Milli mála - 01.06.2016, Blaðsíða 127

HÓLMFRÍÐUR GARÐARSDÓTTIR
Milli mála 8/2016 127
veals the emergence of numerous new identities based on the cul-
tural phenomena of different forms of transculturation.24 Through
the novel’s main characters and their cross cultural and ethnic inti-
mate relationships, the reader learns that identity formation of the
different sub-entities is, due to multiple faces of mestizaje, a con-
tinuing process. The Caribbean coastal region of Costa Rica is
shown as constantly shaping its cultural ambiance in which the
principal forces are, as Maalouf puts it, contemporary ‘horizontal’
external influences, such as the social, political and/or economic
conditions, or ‘vertical’ ones, referring to the decisive African cul-
tural heritage of the Caribbean coast.25
Shortly after breaking off his relationship with Leonor for fear of
being killed, Orlandus returns to Jamaica and meets Irene Barrett,
a tall slender teacher of mixed race, the daughter of a Jamaican fa-
ther and a Dominican mother: “She was a mulatta. She had green
eyes and her long hair in a bun, with some loose curls escaping.
Orlandus approached her and cleared his throat. She looked at him.
Orlandus smiled and she returned it with a beautiful smile”.26 The
two “understood each other perfectly from the beginning” and soon
developed a relationship of compassion, mutual interest and re-
spect.27 In social terms, Irene is well-placed and enjoys many op-
portunities and possibilities. Being a teacher is a transferable skill
and, thus she has no reservations when offered the opportunity to
move to Limón with her new husband. As time goes by, her obser-
vations and comments facilitate the reader’s fuller understanding of
the social conditions and culture of Limón, which differs from the
rest of the Caribbean:
The people that lived in Limón were fascinating. They spoke exquisite
English, dressed in a spectacular fashion, sang extraordinary tunes and
24 In his theorizing the Cuban ethnographer Fernando Ortiz, as exposed in “Del fenómeno social de
la ’transculturación’ y de su importancia en Cuba”, in Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y azúcar, 1983
[1940], p. 86, coined the concept of ‘transculturation’. His purpose was to explain the process,
different stages and outcome of cultural contacts among peoples brought together by European
Colonial expansion into the Caribbean.
25 See quotation from Montobbio on page 123.
26 Rossi, Limó Blues, “Era una mulata. Tenía los ojos verdes y el pelo largo recogido en un moño del
que se desprendían rizos sueltos. Orlandus se le acercó y carraspeó. Ella lo miró. Orlandus le sonrió
y ella le devolvió una sonrisa preciosa”, p. 101.
27 Rossi, Limón Blues, “se entendieron divinamente desde el comienzo”, p. 102.