with soldiers and artillery
compelling me to show them me cedula
—Calypso lyrics by Mister Walter Gavitt Ferguson,
Limonese composer
