Embodying the Landscape: Forms of Territoriality and the Colonization of the ‘New World’ in "Tríptico de la infamia"

Abstract

Pablo Montoya’s Tríptico de la infamia is a historical novel centered on three Protestant artists from the 16th century, all based on real figures. The first chapter follows the French cartographer and illustrator Jacques Le Moyne during his 1564 expedition to Florida alongside Laudonnière. Through Le Moyne’s experiences, Tríptico de la infamia explores the territorial dynamics of colonization. Unlike the others, he attempts a nonviolent exchange with the natives, even allowing himself to be tattooed with abstract representations of Florida’s environment. This visual dialogue with the Other operates on both a semantic level and a formal one. In the process, Le Moyne undergoes a profound artistic and cultural transformation–an experience that, in Montoya’s fictionalized account, ultimately leads him to cross paths with the novel’s other protagonists. The paper analyzes these elements of Tríptico de la infamia with the aim of examining how Montoya intertwines the representation of territory with dynamics of power, identity, and otherness, while addressing the cultural and spatial implications of colonization and the encounter between distinct worlds.