The Water as a creation myth in Ramón Pané's Relationship

Abstract

Fray Ramón Pané wrote the first American text, the first account of the new lands, on Christopher Columbus's second voyage, to what was then called Hispaniola, in Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic. This chronicler of the Indies traveled with the admiral, who entrusted him with documenting as much as possible. His work is entitled: Account of the Antiquities of the Indians (1498). In this regard, I am interested in analyzing and interpreting creation myths related to the vital liquid: water. For example, one of these corresponds to the great universal flood, and through mythology, I can explore and ponder the anthropological, ethnographic, and archaeological references indicated in the narrative, since, as the first written text, it is essential. The origin myth narrated in the work corresponds to the breaking of a gourd that floods the world and from which we come; we are children of water. The theory and methodology to be implemented will be based on the "iconographic reading" proposed by the master Rubén Bonifaz Nuño, which is applied through images, symbols that form sets to be deciphered and interpreted. Complemented by a decolonial stance that focuses on and critiques the exploitation and destruction of natural and human resources, I rely on authors such as José Martí and "Our America," Edmundo O'Gorman and his studies of chroniclers of the West Indies, Juan Bosch with "The Caribbean, Imperial Frontier," Germán Arciniegas with "Biography of the Caribbean," and Eduardo Galeano with "Gold Rush, Silver Rush." ​​