The Epic Problem of the Jíbaro in Juan Antonio Corretjer’s El Leñero (1944)

• Hannah Carbajal ^[1]
  1. [1] California State University, Fullerton

     California State University, Fullerton

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Revista de estudios hispánicos, ISSN 0034-818X, Vol. 54, Nº 3, 2020, págs. 797-821
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • Juan Antonio Corretjer has long been considered the National Poet of Puerto Rico and was lauded as such in the 2008 commemorative issue of the Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. Corretjer’s pro-independence, nationalist agenda for Puerto Rico was predicated upon a homogenized imaginary of the Puerto Rican people best symbolized by the jíbaro, or the archetypal representation of a rural, working-class Puerto Rican. Both Corretjer and the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña have, in theory, celebrated Puerto Rican identity as a harmonious blend of Spanish, Indigenous, and African heritage, while, in practice, they have privileged European and Taíno culture at the expense of African contributions. El Leñero (1944) is representative of much of Corretjer’s work in its depiction of Puerto Rican identity. In it, Corretjer relies on literary devices characteristic of epic poetry to construct a whitened and masculine national identity which silences Afro-Puerto Ricans and women. This article analyzes the rhetorical strategies Corretjer employs to construct national identity and to advocate for independence, and considers the implication of honoring Corretjer’s reductive iteration of Puerto Ricanness as national poetry.