The Panamanian Village Where Kids Are Named After Dictators

Hitler on a visit to Washington, DC

Hitler Cigarruista is the director of the Capital, Panama's largest financial newspaper. He's also, you'll notice, named Hitler, which is partly because he was born in the village of La Villa de Los Santos, where parents are fond of naming their children after brutal, murderous dictators.

Names like Caesar Augustus and Julius Caesar used to be popular, but somewhere along the way the ancient historical figures gave way to more recent warmongers and strongmen, and people began naming their kids Hitler, Lenin, Fidel, and Stalin.

I visited Hitler in his office to talk about the naming tradition in his hometown.

VICE: How did this naming tradition begin in your village?
Hitler Cigarruista: I really don’t know. The tradition used to be naming people after the saint whose day it was on the day they were born. So I think the idea was that, by being named after such great people, somehow you could also inherit their qualities and be successful. I guess it was also about showing one’s political or ideological affiliations.

There is a certain amount of racism in Los Santos—despite the African origin of many of our traditions and folk dances—and it's expressed through names like Hitler. My best friend’s father, for example, who was a member of the Communist Party, named his youngest daughter Lenia [Lenin], and we even dated! Our relationship didn't succeed, but we’re good friends today.

Hitler with some bananas

How has being named Hitler affected your life?
Being named Hitler hasn't been easy. Everyone who meets me for the first time says the same thing: "I hope you’re not as bad as the German Hitler!"

I don’t recall having any problems as a kid. People joked about it or criticized my father, but I wasn’t aware of it until I turned eight and was baptized. The priest refused to name me Hitler and demanded that a Christian name be used. Since my father didn’t accept that, the priest chose the name José, so my baptismal name is José Hitler Cigarruista.

In secondary school, my main extracurricular activity was sports—I did gymnastics and became the national champion in the children’s category, junior national coach, and head national coach. Names weren't important in that world. But my father’s ideological views became obvious when I was granted a sports scholarship to practice gymnastics in Cuba and he rejected it, arguing that if I traveled to Cuba, I could end up becoming a communist.

So your father was a fascist?
My father always said that he chose that name to show people there could be someone named Hitler who was a good person. I often heard him say the world would have been a better place if the Germans had won the war, since there would be “order and discipline.”

Trouble began for me when I became interested in politics. I studied at Panama’s National Institute, a.k.a. “the Eagle’s Nest” [a reference to Hitler’s refuge in the Alps], because of its permanent struggle to regain national sovereignty. As a response to that, I joined a radical leftist political student organization. My education and thinking evolved quickly and I soon became a leader. The organization was called Movimiento Estudiantil Revolucionario (Revolutionary Student Movement).

You mentioned that most digital platforms won’t let you use your real name. Have you ever tried to submit a complaint about that, or have you just given up?
On Google, for example, I can’t write my real name, so I have to use José or Carlos, which are the ones I normally use to introduce myself. The newspaper I direct, though, features my real name—Hitler Cigarruista.

There are some more people from your village named Hitler, and others named Stalin. Do they ever fight like their namesakes did?
They’re the closest of friends. There’s no conflict between Coca-Cola and Pepsi or Nero and Caligula in La Villa de Los Santos—everyone gets along.

Are people aware of their names? Or do they just assume it's normal?
People are aware of their names but nowadays also assume it's normal. They don’t really worry or feel ashamed about it.