A Zonian is a person associated with the Panama Canal Zone, a political entity which existed between 1903 and the absorption of the Canal Zone into the Republic of Panama between 1980 and 2000. Many Zonians are descendants of the civilian American workers who came to the area during the early 1900s to work and maintain the canal. Today Zonians might work at the canal itself. Others may have been American citizens born in the Canal Zone or who spent their childhood there. A significant presence of American canal workers remained in the Canal region until 1999.
Many of these people consider themselves to be Panamanian and U.S. citizens, although quite a few say that they are only American or only Panamanian. This unique relation — physically near Panama yet citizens of the U.S. — makes Zonians a diasporic community, with members turning to online forums (such as the PANAMA-L listserv) to discuss and debate issues such as nationalism, belonging, and national identity.
The Panama Canal Society holds a reunion for Zonians every year, usually in Orlando, Florida.
It's frequently said by Zonians that drinking the water of the Chagres River (which supplied much of the drinking water for the area) dooms one to forever seek to return.