IBERO-AMERICAN LITERATURE. —
It comprises the literary production of the various American nations of Spanish speech and unfolds in three phases: the Spanish imperial epoch, that of the independence movements (19th century), and the modern one, inaugurated by the work of Rubén Darío, which gives it originality while maintaining continuous ties with Spanish culture.
SUMMARY:
I. Argentina
II. Bolivia
III. Chile
IV. Colombia
V. Cuba
VI. Ecuador
VII. Mexico
VIII. Nicaragua
IX. Paraguay
X. Peru
XI. Uruguay
XII. Venezuela
XIII. Other Central American countries.I. ARGENTINA
Argentine culture perhaps differs from that of other Spanish-American states by the greater absence of racial “mestizaje” with the indigenous element. With a predominance of Spanish and Italian blood, it has also been attentive to the various voices coming from Europe, especially from France, England, and Germany; so that one may say that Buenos Aires is the most Europeanized cultural center in America. In its first phase, Argentine literature is provincial, inspired by the environment of the “pampas,” and finds expression in the poetry of the “payadores” (gauchotroubadours); but already there arise the first works that shape the national spirit, such as the *Himnos a la libertad* of López Planes (1784–1836), or those intended to evoke the origins of the country, like the *Triunfo de Ituzaingó* of Juan Cruz Varela (1794–1839).In the Romantic period there are the poet and novelist Esteban Echeverría (1805–31), author of *Elvira o la novia del Plata*, and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, a figure of national importance. Devoted to politics, he went into exile during the dictatorship of Rosas, against whom he wrote *Facundo Quiroga* (1845), a romantic biography of a figure who symbolized the cultural and political ideas of the author, to whom we also owe, among other works, the collection *Recuerdos de provincia*. Shapers of Argentine national consciousness were also Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810–84), who wrote *Bases para la organización constitucional de la República argentina*, and General Mitre, who, besides his political activity, composed biographies of San Martín and Belgrano.
A mere mention suffices for Victor Olegario Andrade (1838–1882), author of *Atlántica*, *El nido de cóndores*, *Prometeo*, while a longer discussion is required by “gauchoism,” which constitutes the marrow of Argentina’s first literary epoch. Apart from dramatic production, inaccessible without the aid of staging, three names define it exemplarily: Hilario Ascasubi (1807–81), creator of the figure of “Santos Vega, el payador”; Estanislao del Campo (1834–80), author of the poem *Fausto*, a gaucho’s account to another of a performance of Goethe’s drama; and, above all, José Hernández (1834–86), author of the celebrated *Martín Fierro*, which must be considered the great epic of life on the American countryside in the intermediate period between independence and the progressive organization begun in the 20th century. The protagonist is a “gaucho” who recounts the misfortunes of his life in a verse that is extremely popular and full of grace and freshness, leaving the testimony of a vanished way of life, felt in an elegiac manner and sung with accents that call Homeric modes to mind. The meters and strophes are those of the “payadores”: octosyllabic lines. The added parts (*La vuelta de Martín Fierro*, etc.) yield more to folklore, being rich in intercalated popular songs. To be admired in Hernández is the skill in blending narrative and lyricism and in handling a discursive language immediately derived from the people’s mouth. Welcomed at its appearance as a national masterpiece, not only in Argentina but also in Spain (see, for example, Unamuno’s judgment), *Martín Fierro* has perhaps been somewhat neglected by recent Argentine poetry, which has turned more toward European modes; yet it seems that the value of this work is beginning to reassert itself in the present poetic consciousness.
Skipping over two Neoclassical poets, Carlos Guido Spano (1827–1918) and Leopoldo Díaz (b. 1862), author of *Hellas*, we come to the poetry of “modernism,” which boasts a great name: Leopoldo Lugones (1874–1938), a contemporary and younger friend of Rubén Darío. The assimilation of French poetry did not succeed in stifling his intense patriotic feelings: alongside *Los crepúsculos del jardín* (1905), *Lunario sentimental* (1909), *Las horas doradas* (1922), and other works such as the *Odas seculares* (1910), which includes the famous *A los ganados y las mieses*, there are other compositions. Other poets of this period are Evaristo Carriego and Conrado Nalé Roxlo, both cultivators of a poetry of the suburbs, of crepuscular tone; Pedro B. Palacios (*Almafuerte*), a poet of somewhat naïve moral tone; Héctor P. Blomberg (b. 1890), singer of the illusion of the sea; Alfredo R. Bufano (b. 1895), poet (*Romancero*) and author of essays on Renaissance Italian mysticism; Rafael Alberto Arrieta (b. 1889), author of *Alma y Momento*; Enrique Banchs, B. Arturo Capdevila, Fernández Moreno, etc.
In prose, several names appear of novels inspired by country life: Carlos M. Ocantos (b. 1860), Roberto J. Payró (1867–1938); *Cuentos de Poyo Chico*, *Divertidas aventuras del Nieto de Juan Moreira*; Manuel Galvez, Benito Lynch (b. 1885); *Los carrochos de la Florida*; *Se llevaron el cañón para Machimba*; above all, Ricardo Güiraldes (1886–1927), author of *Don Segundo Sombra*, which sums up the heroic character of the “gaucho” as found in *Martín Fierro*, though now seen from the outside: a legendary figure, more alluded to than directly described, passing through an environment and psychology that are rather lyrical and sensitive than epic.
The widely diffused work of Hugo Wast (pseudonym of Gustavo Martínez Zuviria) leads toward a less poetic but very varied climate adapted to popular taste. In the case of Enrique Larreta (b. 1875), however, one should speak of a poetic novel, of modern atmosphere, especially in the celebrated *La gloria de don Ramiro*, set in 16th-century Ávila. Among his works are cited: *Zogoibi*, a novel of the “pampa”; *La calle del amor y de la muerte*, lyrics on a Spanish theme; and the very recent *La naranja* (Madrid 1949).
In poetry, besides the characteristic world of Alfonsina Storni (1892–1938), a poetess of vivid sensitivity, to whom we owe *Ocre* (1925) and *Mascarilla y trébol* (1938), there is the development of the so-called “avant-garde.” In addition to Oliverio Girondo, an important figure is Jorge Luis Borges (b. 1900), founder of the review *Prismas* and author of *Ficciones*, a work of fantastic prose of great originality. Subsequently, through Ricardo F. Molinari and Leopoldo Marechal (b. 1900), author of *Sonetos a Sofía* and *El centauro*, this poetry moves toward a more classical and at times Catholic and Hispanic sense, as in Ignacio B. Anzoátegui and Francisco Luis Bernárdez, born in Spain and author of *La ciudad sin Laura*.
Meanwhile, prose takes on new life through the work of Eduardo Mallea (b. 1903), author of *Todo verdor perecerá*; *Cuentos para una inglesa desesperada*; and *La bahía de silencio*, a depiction of the artistic and intellectual life of Buenos Aires with evident influences from English novels and Proust. Among the novels and essays of tomorrow that deserve mention are those by Ezequiel Martínez Estrada (*Radiografía de la pampa*), Macedonio Fernández, and Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz, author of *El hombre que está solo y espera*, a keen testimony to the anguish of the contemporary spirit of Buenos Aires.
In fields of activity less strictly literary, the following deserve mention: the historians Rómulo D. Carbia, Guillermo Furlong, and Vicente Sierra (*El sentido misional de la conquista española en América*); the philosopher Francisco Romero, author of several studies and director of the philosophical editions of the Losada publishing house; of special importance is the contribution of a large group of neo-Thomist philosophers, some at the *Cursos de cultura católica* in Buenos Aires, such as Rev. Julio Meinvielle, a polemicist against Maritain, and Fr. Octavio N. Derisi, and others at other cultural centers, such as Fr. Sepich at the University of Mendoza and Nimio de Anquin at that of Córdoba.
The leading folklorist is Juan Carrizo, collector of Argentine folk songs. Among the magazines, *Sur*, directed by Victoria Ocampo—a Spanish essayist who long lived in France—deserves mention for its long continuity and representative character of the Europeanized spirit of Buenos Aires.
II. Bolivia
In the Romantic era, Bolivia’s principal poet was Ricardo J. Bustamante (1821–84). In the *modernista* movement, alongside Rubén Darío and Lugones, the Bolivian Ricardo Jaimes Freyre (1868–1913), author of *Castalia Bárbara*, also worked, followed by Franz Tamayo (b. 1880). The best-known novelist is Alcides Arguedas (b. 1879), author of *Vida criolla*. Also worthy of note is the narrator and critic Adolfo Costa du Reis (b. 1891), who often wrote in French.III. Chile
Chile’s great national epic poem is not Chilean but Spanish: *La Araucana* by Alonso de Ercilla, which recounts the war of domination. Even in the 17th century, in Chile itself, a poet continued Ercilla’s narrative of heroic deeds: Pedro de Oña, whose formal innovations on the classical “ottava rima” used by Ercilla have been highly praised by recent Spanish criticism. From the period of Spanish imperial rule comes the novel *El cautiverio feliz* by Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán, reevaluated and published by younger Chilean critics, and the chronicle *Restauración de la imperial* by Fray Juan de Barrenechea. Later is the (Latin) work of the Jesuit Manuel de Lacunza, founder—with his commentaries on the Apocalypse—of the so-called “millenarianism” in America, which to this day retains a certain influence among a select group of Catholic Chilean intellectuals, though not without controversy regarding strict orthodoxy.The independence era offers only a few isolated names of singers of the new revolutionary spirit, such as Camilo Enríquez (b. 1769).
In the 19th-century period of consolidation, expressed politically in the state organization of President Portales, the influence exerted over the entire nation by the Venezuelan Andrés Bello (1781–1865), renowned for his grammatical works, is noteworthy. National importance attaches to José Victorino Lastarria (1817–88) in sociological doctrine and in the founding of Chilean narrative. Also in the 19th century, the novel flourished especially through the work of the so-called “Chilean Balzac,” Alberto Blest Gana (1830–1920), and others such as Luis Orrego Luco (1866) and Eduardo Barrios (b. 1884). The name of Pedro Prado (b. 1886) marks the transition from the novel to poetry, which he also cultivated and for which he won the national prize in 1949. Poetry is generally the more important genre in Chilean literature of this period. After the turn of the century, which boasts poets such as Carlos Pezoa Véliz (1829–1908), Manuel Magallanes Moure, Carlos Préndez Saldías (b. 1892), Max Jara (b. 1886), Luis Felipe Contardo (1880–1921), and Carlos R. Mondaca (1881–1928), there appears a great trilogy of poets of continental and universal importance: Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, and Vicente Huidobro. Gabriela Mistral (pseudonym of Lucila Godoy), b. 1889 and recently awarded the Nobel Prize, after the emotional depth of *Desolación* (1922), developed a progressive evolution in her concept of poetry through *Ternura* and *Tala*, which greatly enriched her lyric verse with a new sense of humility, irony, and affection toward small things, alongside the grand historical themes of her *Cantos de América*. She is currently consul of her nation in Petrópolis (Brazil). Vicente Huidobro (1893–1948), on the other hand, alongside the Spaniard Gerardo Diego, is the founder of “creationism,” an avant-garde tendency harmonized with the new trends of Paris. In the anthology published by the Chilean publishing house *Zig-Zag* on the occasion of his death, one can see a progressive evolution in his poetry—in French and Spanish—from initial avant-gardism toward a more human sensibility (*Altazor*). His literary importance may perhaps depend more on his masterful and renewing influence than on his actual work. But there is no doubt that the most evident influence on the current poetry of all America is that of Pablo Neruda (pseudonym of Neftalí Reyes,
In the 18th century, in response to the tendencies of the age, the *Academia del buen gusto* was founded, a forerunner of the great Colombian academic life down to our own day. The independence era produced two poets: José M. de Salazar (1785–1828) and Luis Vargas Tejada (1802–29), the “Chénier of Colombia.”
Romanticism was introduced to Colombia by José Joaquín Ortiz (1814–92), who represented for his nation what Quintana did for Spain; but it reached its most typical expression with José Eusebio Caro (1817–53) and Julio Arboleda (1817–62). Later, among countless other poets, Rafael Pombo (1833–1912) achieved national importance, not to mention Gregorio Gutiérrez González (1826–72). At the end of the 19th century, the most decisive figures for the formation of a grammatical and humanistic consciousness appeared: Miguel Antonio Caro (1843–1909) and, above all, Rufino José Cuervo (1844–1911), whom Menéndez y Pelayo called “the most eminent philosopher of the Spanish race in the 19th century”; author of a famous *Spanish Grammar*, another in Latin, a *Dictionary of the Construction and Regimen of the Castilian Language*, and several other works. At this time there also appeared a novel that achieved worldwide fame in the Spanish-speaking world: *María* by Jorge Isaacs (1837–95).
Colombian poetry, always abundant, has in these years one of its classics: José Asunción Silva (1865–96), whose life, made unhappy by excessive sensitivity, was cut short by suicide. His *Nocturno* remains one of the most celebrated pieces of American lyric poetry. Later, through a long life of sparse and refined work that suggests a Flaubertian or Parnassian stance, Guillermo Valencia (1872–1943) emerges in a prominent place, author of *Ritos*. But perhaps the poet who is becoming increasingly interesting to contemporary taste is Bárbara Jacobs (pseudonym of Miguel Ángel Osorio, 1883–1942), a decadent personality fitting the French *maudit* type, and whose brief and varied œuvre includes two or three poems (*Los desposados de la muerte*; *Balada de la vida profunda*), now duly reevaluated by recent American and Spanish criticism. Besides a few books of sonnets, José Eustasio Rivera (1889–1928) wrote *La vorágine*, considered by many the finest novel of Spanish America. Among contemporary writers, none surpasses the prestige of the poet Eduardo Carranza. Finally, mention should be made of the prose stylist Germán Arciniegas and, among the still numerous poets of “piedracelista” influence, Hélias Martín Góngora.
V. CUBA
From the very “first breath of local flavor,” as detected by Menéndez y Pelayo in the *Oda a la piña* by Manuel de Zequeira y Arango (1760–1846), Cuban literature developed rapidly, acquiring its own physiognomy. The Romantic era produced the great figure of José María de Heredia (1803–1829), still shaped by classical mentality and author of fiery lyric verse (*El Teocalli de Cholula*; *Al Niágara*). During the independence war, the name of the mulatto poet Plácido (pseudonym of Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, 1809–1844) is important—a poet of simple, popular style and a combative, ill-starred life, like that of the other poet Juan Clemente Zenea (1832–71). The poetess Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda is usually included in Spanish literature because of her residence in Spain.The true shaper of national consciousness is José Martí (1853–95), poet of *Versos sencillos*, writer, journalist, and fallen soldier in the war of independence. As a premodernist poet, one may cite Julián del Casal (1863–93). In the twentieth century there has been a flourishing of *poesía negra*, anthologized by Emilio Ballagas (b. 1908), whose principal figure is Nicolás Guillén (*Balada de los dos abuelos*). In more recent times, Mariano Brull (b. 1891), Luis Palés Matos, and Fernando Ortiz stand alongside the prose writer Lino Novás Calvo. Today poetry continues with notable activity: among the younger generation is the poetess Dulce María Loynaz (b. 1904). Her most important works include *Veinte poemas*.
VII. MEXICO
From the very time of the conquest, a mixed Indo-Hispanic literature arose in Mexico, in Maya, Aztec, or Nahuatl languages but written in Latin letters, as in the case of the *Popol-Vuh*, a collection of aboriginal traditions, or the *Chilam-Balam* of Chumayel. Among the earliest Mexican historians were Juan Suárez de Peralta (*Tratado del descubrimiento de las Indias*), the mestizo Fray Diego Durán (*Historia de las Indias*), Hernando de Alvarado Tezozomoc (*Crónica mexicana*; *Crónica chichimeca*), and Fernando de Alba Ixtlilxóchitl—these last two of royal Mexican descent—and Fray Agustín Dávila Padilla (*Historia de la fundación y discurso de la provincia de Santiago de México, de la Orden de Predicadores*). Francisco de Terrazas, praised by Cervantes, wrote the epic poem *Nuevo Mundo y conquista*, while Juan de Castellanos is the author of the very long *Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias* (1589). The Baroque age boasts the name of the nun-poet and scholar Juana Inés de la Cruz (v.).
In the eighteenth century, the Franciscan Manuel de Navarrete founded the Arcadia Mejicana, that is, the first academy. From the period of the struggles for independence comes Fernando Calderón (1809–45; *Soldado de la libertad*), alongside more remembered figures such as Manuel Eduardo Gorostiza (1789–1851), a dramatist who lived in Spain; Manuel Rodríguez Galván (*Profecía de Guatimoc*); and José Joaquín Pesado (1801–61; *Los aztecas*). Of great importance, even as a national and political figure of the war, is the Indian Altamirano (1834–73; *El Zarco*). Other names, such as Manuel Acuña (1849–73), Justo Sierra, Manuel José Othón, and Salvador Díaz Mirón, lead toward “premodernism,” best represented by Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera (1859–95). In this period the critic-poet Francisco A. de Icaza (1863–1925) was active, having spent much time in Madrid and portrayed in verse by Antonio Machado. The “modernist” era has as its Mexican poetic representatives Luis C. Urbina, José Juan Tablada, author of *haikai*, Amado Nervo (1870–1919), widely successful especially in Spain (*El arquero divino*; *La amada inmóvil*), with a lyric tone between preciosity and prosaicism, and Enrique González Martínez (b. 1871), who turns toward greater sentimental and psychological intimacy, rebelling against ornate rhetoric (*“Torcerle el cuello al cisne...”*). Among the newer poetic generations are Carlos Pellicer (b. 1899), Xavier Villaurrutia, more avant-garde (*Nostalgia de la muerte*, 1938), Jaime Torres Bodet (b. 1901), and talented women poets such as Concha Urquiza and Margarita Paz Paredes. Ramón López Velarde (1888–1921) sang provincial life with a style blending humor and tenderness (*La suave patria*; *Zozobra*).
In the field of historiography, Carlos Pereyra (1871–1944) shaped a true historical consciousness aimed at critical reassessment of events. Among his works are *La obra de España en América*; *Hernán Cortés y la epopeya del Anáhuac*; *Las huellas de los conquistadores*; *Breve historia de América*; *Historia de la América española*; *El mito de Monroe*; *Tejas: la primera desmembración de México*.
As a thinker and philosopher, José Vasconcelos (b. 1884) established himself after converting to Catholicism, creator of the concepts of the “cosmic race” and the “fifth race” (*Indología*; *El monismo estético*; *Estética*; *Tratado de metafísica*; *Ética*; *Historia del pensamiento filosófico*, etc.).
Literary criticism boasts Alfonso Reyes (b. 1889), poet, essayist, and editor of classics (*Cuestiones estéticas*, 1910–11; *Simpatías y diferencias*, 1921–26; *Cuestiones gongorinas*, 1927; *La antigua retórica*, 1942; *La experiencia literaria*, 1942; *El Deslinde*, 1945; etc.). The novel is also cultivated, from Federico Gamboa (1864–1939), known as the “Mexican Zola,” to Martín Luis Guzmán (b. 1887) and Mariano Azuela, author of *Los de abajo* and novelist of popular life.
VIII. NICARAGUA
The limited extent and population have not prevented Nicaragua, over the past half-century, from taking a leading position in Spanish-American poetry. First and foremost, it was the homeland of the great pioneer Rubén Darío, the pseudonym of Félix Rubén García Sarmiento. Born in Metapa, now Ciudad Darío, in 1867, and died in León (Nicaragua) in 1916, he spent many years in Paris, Spain, and Argentina. After assimilating French modernism and symbolism, influenced by Valera in his early work *Azul*, he turned toward classical Spanish forms, decisively contributing to the flourishing of poetry in Spain from the so-called “Generation of ’98,” although at times the more superficial and rhetorically musical aspects of his multifaceted work exerted a greater influence on the public.Despite Darío’s absorbing continental renown, Nicaraguan poetic life continued unabated. Thus, two or three names almost contemporary with his can be found before the emergence of the two current poetic generations: the priest Azarías H. Pallas (b. 1885), mentor of the younger avant-garde group, Salomón de la Selva (b. 1893), who also wrote in English, and above all, Alfonso Cortés, born at the end of the 19th century, who went mad in his youth and remains one of the most enigmatic and magical figures in American poetry. Between 1925 and 1930, a “vanguard” group emerged in Nicaragua, formed among former Jesuit students; this explains why its political tendency always leaned toward Catholic, Hispanic, and hierarchical ideology. The great master of this group was—and remains—José Coronel Urtecho (b.
XII. VENEZUELA
The literary history of Venezuela includes in the 18th century the Gongorist poet Alonso de Escobar; in the Enlightenment and early 19th century, José Antonio Martín, Abigail Lozano, a Romantic poet, and José Ramón Yepes. This leads to the great philologist and grammarian, teacher of the Colombian Cuervo: Andrés Bello (1781–1865), who exerted a decisive influence in Chile on the intellectual formation of the nation and was also the author of lyric works (*Silva a la agricultura de la zona tórrida*).Among recent writers are, among poets, Rufino Blanco-Fombona (1874–1944); among novelists, Rómulo Gallegos (b. 1884), author of *Doña Bárbara*, *La Trepadora*, *Cantaclaro*, *Canaima*, and *Pobre negro*, which convey the sense of untamed American nature dominating man. For our own time, mention must also be made of Mariano Picón Salas, a narrator, essayist, and eminent critic, as well as the historians Ángel C. Rivas (1873–1930) and Laureano Vallenilla Lanz (1870–1936).
XIII. OTHER CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRIES
Even in the 19th century, a Jesuit from Guatemala, Rafael Landívar, wrote a long Latin poem, *Rusticatio mexicana*, highly praised by Menéndez y Pelayo. In the same country, after other names such as J. Batres (1890–1944), those of Rafael Arévalo Martínez (b. 1892), a poet of limited but highly interesting output, and Miguel Ángel Asturias stand out. Puerto Rico produced Eugenio M. de Hostos (1839–1903), a political writer of the independence era. The Dominican Republic (San Domingo), in addition to the eminent critic and literary theorist Pedro Henríquez Ureña, boasts the poet Manuel del Cabral, whose *Antología Tierra*, a selection made in Madrid (1949, *La encina y el mar*, ed. Cultura Hispánica) of his entire work up to that year, reveals a uniquely human and inventive sense of language. On the same island, excluding French-speaking Haiti, a group of young poets flourishes: Franklin Mieses Burgos, Antonio Fernández Spencer, and others.Honduras has the poet and anthologist Rafael Heliodoro Valle. Costa Rica counts poets such as R. F. Guardia, María Isabel Carvajal, and the critic and teacher Roberto Brenes Mesén. Poets of El Salvador include Juan Bernal, J. J. Cañas, and J. Aragón.