HOJEDA, DIEGO de. - Spanish Dominican and poet, b. at Seville in 1570, d. at Huánuco (Peru) on 24 Oct. 1615. Having moved to America, he devoted himself to study and to the priestly ministry in Lima.
In 1611 he published at Seville his famous poem La Cristiada, in ottava rima, whose subject is the various moments of the Passion, from the Last Supper to the Deposition.
While remaining faithful to the Gospel narrative, the author personifies with powerful imagination certain symbols, such as the sins of men, prayers, infernal spirits, etc. “He was neither an epic temperament like Ercilla, nor a brilliant stylist like Balbuena; nevertheless, he knew how to construct a sober and heartfelt poem” (A. Valbuena Prat).
BIBL.: Ed. de La Cristiada, con pref. di F. Miguel y Badia, Barcelona 1896, and in vol. XXXV of the Biblioteca de autores españoles. Studies: Fr. J. Cuervo, D. de H. y «La Cristiada», Madrid 1898; J. Rada y Gamio, La Cristiada, ibid. 1917; A. Valbuena Prat, Historia de la literatura española, I, Barcelona 1946, pp. 1093-96. Guglielmo Díaz-Plaja