The masked traveler: Benjamin Subercaseaux in Rapa Nui (1954)

Abstract

The figure of Benjamin Subercaseaux emerges as the "masked traveler" because of his participation in an allegorical trip in the Presidente Pinto ship to Rapa Nui in 1954. Analyzing six chronicles that he wrote in Zig-Zag magazine, taken from the Confidential Report to the government and another document, it is possible to trace the multiple textual identities that denounce the "semi-enslaving" regime on the Island (which the Armada enforced). The public writings and the confidential report of the traveler construct a framework that reveals the tensions of Chilean Republican colonialism on Rapa Nui Island and the difficulties for conceptualizing and overcoming them.