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El Dorado (also known as Eldorado) — a Spanish phrase meaning the “Golden One” — is a mythical city of gold, which was supposedly headed by an incredibly rich King who covered himself with gold dust every day to wash it off in a lake near the city every evening. It was said that during ceremonies and festivals, the inhabitants of the city threw jewels and golden objects into the lake as offerings.
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At first, the name “El Dorado” was only the name given to the rich King, but later it became the designation of the entire city. At any rate, rumors thus went that the city of El Dorado was located at the banks of a large lake, the latter called Parime, somewhere in South America.
The legend was first recorded in the 16th century by Spanish colonists in the Americas. It’s thought that the tale came into existence because of the conquerors’ encounters with various indigenous tribes in the Americas who created objects, ornaments, and jewelry of gold, without being able to find the mines where the indigenous would supposedly dig for gold. The idea grew that there needed to be a hidden, secret place with enormous quantities of gold.
Gradually, the legend of El Dorado began to spread among the European colonists. In the decades that followed, the city was looked for in various places across the continent, a search that went on and off until the beginning of the 19th century. As the area became better charted over time, the existence of the city and lake was thrown into doubt, to be finally dismissed.
Although the idea of the location of Eldorado changed frequently during the centuries, its existence in the Guiana highlands became one of the most persistent theories, leading to several expeditions into the region to find the golden city, even up to the point that lake Parime and the city were creatively included in many maps of South America throughout the 17th century.
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For me, Eldorado and Parime (the latter in Suriname called Parima) have been a natural part of my youth. I learned about them in school, I had my swimming lessons in the municipal swimming pool with the name Parima, and my grandmother worked many years in a printing house called Eldorado.
I have chosen “Eldorado” as the title of my poetry collection Eldorado – Land of Gold, because of the promise it holds. The promise of riches, gold, wealth, prosperity. This promise of capitalizing on South America’s potential, this so-called “potential” that until today hasn’t truly been realized, not in Suriname, and — not in any other country of South America.
Today, the term “Eldorado” has come to mean any place where wealth can be quickly and easily gained. The name was also given to many towns in Latin America and in the United States.
