Panama Literature

The literature of Panama includes the set of literary works produced in Panama. Rodrigo Miró (1912-1996), Panamanian historian and essayist, cites Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés as the author of the first short story written in Panama; the story of a character known as Andrea de la Roca, published as part of the "General and Natural History of the Indies" (1535). However, the first Panamanian literary manifestations, properly speaking, of which there is evidence, occur in the first half of the XVII century with the appearance of the anthology entitled "Crying of Panama to the death of Enrique Enríquez". Although this work was composed during Colonial times, most of the poems grouped in it were written by authors born in Panama.

Despite this, it was not until the middle of the XIX century that there was a greater participation of Panamanian authors, and where the foundations of literary production were laid up to the present.

Poetry

During Colony

Rodrigo Miró in his Itinerary of Poetry in Panama, mentions several Spanish authors in this period: Mateo Rosas de Oquendo, author of an autobiographical romance; Juan de Miramontes y Zuázola, author of “Armas Antárticas”; to Juan de Páramo y Cepeda, author of “Alteraciones del Dariel” among others. In addition, it is in this period that the figure of Víctor de la Guardia y Ayala arose, author of the play "La Política del Mundo" that was released in 1809. The importance of the latter lies in having been born in Panama unlike the others that do come from Spain and, for this fact, he was considered, for some time, as the "first Panamanian poet" (belonging to the second neoclassical generation).

However, the discovery of some manuscripts from the 17th century has led to a revision of this idea, since the The first reference from this period, which indicates a production written by Panamanian authors (that is, those born in Panama), dates from the year 1638 and is an anthology called "Llanto de Panamá a la muerte de Don Enrique Enríquez", which brings together a set of written poetic compositions (elegies) for the death of Enrique Enríquez, Governor of Panama. This anthology, which was published for the first time in Madrid in the year 1642, was composed by Mateo de Ribera (Panamanian), who also composed several of the poems included in it. “Llanto de Panamá” groups, in turn, some compositions by various Spanish authors, although the majority belong to Panamanian writers.

The discovery and preliminary study of these writings was carried out by the Spanish diplomat Antonio Serrano de Haro, and a new version of them was published in 1984 in a joint effort between the University of Panama and the Institute of Hispanic Culture. This discovery confirms the fact that the first Panamanian literary manifestations, found so far, come from the XVII century.

Romanticism

In Panama, as in the rest of Latin America, Romanticism was closely linked to liberal and nationalist ideals, which is why literary productions revolve (in this period) around these topics.

Among the first Panamanian romantic poets were Manuel María Ayala (1785-1824) and Tomás Miró Rubini (1800-1881). Later, José María Alemán (1830-1887), Gil Colunje (1831-1899), Tomás Martín Feuillet (1832-1862), José Dolores Urriola (1834-1883), Amelia Denis de Icaza (1836-1911), Manuel José Pérez (1837-1895), Jerónimo Ossa (1847-1907), Federico Escobar (1861-1912) and Rodolfo Caicedo (1868-1905).

In short, it is with the romantic generations that the cultivation of poetry was formally established in Panama, and since then it acquired a markedly nationalist character that will be the predominant theme in poetic compositions until the middle of the century XX with the arrival of avant-garde poetry in Panama.

Modernism

The Isthmus of Panama also became one of the scenes of the War of the Thousand Days (1899 - 1902), which devastated Colombia, and which was one of the causes of the separation of Colombia in 1903. This fact It occurs at the time of the peak of Modernism in Hispanic letters.

In this period, the language of Panamanian poetry was enriched and endowed with new forms of expression typical of modern poetry. This language used by modern poets is more select, cultivated, elegant and aesthetic. In the same way, in the fullness of the movement, the various authors tried to integrate other disciplines such as music, painting, ballet, etc. to poetry. As in the rest of the countries influenced by Modernism, the following characteristics can be mentioned: Poetry has cultural universalism, incorporates the oriental and returns to classical and medieval themes.

The first modernist was Darío Herrera (1870-1914), a friend and follower of Rubén Darío, whom he met in Buenos Aires. Also Nicole Garay (1873-1918). Another important poet was León Antonio Soto (1874-1902), who died prematurely from the torture to which the gendarmerie subjected him for having defended the Panamanian cause in the War of a Thousand Days.

Two literary magazines dealt mainly with the dissemination of the modernist movement: El Heraldo del Istmo (1904-1906), directed by Guillermo Andreve (1879-1940), and Nuevos Ritos (1907), whose founder was Ricardo Miró (1883-1940). The latter is perhaps the most prominent poet of Panamanian modernism.

At this time Gaspar Octavio Hernández (1893-1918), author of Melodías del pasado (1915) and The amethyst cup (1923), also developed his work. Other prominent poets of the same generation were María Olimpia de Obaldía (1891-1985) and Demetrio Korsi (1899-1957), although the latter later leaned towards avant-garde poetry.

From the avant-garde to the present time

Starting in 1930, coinciding with the youth revolution of "Acción Comunal", a new generation of poets, grouped around the magazine Antena, distanced themselves from rhetoric modernist and approached the avant-garde, although it was not well received from the beginning by the general public. In addition, in the first generations that correspond to the avant-garde moment there is a very particular phenomenon: many of the authors did not cultivate the style of avant-garde poetry and chose to remain faithful to the paradigm established by modern poetry. The main reference of this transformation was Rogelio Sinán (Taboga, 1902 - Panama, 1994), an author who had traveled through Europe and frequented the surrealists in Paris. In Onda (1929), the first book of Panamanian avant-garde poetry, Sinán shows the influence of pure poetry; Other important works of his are Incendios (1944) and Holy Week in the Fog (1949), in which his recourse to dreams shows his surrealist affiliation.

There is also surrealism in the work of Ricardo J. Bermúdez (1914), whose main work is Laurel de cenizas (1951). Also in the orbit of the avant-garde is the work of Demetrio Herrera Sevillano (1902-1950), greatly influenced by ultraism, who in his last period abandoned experimentation to settle on a popular poetry and denunciation, not exempt from aesthetic achievements..

From the same period as Bermúdez, it is necessary to highlight Antonio Isaza (1910) whose style is very reminiscent of that developed by Tremendismo. In his only published work, Thirst (1935), his poetry revolves around the themes of being, life, death and time.

Another poet from this period is the storyteller and journalist Mario Augusto Rodríguez (1917-2009), who published in 1957 his collection of poems Canto de amor para la patria novia in which he makes a poetic relationship of the history of the Panamanian nation.

Other prominent poets of this stage are Esther María Osses (1914-1990), Stella Sierra (1917-1997), Roque Javier Laurenza (1910-1984), Ofelia Hooper (1905-1981), Tobías Díaz Blaitry (1919 -2006), Tristán Solarte (1934-2019), José de Jesús Martínez (1929-1991), Diana Morán (1932-1987), Álvaro Menéndez Franco (1932), José Guillermo Ross-Zanet (1930-2018), José Franco (1931-2022), and Elsie Alvarado de Ricord (1928-2005).

Among the poets of the next generation, it is worth mentioning, among many others, Pedro Rivera Ortega (1939), Benjamín Ramón (1939), Bertalicia Peralta (1939), Ramón Oviero (1939-2008), Moravia Ochoa López (1939), Dimas Lidio Pitty (1941-2015), Roberto Fernández Iglesias (1941-2019), Juan Dal Vera (1958-2002), Mireya Hernández (1942-2006), Enrique Jaramillo Levi (1944), Jarl Ricardo Babot (1945), Giovanna Benedetti (1950), Manuel Orestes Nieto (1951), Luz Lescure (1951), Viviane Nathan (1953), Moisés Pascual (1955), Pedro Correa Vásquez (1955-1995), Consuelo Tomás (1957), Moisés Pinzón Martínez (1958), Héctor M. Collado (1960), Pablo Menacho (1960), David C. Robinson O. (1960), Martín Testa Garibaldo (1962), and Genaro Villalaz García (Panama, 1967), among others.

At the end of the XX century, a new generation of poets emerged, beginning to publish after 1990. Among them, For the awards received and published works, mention should be made of Magdalena Camargo Lemieszek (Sczcecin, 1987), Javier Romero Hernández (Chorrera, 1983), Sofía Santim (Panama, 1982), Javier Alvarado (Santiago de Veraguas, 1982), Salvador Medina Barahona (Mariabé de Pedasí, 1973), Eyra Harbar Gómez (Bocas del Toro, 1972), Lucy Chau (Panama, 1971), Porfirio Salazar (Penonomé, 1970), Katia Chiari (Panama, 1969), Lil María Herrera (Panama, 1965).

Narrative

Modernism and the first Panamanian books

It can be said that the short story genre in Panama formally began in 1903, when Darío Herrera (1870-1914) published the first book of short stories by a Panamanian author, Far away Hours, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Along with Dario Herrera, almost all the modernist and postmodernist poets of the late XIX century and early XX. Among them, Salomón Ponce Aguilera (1868-1945), Guillermo Andreve, Gaspar Octavio Hernández (1883-1940) and Ricardo Miró (1883-1940) stand out, whose short stories, scattered and much of them unpublished, were collected and commented on by the writer Mario Augusto Rodríguez in 1956. Also, at the same time, we must mention the authors José María Núñez (1894-1990), Moisés Castillo (1899-1974), who as a prose writer dedicated himself mainly to costumbrismo (School festivals, 1937), in addition to cultivating popular poetry, in works such as Romances de mi tierra (1939), and Gil Blas Tejeira (1901-1975).

The peasant and canal theme in the narrative

In the next generation, it is worth mentioning Rogelio Sinán (1902-1994), author of the novel Plenilunio and the short story collections A la orilla de las estatuas maduras (1946), The red beret and five stories (1954), Tales of Rogelio Sinán (1971) and The candelabra of the evil snakes (1982). They also belong to the same Lucas Bárcenas (1906-1992), César Candanedo (1906-1993), Renato Ozores (1910-2001), Ricardo Bermúdez (1914-2000), Mario Augusto Rodríguez (Santiago de Veraguas, 1917 - Panama, 2009), author of Campo Adentro (1947), Luna en Veraguas (1948) and Los outrajados (1994), Alfredo Cantón (1910-1967), José María Sánchez (1918-1973), Ramón H. Jurado (1922-1978), Joaquín Beleño (1921-1988), Carlos Francisco Changmarín (1922-2013), Jorge Turner (1922-2011), Tristán Solarte (1924 -2019) and José Guillermo Ros-Zanet (1928-2018). In this generation, it should be noted that its authors cultivated nationalist themes, either from the point of view of the cities at both ends of the Panama Canal and their relationship with the Canal Zone, or from the peasant and inland point of view. from the country.

Universal themes

The generation that follows is that of authors born after the 1930s. This generation stands out for having abandoned criollismo as the theme of their narratives and approaching literary creation with universal themes and, in some cases, giving relevance to the dreamlike, fantasy and essays. Among them, mention should be made of Ernesto Endara (1932), Álvaro Menéndez Franco (1932), Enrique Chuez (1934), Justo Arroyo (1936), Victoria Jiménez Vélez (1937-2018), José Córdova (writer) (1937), Pedro Rivera Ortega (1939), Benjamín Ramón (1939), Gloria Guardia (1940-2019), Dimas Lidio Pitty (1941-2015), Moravia Ochoa López (1939), Mireya Hernández (1942-2006), Enrique Jaramillo Levi (1944), Raúl Leis (1947-2011), Giovanna Benedetti (1949), Edgar Soberón Torchia (1951), Rey Barría (1951), Ramón Fonseca Mora (1952), Herasto Reyes (1952-2005), Claudio de Castro (1957), Consuelo Tomás (1957), Yolanda Hackshaw (1958), Allen Patiño (1959), Ariel Barría Alvarado (1959-2021), Héctor Collado (1960), David C. Robinson O. (1960), Katia Malo (1961), Erika Harris (1963) and Rogelio Guerra Avila (1963).

The narrative of the 21st century

Publishing for the first time between 1996 and 2011, the most recent generation of Panamanian storytellers emerged, among whom should be mentioned Carlos Fong (1967), Carlos Oriel Wynter Melo (1971), Javier Stanziola (1971), José Luis Rodríguez Pittí (1971), Melanie Taylor (1972), Lilian Guevara (1974), Roberto Pérez-Franco (1976) and Annabel Miguelena (1984). This generation is characterized by the cultivation of short fiction, with poetic language and full of imagination, but with a human theme, in which the individual stands out above a chaotic environment, generally urban.