303: Navigating Anti-Blackness in Panama, Centering Marginalized Stories, and Co-Founding "AfroLatinx Travel" with Javier Wallace

303: Navigating Anti-Blackness in Panama, Centering Marginalized Stories, and Co-Founding "AfroLatinx Travel" with Javier Wallace

Author: Matt Bowles: Full-Time World Traveler Since 2013 September 23, 2024 Duration: 58:01
Hear Javier’s stories of navigating his intersectional Afro-Panamanian-American experience in both the U.S. and Panama. ============================ Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds. ============================ ON THIS EPISODE Dr. Javier Wallace starts off talking about his mother’s family history in Texas and his father’s family history in Panama before migrating to the U.S. He shares his reflections on growing up in a bi-cultural home, playing football in Texas, attending Florida A&M University as a student athlete, then getting his Master’s Degree and pursuing a career in sports. Javier then discusses his decision to move to Panama and live there for 6 years. He opens up about his encounters with anti-Blackness in Panama, including violent experiences with law enforcement, his realizations about the power of passport privilege, and how all of that impacted his identity. Javier then talks about co-founding “Afro-Latinx Travel” and developing tours in Panama, Cuba, Costa Rica and Colombia that disrupt traditional tourism narratives, center marginalized stories, and benefit the local communities. ⁠ ⁠ → Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here. ============================ FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU: See my Top 10 Apps For Digital Nomads See my Top 10 Books For Digital Nomads See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual) Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use) ============================ ENJOYING THE SHOW? Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally You can buy me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes! :)

There’s a certain texture to life lived in motion, a collection of stories that emerge not from postcards but from the messy, beautiful reality of planting roots in foreign soil. The Maverick Show: Global Travel Stories & Life Beyond Borders captures that essence through long-form conversations hosted by Matt Bowles, who has been navigating the world full-time since 2013. This isn't a guidebook podcast; it’s a series of intimate dialogues, often unfolding casually over a shared bottle of wine, where the destination is understanding. You’ll hear from a diverse range of voices-expats, digital nomads, women forging paths abroad, and diaspora storytellers-each sharing the raw, unfiltered nuances of what happens when you cross borders for good. The focus is on the human narrative beneath the itinerary: the cultural misunderstandings that become breakthroughs, the loneliness and liberation, and the profound ways a global life reshapes identity. Listening feels like pulling up a chair at a cafe somewhere in the world, eavesdropping on a conversation that’s equally about internal discovery as it is about geographic change. Matt’s own experience as a long-term traveler informs these discussions, steering them toward the substantive lessons learned far from home. If you’ve ever wondered about the true weight and wonder of building a life between cultures, this podcast offers a genuine, thoughtful window into that journey.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The Maverick Show: Global Travel Stories & Life Beyond Borders
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