Panel: A sense of place II. The author discussed the importance of setting in their work. This can address topics of regional fiction as well as the challenges/rewards of reaching audiences unfamiliar with a particular location

Mendoza, Lili

English

Iowa Research Online

University of Iowa 
International Writing Program Archive of Residents' Work 
10-12-2013 
A Sense of Place 
Lili Mendoza 
Panel: A sense of place II. The author discussed the importance of setting in their work. This 
can address topics of regional fiction as well as the challenges/rewards of reaching 
audiences unfamiliar with a particular location. 
Rights 
Copyright © 2013 Lili Mendoza 
Recommended Citation 
Mendoza, Lili, "A Sense of Place" (2013). International Writing Program Archive of Residents' Work. 510. 
https://ir.uiowa.edu/iwp_archive/510 
Hosted by Iowa Research Online. For more information please contact: lib-ir@uiowa.edu. 
A Sense of Place II 
1 
The Iowa City Book Festival (www.iowacitybookfestival.org) and the International Writing Program 
(http://iwp.uiowa.edu/archives).  October 12, 2013  
1 
A Sense of Place  
By Lili Mendoza (Panama) 
Let’s begin by saying – not without trepidation -- that I am Panamanian.  Right off the bat, I want to pull 
the rug out from under your feet. Flush everything you think you know about Latin America.  We’re 
going to laugh our asses off.  Please ditch the guayabera--the only man who can rock that shit’s been 
smoking cigars in a cantina for the past forty years. Ditch the Lonely Planet. Knowledge of Central 
America won’t be of use, neither will a look at our next-door neighbors.  Warnings stated, let’s get down 
to business.  
Perhaps we should begin by explaining that Panama is not a Maíz – corn –nation but a Plantain Nation. 
This is essential. Located in the northern hemisphere, we are the isthmus that connects the two masses of 
the Americas. Ocean to the left, to the right, and all along the territory. We’re hanging on for dear life to 
the continental mass by Colombia to the south, and Costa Rica to the north. Perhaps this could be an 
explanation for our cultural detachment. As a people, our behavior and attitudes are similar to that of our 
brothers in Cuba, República Dominicana, and that strange lost cousin down south, Venezuela. I’ve come 
to think of Panama as an island. When I speak of setting in my stories, this is the initial layer. Paradise.  
Then there is the matter of transit. The isthmus has always been the go-to shortcut of conquistadores, 
merchants, the military. Any cat in need of reaching the Pacific in a jiffy can dock in the Atlantic, then 
haul-ass to the other side. We quickly became the IV drip of America, feeding the corpse -  Europe. We 
had the gold, too. And natural wealth. We still do. My country became, and remains, the World’s Duty 
Free.  Yes, please pick whatever you can before departure.  
In Panama the Gold Rush never ended. As we speak, we’re being sold pound by pound-- beaches, 
pineapples, cheap labor, real estate.  Make a killing, get out. American Baby boomers battle the heat and 
intricacies of the language to stretch the worth of their pension funds, upsetting our economy in ways the 
Economic Theory could not predict. Add a layer of political corruption, a dictatorial regime lasting from 
1968 to 1989.  A fucking invasion. Insert urban war here.  Add another layer. The world, it seems wants 
our coffee, bananas, fiscal incentives, paradisiacal beaches, rum, corruption, adventure, rainforests, water. 
Local politicians making a killin’, killing because hey, they can always retire in Tuscany, not this 
uncivilized tropical shithole. Welcome to Panama. If you have money, this land is yours.  
My stories take place in this over-imposed landscape, from the tenements of Chorrillo - where I live--to 
the over-the-top Trump Tower and banking district. The bohemian district – El Cangrejo, where I lived 
before I was kicked out by the economic cataclysm.   The  gentrified Casco Viejo. The streets of 
Calidonia where I grew up – the downtown of Downtown.  El Marañón, the tough little mecca of boxing. 
But my stories are not so much about the physical setting but about the psychological, about how 
individuals –Panameño--respond to an ever-changing environment. How individuals act, react – armed 
with the weapons of our mass destruction.  This is the psychological vernacular,  insight into the mind of 
Panamanians.  
Celebrity expats: Paul Gaugin, John Wayne, the Shah of Iran, Mick Jagger.  Yet, 40 percent of the 
population lives in extreme poverty. We are three million inhabitants. And no, we can’t get no 
satisfaction. The abandonment of our situation has made me reconsider my place in society and join a 
sector of the population that is facing life in brave, new, challenging ways.  I report from the trenches, for 
that ‘40 percent.’  I write for them and as one of them. Junk diving, Tinaquear. Why not, there is an entire 
pile of goodies to be found. From the slang of our ghettos, our street smart economics, the informality and 
violence of our ways to our dismissal of the profound, to our predilection for the bottle, our slack. This is 
us. My theory is that our collective mind senses our abandonment, the fragile balance that keeps us afloat. 
A Sense of Place II 
2 
The Iowa City Book Festival (www.iowacitybookfestival.org) and the International Writing Program 
(http://iwp.uiowa.edu/archives).  October 12, 2013  
2 
Damned if we do, damned if we don’t, we are going to tackle life with a do-or-die approach that I have 
come to call the ApoCalypso: it’s the end of the world, let’s drink, fuck, dance.  
I can only write about this land and of Panamanians abroad. So yes, what I do could be considered as 
regionalism but I believe that is not a bad thing. Literature explores and reveals the aesthetics of a people, 
the peculiarities of the landscape, language. The author is a sort of medium, capable and willing to 
transmit, to lend voice to the voices of others whose existence is as remote and unknown as the Más Allá.  


A Sense of Place

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