Personal information

• Birthplace: San Fernando Hospital, Panamá City, Panamá.  A difficult birth, or so they tell me.

• Parents: Nathaniel Méndez Goytía, merchant with a deep inclination towards mathematics, born in Cocle province (Panama), deceased in 1993; and Judith Anguizola, accountant, artist and literature lover (with Renaissance ancestors), born in  Chiriquí province (Panama).  To both of them, and specially to my mother, my eternal gratitude for their patience, support, and teachings.

• Birth date: November 30, 1952.  

• Civil status: happily married (second time), with a biological daughter from the first marriage and three raised children from the second.

• Citizenship: Panamanian (yet I consider myself citizen of the world).

• Race: Hispanic (mixture of European, Indian and black).

• Native language: Spanish.  I also speak English and read French.           

• Birth religion: Catholic (as most Latin-Americans).

• Current religion or ideology: humanist and deist (but an active and positive one).

• Height: 1.75 mts. 

• Weight: 190 lbs.  (despite the diet, hehehe).

Educational background

• Master of Business Administration (MBA); University of Oklahoma; Norman, Oklahoma, Estados Unidos. Graduated Junio of 1981. (Believe it or not, I am still paying for this one, hahaha.)

• I undertook independent studies in photography and took a photography correspondence course from the New York Institute of Photography in 1984, but unfortunately never finished it.

• I undertook theoretical and practical studies in several artistic techniques, mainly charcoal, pastel, acrylics and oils, independently and under the guidance of Panamanian painters such as Juan Manuel Cedeño (deceased), and Horacio Rivera, between years 1977 and 1978.

• I took a drawing and painting correspondence course with the Washington School of Art in 1976.  I did not finish it either.

• Art Bachelor, with a major in Economics; Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 13210, United States.  Graduation: December 1974.  Nice place, interesting cultural environment, but a weak academic curriculum in the area of social sciences and, above all, too cold in the winter time.

• While at Syracuse, I took up Karate, at the Central New York Karate School, Syracuse, New York, 1970-1973.  I got a good training, but also ended up with a broken rib, hahaha.

• I took an intensive English course at Saint Michael’s College, Winooski, Vermont, United States, March to July of 1970.

• Drawing course in the National School of Plastic Arts of Panama; graduated in 1969 under the guidance of prof. Adriano Herrerabarria.

• Correspondence drawing course, Continental Schools, sometime during the sixties.  Did not finish it.

• Grammar and Secondary School: Javier School (directed by Jesuit priests), Panama, R. de P. Graduated: December of 1969.

• Also: too many seminars and brief courses (data processing, web page design, management, parapsychology, etc.) to be listed here.

Professional Experience 

• Professor (“Titular” category) and researcher, Faculty of Economics, Panama’s National University, Panama, where I have laboured intermittently from 1980 to the present time. Courses taught: "Economic and financial statement analysis”; "Capital Investment Theory”; "Economic Policy"; "Basic Finance"; "Financial Budgeting";  "National Economic Problems"; "Banking, Credit and Finance"; "Applied Economics"; and "Panama’s Economy".

• Columnist, weekly column "Tus Finanzas", published on Saturdays in Panamanian newspaper El Panamá América, since November 2001 to date.

• Financial and managerial adviser, Tropi Export, 2003-2004.

• Financial and administrative manager, Tropi Especies.  This small company, which I own, devoted itself to rent heavy equipment and lumbering projects (both bad businesses from which I have withdrawn).  After a few failed experiments in the areas of fish, iguana, and dog breeding, it is devoted since year 2002 to the breeding and trading of alo versa, palm trees, cacti, and other medicinal and ornamental plants, combined with decorated clay pots.  Its main and only farm, where I also live, is located in Villa Zaita, in the outskirts of Panama City, Panama.

• Stock market analyst; RNM Investors, , from year 1998 to 2003.

• Manager and owner: Consorcio Carelly, Defensa S.A, and Tarpeya Holdings; these companies, which I inherited, devoted themselves to the rent and sale of luxury apartments in Panama.  Bad business, from which I got out, between 1994 and 2002.

• Editor and graphic designer, Pantek 2000, a small company which I owned.  It published Gaceta Economica, a monthly bulletin which analysed Panama’s economic situation, and which was published both in Spanish and English.  It went from 1987 to December 1997.  Initially called “Publicaciones Nacionales”, Pantek 2000 also designed web pages, and adviced on electronic commerce.  It ceased to exist in December 1997, not being profitable enough.

• Correspondent: Latin America Economy and Business (LAEB), London, England (November 1984 to 1993); Business Latin America, New York, United States (1987 to 1993); Gaceta Financiera, weekly tabloid tied to Panamanian newspaper La Prensa, and which dealt with Panama’s economic questions (1984 to 1987); and for the German news service PRELA (1986 to 1995).

• National Programming Officer, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Panama City, Panama, from 1982 to 1983.  This was a tragic-comic experience, which I describe in a (still inedit) satirical novel.

• Part-Time professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Santa Maria La Antigua University, Panama City, Panama.  Courses taught: “Budgeting” (1979-1980), and “Company Finances” (1980-1981).

• Social Security Institute’s, and then management’s, Comptroller, Tecnoquímica de Panamá, a small Panamanian company devoted to foodstuff production.  Date: March of 1980 to January of 1982. 

• Management and Economic Consultant, Consulting Services, Panama City, Panama, from June 1978 to March 1980.  This company, an affiliate to Buron & Associates, was dissolved in 1995.

• Management’s comptroller for Metales Preciosos de Panama, Panama City, Panama, from January 1977 to June 1978.  This company still exists, and is managed by my brother Raul.  It produces graduation rings and other jewelry.

Other technical abilities

• Translator, English to Spanish and viceversa.  I obtained an Official Public Translator licence on March 15, 1982.

• Computer graphics designer.  Programs: Word 2000, Excel 2000, Exporer 6 and Front Page 2000 for Windows 98.  Write Now, Quark-X-Press, Fireworks, GoLive, and others, for Macintosh.

• Art painter specialized in oils and the magic-realist style, and costumbrist themes.

• Photographer, both black and white and color.

Political and union membership

• I am not a member of any political party or religious organization.

• I am a founding member, beginning in 1997, of Panama’s Front for Sovereignty (FPS), and of the National Movement for the Defense of Sovereignty (MONADESO).  These are nationalist groups opposed to the existence of foreign military bases in Panama, and opposed to neo-liberalism.

• I am a member of the Association of Professors of Panama’s National University (APUDEP).

Publications and investigations

I have listed in separate pages my essays and some of my published articles.

Artistic production

My artistic production is also listed in a separate page.