Octavio Méndez Pereira and panamanian foundational fiction

Utilizing Sommer’s concept of foundational fictions, this essay analyzes Octavio Méndez Pereira’s novel Nuñez de Balboa (1934). The article argues that the novel became a vehicle of Panamanian nationalism, presenting the isthmus as an Hispanic, mestizo nation and as a country without ties to the Afr...

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Autor principal: Peter Szok
Formato: Artículo científico
Publicado: Universidad de Quintana Roo 2002
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Acceso en línea:http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=12871404
http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=mx/mx-012&d=12871404oai
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Sumario:Utilizing Sommer’s concept of foundational fictions, this essay analyzes Octavio Méndez Pereira’s novel Nuñez de Balboa (1934). The article argues that the novel became a vehicle of Panamanian nationalism, presenting the isthmus as an Hispanic, mestizo nation and as a country without ties to the Afro-Caribbean world. This vision arises principally from the book’s main characters, Balboa and the indigenous princess Anayansi. Their romance projects the idea of a homogenous nation, contrasting sharply with the tumult of early twentieth-century, including the immigration of thousands of West Indians. Nuñez de Balboa illustrates the cultural strategies of Panama’s elite and its desire to control the process of modernization.