Objective:

This article analyzes, in the book Los piratas de Cartagena. Crónicas histórico-novelescas, by Soledad Acosta, its representations (mimesis-poiesis) of characters and situations of the colonial era; especially, the rhetoric on the ethical role of notable characters -priests, politicians, military men and women close to State affairs- and their place of leadership, as literate men and women, for the Hispanic and Catholic republic that was projected in the Regeneración (1875-1886).

Methodology:

Based on a hermeneutic analysis and interpretation, we seek to understand the fusion between horizons of understanding of the author-enunciator; particularly two: the colonial era, as a period narrated in different phases of modernization, and its present, prior to its writing and establishment of the Constitution of 1886. The analysis rests on the concepts of rhetoric, "economy of literature" and "regime of art".

Originality:

The analyzed book is one of the least studied works written by the author, notwithstanding its importance both for cultural and social history, as well as for literary studies and, therefore, for poetics, aesthetics and art history.

Conclusions:

The analysis evidences the need to continue turning to documents that narrate and describe historical events from points of view that complement the bipartisan history and the teleological vision of the most remembered heroes. In this case, in a document that brings us closer to the understanding of pirates, women, children, the elderly, indigenous people and Afro-descendants of the colonial era.