In the crystalline waters of the Caribbean, far from the skyscrapers and traffic of Panamá City, is a tiny, 365-island archipelago known as Guna Yala, or the San Blas Islands. Today, around 50,000 Guna people are dispersed across 49 island communities there. An indigenous people from what is now Panamá and Colombia, the Guna live today much like they have for generations. Life is mostly spent outside, with only hammocks for sleeping beside palm frond–covered wooden homes. In Guna Yala, a politically independent territory, the whole community weighs in on…
