CAPAS RESEARCH PROJECT - Paolo Vignolo Geopolitics of Apocalypses and Utopia: Millenarian Imaginaries of the Conquest of Darien
Santa Maria la Antigua of Darien (1510-1525) was the first city founded by the Spanish crown in the continental landmark of the New World, and a turning point in the history of the conquest of the Americas. Millenarian visions, discourses, and practices played a crucial role in the conquest, both as colonial strategies and tactics of resistance. In the Darien region, at the border between Colombia and Panama, conquest is a past that hasn’t passed yet. What are the geopolitical implications today of conceiving the conquest of Darien in apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic terms?
Guna, Embera, Afro-descendent, campesino and settler communities have all been taking part in a 15 years-long participatory research-action process leading to the creation of the historical-archeological Park of Santa Maria la Antigua of Darien. The creation of this park is being done from a decolonized, community-oriented perspective concerned with gender issues. This proposal aims to keep on working with them on issues of public history, historical memory and culture heritage related to (post-)apocalyptic scenarios. My research deals with the spatial dimension of the end of times. Focusing on the geographical space of Darien, I pursue “mapping” millenarian imaginaries in order to let geopolitics emerge in terms of territorial conflicts, land disputes and cartographic strategies. This spatial turn allows me to underscore complex temporalities and non-lineal narratives when comparing different cosmologies.