THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

Appendix B: Enrique Jaramillo Levi:Un hombre de letrasdearth of publishers which caused financially challenged writers tofinance their own publications; books were not advertised, literature didnot sell, and writers became obliged to donate their work. There wereno serious literary journals to speak of: the few that appearedsporadically refused to pay for poetry or fiction and then disappearedafter three months; literary life for the writer in Panama seemed todepend strictly on the Ricardo Miró competition where money was wonand the winner’s work was published by the Dirección Nacional deCultura. If that were not enough, Panama was not a country of avidreaders and eking out a living by writing was no mean feat. Breakingout beyond Central American borders, which more often than not meantpublishing in Europe (Spain in particular), was seen as the path to asuccessful literary career.Jaramillo Levi is an extremely influential figure in the field ofCentral American literature who proudly boasts a list of uniqueachievements. As one of the early authors to emerge from the regionand achieve national and international recognition, he is also the first topublish in Spain (Madrid), the only one to do so with the prestigiousAlfaguara publishing house, the Colombian Editorial Norma, and thefirst Panamanian to publish with the Editorial Joaquín Mortiz in MéxicoCity, which in the seventies was a publishing giant: “En ambos casos, elde México y el de España, yo era el primer cuentistas [sic] panameñoen publicar en esos países de gran tradición editorial”. 12 Caracol y otroscuentos, the most autobiographical book written about traumatic eventsin his life, was published by Alfaguara, which was quite a coup: unlikenovels, short stories were difficult to get published especially as anintroduction to an author about to be launched into the internationalmarket:es que soy el primer escritor panameño enpublicar con Alfaguara, y eso puede abrir laspuertas para otros colegas escritores, o para lagente que venga después. Creo que soy elcuarto o quinto centroamericano en publicar conAlfaguara: han publicado libros de Rey Rosa,Monteforte Toledo, Sergio Ramírez, y creo quehan publicado a Monterroso.A highly prolific and accessible writer, Jaramillo Levi seeshimself as a relentless promoter of Panamanian culture: “Por elmomento, mi influencia ha sido como formador de actividades literarias:grupos, publicaciones, premios, congresos, etc. Es decir, comopromotor cultural. He impulsado mucho a los jóvenes a los que lesencuentro un mínimo de talento (188). Indeed, his role as an ardentcompiler of his work and that of other writers sees him widely12 Birmingham-Pokorny, “Las Realidades de Enrique Jaramillo Levi” 190.vi