Representations of Power in the Panamanian Literature of Roberto Díaz Herrera, Rose Marie Tapia and Mauro Zúñiga Araúz
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Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2014 Subjugated Bodies, Normalized Subjects: Representations Of Power In The aP namanian Literature Of Roberto Díaz Herrera, Rose Marie Tapia And Mauro Zúñiga Araúz Sara Escobar-Wiercinski Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the Latin American Literature Commons, Latin American Studies Commons, and the Modern Languages Commons Recommended Citation Escobar-Wiercinski, Sara, "Subjugated Bodies, Normalized Subjects: Representations Of Power In The aP namanian Literature Of Roberto Díaz Herrera, Rose Marie Tapia And Mauro Zúñiga Araúz" (2014). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 1069. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. SUBJUGATED BODIES, NORMALIZED SUBJECTS: REPRESENTATIONS OF POWER IN THE PANAMANIAN LITERATURE OF ROBERTO DÍAZ HERRERA, ROSE MARIE TAPIA AND MAURO ZÚÑIGA ARAÚZ by SARA ESCOBAR-WIERCINSKI DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2014 MAJOR: MODERN LANGUAGES (Spanish) Approved by: __________________________________________ Advisor Date __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ ©COPYRIGHT BY SARA ESCOBAR-WIERCINSKI 2014 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION In loving memory of my dad, Deusdedith Fernando Escobar R. (1931-1997) and of my only son, Luis Fernando Acosta Escobar (1987-2007) ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Completing this Ph.D. has been an incredible journey assisted and encouraged by so many people. First and foremost I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Professor Víctor Figueroa. His prompt, insightful feedback and suggestions during the preparation of my thesis guided and motivated me tremendously, not only for the clarity of my arguments but also for the continuous writing. My gratitude is extended as well to the members of my committee: Professors Leisa Kaufmann, Hernán García and Jorge Luis Chinea for the time and interest they put forth in reading my work, followed by insightful suggestions and important recommendations. I would also like to thank Professor Michael Giordano, Director of Graduate Studies, for being the cornerstone of this venture. Since day one, when I dared to dream, and met with him full of doubts, he believed in me, reassured me, and put my mind at ease. My gratitude goes also to every professor who taught me at Wayne State University. They instilled in me great knowledge and understanding of the literary and linguistic world; essential facts that tremendously helped my research and analysis. Also thanks to the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literature, and Cultures for providing me with a Graduate Teaching Assistantship that greatly helped with this process. A special thanks to those who helped proofread my dissertation and/or provided helpful advice, including my friends Eileen Finn, Doris Gaspar, Dr. Martin Marger, and my loving daughter Sarah Acosta-Guyotot. Finally, I also wish to express my huge gratitude, love, and appreciation to my husband, Andrew Wiercinski, for his love, patience, and support during the years of my doctoral work, and to my dear mother, Arsenia Sánchez, for her love, encouragements, and continued prayers. Both of them have kept me strong and able to accomplish this important academic goal during the most difficult and sad years of my life. iii PREFACE Panamanian literature has received limited attention within academic circles in the United States and Canada, and when Panama comes up in scholarly and popular discussions, it is often in relation to its inter-oceanic canal. However, in the second half of the twentieth century there have been important Panamanian writers who deserve to be better known, both because of the quality of their writing and because of the important problems and questions that their texts pose to contemporary readers. In the works of these writers, Panama is much more than a canal; their literatures examine important questions concerning authoritarianism (usually in connection to the dictatorship of Manuel Antonio Noriega). In addition to the severe inequalities, exclusions, and subtle forms of domination that pervade ostensibly democratic societies (in Panama, the post- Noriega period after 1989) which are subordinated to the often implacable forces of globalized capitalism. It is the literary production of an important group of those writers—Roberto Díaz Herrera, Rose Marie Tapia and Mauro Zúñiga Araúz—that I studied in my dissertation. In addition to shedding light on the literature of a country that is often ignored in contemporary Latin American Studies, my analysis will show how these writers are confronting social and political problems and questions that remain vitally important not only in Panama, but also throughout Latin American, and beyond. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication........................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………................iii Preface............................................................................................................................................iv Chapter I. Introduction: Representations of Power, Subjugation and Normalization ……….1 in the Works of Roberto Díaz Herrera, Rose Marie Tapia and Mauro Zúñiga Araúz. I.1 The Context of Panamanian History and Panamanian Literature…………………3 I.2 Summary of Chapters and Methodology……..………………………….............17 I.3 Overview of the Life and Works of the Three Panamanian Authors……............23 Chapter II. Discourse of Power in Reality and Fiction: The Panamanian Dictatorial............37 Era. In Roberto Díaz Herrera’s Estrellas clandestinas, and Mauro Zúñiga Aráuz’s El chacal del general. II.1 Estrellas clandestinas: Testimonial Account of Roberto Díaz ………….... ……39 Herrera. II.2 El chacal del general: Fiction and Reality in Mauro Zúñiga Araúz……………..65 II.3 Three Points of Contact and Divergence in the Two Narratives...........................92 Chapter III. Subjugation and Normalization in Manifestations of Violence, ……………….101 Inequality and Poverty (V.I.P.) in Rose Marie Tapia’s Roberto por el buen camino. Chapter IV. Power and Subjugation in Mauro Zúñiga Araúz’s Espejo de Miserias:.............134 A Social Novel about Poverty, Abuse, and Prostitution. Chapter V. Power and Subjugation through Contemporary Addictions: Gambling..............184 and Shopping in Rose Marie Tapia’s Mujeres en fuga. Conclusion………………………………………………………………...................................215 Appendix A Entrevista a Roberto Díaz Herrera………………………………………….........224 Appendix B Entrevista a Rose Marie Tapia……………………………………………….......246 Appendix C Entrevista a Mauro Zúñiga Araúz…………………………………......................259 v Endnotes…………………………………………………………………………................. …..270 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………….....................277 Abstract……………………………………………………………………………....................292 Autobiographical Statement…..……………….........................................................................294 vi 1 CHAPTER I Representations of Power, Subjugation and Normalization in the Works of Roberto Díaz Herrera, Rose Marie Tapia and Mauro Zúñiga Araúz But in thinking of the mechanism of power, I am thinking rather of its capillary form of existence, the point where power reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives. —Michel Foucault. INTRODUCTION This dissertation examines the dissemination of the exercise of power represented in the literary works of contemporary Panamanian writers: Roberto Díaz Herrera (1938- ), Rose Marie Tapia (1947- ) and Mauro Zúñiga Araúz (1943- ). These writers have written novels and testimonial narratives to expose and denounce important issues that have negatively affected Panamanian society in two important historical moments of transition. These two periods, when the operation and diffusion of power and subjugation in Panamanian society shifted, are: The military dictatorial era of General Manuel Antonio Noriega (1983-1989) in which the repressive apparatus of a dictatorial state exercised direct and violent control over the population; and the post-dictatorial era (1990-) in which power operates in the Foucauldian manner, in a subtle way, through institutions, mechanisms of civil society, and globalization with its consistent manipulation through the global market, but with similar repressive effects, affecting and controlling minds, bodies and behaviors. The works of these Panamanian figures scrutinize an era of abuse of power, corruptions, violence, abductions, and assassinations by the Panamanian dictator; and additionally, their narratives examine social problems and socio-political and economics matters in the Panamanian nation. These problems mainly affect the lives of those living in the margins of society, particularly children, youth and women. For example, political repression, out of control violence, inequality, and poverty affects marginalized young offenders. Globalization, the