Atlas of Imagined Places: Central America and the Caribbean
Explore the imagined places in Central America and the Caribbean in this extract from Atlas of Imagined Places, which was awarded Illustrated Travel Book of the Year in the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards this week.
by Matt Brown and Rhys B. Davies. Illustrations by Mike Hall.
Central America and the Caribbean: The Old New Word
The history of the USA has become so predominant in popular culture that it is easy to forget that the first Europeans to permanently settle in the Americas were not the Pilgrims of Massachusetts but the conquistadors and missionaries of the Spanish Empire, come to the New World to preach Christianity to the natives and pick their pockets. It was Spain’s early successes in the New World that led to a boom climate of expedition, exploration and exploitation by the French, Dutch, Portuguese and English, cultures whose descendant nations now comprise the majority of the Americas.
The Spanish, of course, left their own mark, branding this region with their genetics, language, faith and culture. Present-day Mexico and the nations of the Caribbean and Central America comprise a vibrant region that has mingled European and American influences into a syncretic society. Where else might one experience something like the Day of the Dead, a celebration merging Roman Catholicism with pre-Columbian tradition? It is unsurprising then that the stories and legends associated with this region should also reflect such a dynamic mix of cultures. If we had to pick just one entry to exemplify this, it would be Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk till Dawn, which begins as a fairly conventional armed-robbers-takehostages romp, turns into a vampiric horror, and ends with an Aztec twist. Seek La Tetilla del Diablo, a little way south of the border.
The Caribbean offers a saltier take on this rich mix of cultures. This is a maritime space, and the fictional world’s hotspot for shipwrecks, buried treasure, castaways and comedy pirates. We’ve added over 100 islands to the familiar West Indies, and even a pastiche of the Bermuda Triangle – one of many additions from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Taken as a whole, this most diverse of maps contains bandits, Aztecs, drug cartels, space elevators, dinosaurs, adventurers, shipwrecked heroes and pirates. Lots, and lots, and lots of pirates.
AN ISLAND THAT NOBODY CAN FIND…
During the Spanish conquests of the 16th century, the Aztecs placed 882 pieces of gold in a stone chest and presented it to conquistador Hernán Cortés, as payment to stop his slaughter of their people. When the gold only fuelled Cortés’s greed, a terrible curse fell upon the treasure. Within a day of leaving port, doom overtook the ship carrying the chest and its golden cargo back to Spain, and it was subsequently wrecked on an uncharted island. In the centuries since, the curse of the gold seeped into the very rock and stone of the place, transforming it into a bleak and desolate haunt; an island of death, the dreaded Isla de Muerta.
So goes the backstory to the swashbuckling hit Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl, and how could we resist the chance to include Isla de Muerta on our map? Of course, the problem is that the island itself cannot be found, unless you’re lucky enough to have a magic compass to hand, but we can use the evidence of the films as a guide.
Wherever it may lie, the Isla de Muerta still falls within the Caribbean (it’s in the title after all), and many of the surrounding locations are real. Heading to the island in pursuit of the cursed Black Pearl, Captain Jack Sparrow and blacksmith Will Turner leave from historic Port Royal, Jamaica, and sail to pick up a crew from Tortuga, off the north coast of Haiti. Turning east from here would put the Isla de Muerta somewhere in the northern end of the Lesser Antilles, which is where we’ve chosen to chart the Black Pearl’s fearsome home port. As it happens, this also places it as a neighbour of that other piratical island of death: Treasure Island.
‘In this map we see more wrecks, pirate lairs and desert islands than anywhere else in the atlas’
THE ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE
Robert Louis Stevenson may not have invented pop culture’s vision of the Golden Age of Sail, but he certainly codified it. His classic adventure Treasure Island bequeathed to the world a romantic paradigm best encapsulated in Long John Silver, the ruthless sea cook complete with peg leg and parrot.
Although never stated outright, it is commonly assumed that Treasure Island itself lay somewhere in the Caribbean, forever associating the region with buccaneers and buried gold. There is, of course, truth behind the stories. Central America was once the Spanish Main, and these waters saw whole fleets of treasure ships carrying plundered wealth back to Europe – a tempting prize for any pirate worth his salt.
Hence, in this map we see more wrecks, pirate lairs and desert islands than anywhere else in the atlas. There’s booty to be found everywhere, be it hidden in the caves |of Monkey Island, or secluded in the offshore accounts of the Payment Islands. And, of course, somewhere in these parts lies the dreaded Isla de Muerta, just described.
But beyond the exploits of figures like Robinson Crusoe (located with more certainty near Tobago), Horatio Pugwash, Guybrush Threepwood and Jack Sparrow (apologies, Captain Jack Sparrow), at a glance it becomes obvious that this corner of the world continues to be colonized by writers and adventurers into the present day. Here we find countless holiday getaways, snuggled alongside the island lairs of fiends such as Cobra Commander and Black Hat, forever plotting their diabolic schemes.
And on the far side of Costa Rica, we discover Isla Nublar, and the nearby island cluster known as Las Cinco Muertes – the Five Deaths – well named indeed, for here are the lost worlds of Jurassic Park, where genetically re-created dinosaurs once again rule the Earth!
Enjoyed this blog post? Find more fictional locations and the stories behind them in Atlas of Imagined Places: From Lilliput to Gotham City by Matt Brown and Rhys B. Davies, with illustrations by Mike Hall.
