Publisher's Synopsis
To date, there has been no literary examination of the Colón Man even though he recurs in 19th and 20th century Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean Literatures. Named for Panamá's Caribbean port city, the Colón Man has been the subject of historical, sociological, and geographical scholarship. He, however, has escaped the domain of literary investigation until now. Author Rhonda Frederick brings us the first ever book-length study of the literary representations of the Colón Man. Fictive accounts of Panamá migration draw on precisely what has been little documented or not at all. In other words, this region's literature and songs, as well as Colón Men's recollections, complicate existing studies. These first person accounts and creative narratives-in the form of song, stories, literature, etc.-of isthmian migration suggest that fictive renditions of canal work and workers represent Colón Men's undocumented, unknown, and/or ignored realities. "Colón Man a Come:" Mythographies of Panamá Canal Migration examines several works of fiction: George Lamming's In the Castle of My Skin, Michael Thelwell's The Harder They Come, Eric Walrond's Tropic Death, Claude McKay's Banana Bottom and Maryse Conde's Tree of Life. And, perhaps most significantly, this book relies on the personal narratives and songs of Colón Men to support the forgotten, lost, ignored and yet imaginable truths of Panamá Canal migration.
