Greater Caribbean Representations: History and Fiction in Three Stories from Vienen de Panamá by Rafael Ruiloba

Abstract

The idea, representation and imaginaries of Greater Caribbean continue to feed on history, politics, economics, geography and even literature. Complex, multicultural and polyphonic fractal in constant transformation, the “origin” of the Caribbean Panama usually dates to the 15th century with the New World’s found and conquest. Housed in Vienen de Panamá (1991) by the Panamanian writer, academic and researcher Rafael Ruiloba, “Donde se fabla de las maravillas destas tierras nombradas Panamá”, “La anunciación del Cristo negro” y “Vienen de Panamá”, recreate from parody letters, chronicles, relationships, reports, testimonies and memories about the discovery, conquest, and colonization of the so-called Province of Tierra Firme. This essay discusses a postcolonial reading of these three short stories as historiographic metafictions, where literary genres and subgenres such as historical texts from Indian Archives and writings of the self are dismantled and rearticulated.