Utilizing Sommer’s concept of foundational fictions, this essay analyzes Octavio Méndez Pereira’s novel Nuñez de Balboa (1934). The article argues that the novel became a vehicle of Panamanian nationalism, presenting the isthmus as an Hispanic, mestizo nation and as a country without ties to the Afro-Caribbean world. This vision arises principally from the book’s main characters, Balboa and the indigenous princess Anayansi. Their romance projects the idea of a homogenous nation, contrasting sharply with the tumult of early twentieth-century, including the immigration of thousands of West Indians. Nuñez de Balboa illustrates the cultural strategies of Panama’s elite and its desire to control the process of modernization.
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