By: Lilyanna Zameska ’28
When Domingo Latorraca ’82 arrived at Pine Crest as a sophomore, he was a boarding student, affectionately known as a “dormie,” who did not know a word of English. Still, adapting to a new environment was something he had already learned to do. As a child, Domingo, who was born in Panama, lived in several Latin American countries, including Costa Rica, El Salvador and Venezuela, where he experienced not only cultural change but also political instability.
The transition from Latin America to the United States was daunting. He was entering a new school, learning a new language and living far from family. Yet amid that uncertainty, Domingo found more than an education. He found a community.
One of the people who most shaped his early experience was his English teacher, Mrs. Ann Burr, who took extra time to help him learn the basics of the language through reading and literature. “She played such an important role in helping me integrate into American society,” Domingo said. Her support became one of his clearest memories from those early years and one of the first signs that Pine Crest would become a place of belonging.
Domingo also found connection through athletics. As a student-athlete, he played soccer and trained with the swim team, experiences that taught him discipline, endurance and the value of hard work. He remembers the long days clearly: early mornings, classes, homework and afternoons back on campus for practice. Those routines shaped more than his schedule. They helped build the resilience he would carry with him long after graduation.
After Pine Crest, Domingo began studying industrial engineering, first as a pre-engineering student at a small college in Lakeland, Florida, before transferring to Texas Tech University. The move from the close-knit Pine Crest community to a much larger, state university was another adjustment, but it prepared him for the demands of an engineering education and the wide range of work that would follow. Looking back, he still sees those years as foundational.
Upon completing his bachelor's and master’s degrees, Domingo took a position with the Panama Canal Commission, the US Federal Agency in charge of operating the waterway until 1999. His relationship with the Panama Canal would unfold in what he describes as chapters. The first chapter began when he returned to Panama in his early 20s and took a job with the Panama Canal Commission. He boarded ships, inspected vessels and helped issue tonnage certificates, the document used to calculate what ships would pay to pass through the canal. The work was technical, demanding and at times dangerous, requiring him to board ships at all hours, including in the middle of the night, as the Panama Canal operates 24/7.
But Domingo’s early career coincided with one of the most difficult periods in Panama’s history. “During the final years of the country’s military dictatorship, because of the tension between the military dictatorship and the U.S. Government, workers of the Panama Canal were often harassed by the dictatorship,” said Domingo. “In general, the Panamanian population that opposed the military dictatorship was often harassed, jailed and tortured, and sometimes exiled.” It was in this context that Domingo decided to return to the United States to pursue his doctoral studies at Texas Tech University.
That decision changed the course of his life. His doctoral research focused on the Panama Canal itself, specifically the application of mathematical models to schedule ships through one of the world’s most important waterways. What had begun as a painful interruption became an unexpected opening. “Today, I am grateful for those dark days,” Domingo said. “I am very grateful for the strength that I have been given to turn something so dark into something so fantastic for the rest of my life.”
When democracy was restored in Panama, Domingo returned where he began the second chapter of his work with the Panama Canal. Over the years, he continued his relationship with the Canal through consulting work, including contributing in a small way to the canal’s expansion project, which added a new set of larger locks and dramatically increased its capacity, and assisting the Panama Canal Authority in defining the post expansion strategy.
In 2025, Domingo’s third and current chapter of his work on the Canal began. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Panama Canal Authority, a nine-year appointment he describes as one of the great honors and responsibilities of his life. Today, Domingo helps oversee an operation that handles roughly 14,000 vessels each year and supports about six percent of global maritime trade. The canal is not only a crucial route for cargo moving between continents. It also plays a vital role within Panama itself, because the freshwater system that supports canal operations also provides fresh water for approximately 2 million people, roughly 45% of Panama’s population.
That scale is never far from his mind. The work sits at the intersection of engineering, economics and international relations, requiring strategic thinking, technical knowledge and a steady understanding of the Canal’s global importance. For Domingo, it is both a professional responsibility and a deeply personal one. “It’s a huge, huge, huge responsibility,” he said, reflecting on the journey that brought him there.
For the boarding student who arrived at Pine Crest without English, it is also a powerful reminder of how far perseverance can take a person. When he speaks to students now, Domingo returns often to the same idea: life is a marathon. Engineering, he says, is not a short sprint but a long and demanding race that requires patience, discipline and the willingness to keep going when things become difficult. That mindset helped carry him from Pine Crest to Texas Tech, from political uncertainty to professional purpose, and ultimately to one of the most important leadership roles in Panama.
His story is about much more than career success. It is about adaptation, resilience and the people who help guide us along the way. From Mrs. Ann Burr’s classroom to the boardroom of the Panama Canal Authority, Domingo’s path reflects the power of education, persistence and the courage to keep moving forward.