Postcolonialism began to rise during the 1950s when Alfred Sauvy coined the term Third World, which referred to developing nations. There is a correlation between this new term, Third World, and the First World countries—those in most of Europe and North America. Generally speaking, many members of the First World have been the oppressors to members of the Third World, so both are involved in the discussion of postcolonialism. The idea of colonialism must be explained before one is able to understand the idea of postcolonialism. Colonialism, by definition, is the subjection of one population to another. When people are colonized, their traditions and practices are supplanted by imitations of those of the colonizer. Postcolonialism, therefore, is interested in what happens to a culture from the beginning of colonization to the present. The culture that is left is a mixture of the colonized one and that of the colonizer, often marked by resentment and blended practice. Edward Said’s Orientalism, published in 1978, discussed First World views of the “other”, which was a precursor to postcolonialism. Postcolonial literary criticism, however, gained much attraction in the early 1990s, which looks at the works of postcolonial writers and colonial writers as well. Postcolonialism is hard to set down basic principles, yet there are basic assumptions that are accepted as important to postcolonial theory which include, cultural colonization, mimicry, universalism, Eurocentrism, exotic other, demonic other, and others.
“La llegada de Colón”, escrito por Alejo Carpentier, es un cuento sobre el descubrimiento del “nuevo mundo”, dicho por Cristóbal Colón. “La llegada de Colón” es dicho por Cristóbal Colón y solamente sabemos eso cuento en esa manera. La trama, sin embargo, no es exactamente lo que sabemos de la historia. Divida en dos partes, el cuento dice el viaje del Colón y luego dice los pensamientos de Colón. Por lo tanto, no sabemos exactamente lo que pasó. “La llegada de Colón” es un representación claramente de “postcolonialismo” de Eurocentrismo. Poco a poco, borra la cultura y tradiciones. De los pensamientos de Colón, todo lo del nuevo mundo sea cotejado a Europea. Podemos ver el cambio en la cultura, desde las practicas hasta los vestidos.
