A thoughtful reappraisal of Joaquín Beleño’s 1963 novel Curundú, recently reissued by Editorial Descarriada, argues that the Panamanian classic deserves to be read as universal literature rather than merely as a footnote to anti-imperialist political narratives. The reflection, published by La Prensa, suggests that decades of politically framed interpretation have obscured the novel’s genuine literary achievement.
What Happened
The essay’s author came to a fresh appreciation of Curundú thanks to a new edition released by Editorial Descarriada, under V. A. Mojica. Reading the novel outside the lens through which it has long been presented, the writer found a profound exploration of the human condition, one that avoids easy political proselytizing and instead portrays its characters — Canal Zone officials, privileged Panamanians employed in the Zone, and workers from the capital and the interior — with realism and nuance.
The novel’s protagonist, Rubén Galván, is a sixteen-year-old who takes the lowest rung of laborer jobs during the construction of Fort Clayton’s facilities. Politics matters little to him; he is more interested in resembling a Hollywood leading man and, if possible, winning an American girlfriend. Around him, Beleño assembles a cast that embodies the many faces of a Panama split in two by the Canal Zone: Fulo Alejandro, a young bourgeois employee on the Zone’s gold roll whose life unravels when his American wife leaves him, and Rubén’s grandmother, heir to a landowning and slaveholding past.
Background
Joaquín Beleño is one of Panama’s foremost chroniclers of life in and around the former Canal Zone. His body of work, including Gamboa Road Gang (1951), Luna Verde (1960), and Curundú (1963), has long circulated within the framework of anti-imperialist literature — works read primarily as denunciations of the U.S. presence in Panama. The title Gamboa Road Gang itself refers to the Gamboa Penitentiary, a place of forced labor and chains where the character Lester León Greaves served nearly sixteen years of a sentence.
Beleño knew this world firsthand. As a young laborer in the Canal Zone, he experienced the climate of discrimination and mistreatment imposed by Zone rules. Yet, as the essay notes, rather than writing an act of revenge against the zoneítas he knew, Beleño chose a higher, human perspective — depicting not only discrimination but also the complex power structure surrounding the Zone, from which some Panamanians also benefited.
Set against the backdrop of an expanding Canal Zone on the eve of World War II, the novel captures a young Panamanian nation pulled in every direction by events larger than itself, including the role of its powerful neighbor, the United States.
What This Means for Panama
The reissue of Curundú and this fresh critical reading invite Panamanian readers to reclaim a major national author on his own terms. The essay argues that political narratives, however valid, have functioned like a thick coat of paint — flattening truths and interpretations alike into a single sanctioned meaning, particularly during turbulent moments in society.
Beyond its place in the so-called canal-worker literary tradition, Curundú addresses themes that remain resonant: racial segregation and its consequences, class tensions, immigration conflicts, and a nation’s difficulty understanding itself. The reissue by Editorial Descarriada offers a new opportunity for readers, students, and critics to engage with Beleño’s work — and to recognize the sharp, informed gaze he brought to both his literature and his journalism.
This story was originally reported by La Prensa.