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The oldest Croatian imigrant colonies in Latin America were established in Chile. Mostly it comes to the Croatian emigrants in the late 19th and early 20th century. They were attracted by all the parts of this great country, from the far north to the southernmost city - Punta Arenas. Although they were mostly fishermen and farmers from the island of Brac and the other islands from central Dalmatia, very soon they began to excel also in the economy, culture, politics and sports. But what makes Chile a phenomenon among other Latin American countries, is an important literary production of Croatian origin writers. One of the first (Arturo Givovich) belongs mostly to the 19th century literature, while the highest number of writers belongs in the mid 20th, like Josefa Turina (1909 - 1986), Francisco Berzovic (1913th- 1996th), Roque Esteban Scarpa Straboni (1914th -1995.), Domingo Mihovilovic Rajcevic (1918 - 2014, pseudonym Domingo Tessier), Zlatko Brncic (1920. – 1973.), Sergio Vodanovic Pistelli (Split, 1927. – Santiago, 2001.), Yerko Moretico Castillo (1926. – 1972.), Amalija Rendic (1928. – 1986.), Agata Gligo (1936. – 1997.), Eugenio Mimica Barrasi (Punta Arenas, 1949.), Patricija Stambuk Mayorga (1951.), Hernán Andradte Martinic (1953.), i many others. Among them, one oft the most famous , Antonio Skármeta Vranicic (originally Škrmeta), grandson of Croatian immigrants from Bobovišća on the island of Brač, born in Antofagasta, left the strong mark on both, the Chilean and world literature, and also, as a very important component of the Croatian emigrant literature, on the Croatian literary heritage as well. On the ground of his novels will be examined how a literature of exile carries inwrought into its own genetic code and how it creates a universal space, always, consciously or unconsciously, searching for its own identity, by offering a world woven of memories, melancholy, nostalgia, fine irony, a world in which reality and fantasy coexist as constituent parts of the family, emotional, spiritual, social, intellectual and cultural bilocation. Special attention will be devoted to the models that establish and articulate identity as well as literature, especially the one generated throught mediated memory. Because, as Skarmeta said, „man's own life is, after all, the closest point for which every writer must reach.“ Key words: migration, literature, identity, mediated memory, Chile |
