A parodic look at the first voyage around the “whole world”

Abstract

The article examines Maluco. The Novel of the Discoverers (1989) by Napoleón Baccino Ponce de León, highlighting its parodic reinterpretation of the first circumnavigation led by Magellan and Elcano. Through a literary-critical approach grounded in parody theory (Hutcheon, Pozuelo Yvancos) and the framework of the New Historical Novel (Menton, Perkowska), the author argues that the novel subverts official and heroic narratives by adopting the perspective of a marginal narrator: Juanillo Ponce, a hunchbacked buffoon and converso Jew who recounts the hardships experienced by the expedition. Methodologically, the study identifies the mechanisms that enable this subversion: a carnivalesque tone, the incorporation of elements from the chronicles of the Indies, the picaresque tradition and medieval popular literature, and the contrast between Juanillo’s subjective testimony and the fictional letter written by Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who embodies the authoritative voice of the monarchy. The article’s objective is to demonstrate how the novel reveals the subjective nature of historiography and how parody destabilizes its claim to objectivity. The study concludes that Maluco functions as both a critique of imperial power and an allegorical reflection on modern authoritarian regimes in Latin America, emphasizing fiction’s capacity to restore voice and agency to those historically silenced