An Oil Well Named Macondo: Latin American Literature in the Time of Global Capital

Abstract

For three months in the spring and summer of 2010, almost five million gallons of crude oil gushed uncontrollably from a broken BP well into the Gulf of Mexico, in what is thus far the worst petroleum spill in history. At the moment the spill occurred, the world was still reeling from the largest international financial disaster the world has yet known, one that reverberated from Iceland to the United States to the outer edges of the European Union in Greece and Spain. If the financial crisis was characterized by the sudden disappearance of intangible and invisible financial value, the horrific spectacle of oil-drenched seascapes, birds, fish, and coastlines resulting from the BP spill was a tangible reminder that capitalism had still not been able to emancipate itself from its material body. Even more troubling was the fact that the first several attempts by the multi-billion-dollar company to stanch the broken well were stunning failures: daily news broadcasts brought into public consciousness terms liketop killandkill mud, as hydraulic engineers armed with golf balls and sundry varieties of foam tried to kill the sea monster created by BP.