Spanish Colonial Literature in South America

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. Bernard Moses's study of Spanish colonial literature in South America is more than a survey of old books: it is a portrait of a society trying to explain itself through chronicles, poems, sermons, reports, and histories. He argues that official records alone cannot reveal the life of a nation, and that colonial writing preserves the thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and daily realities of the Spanish empire in America. Broadening the meaning of "literature," he traces the intellectual world of friars, bishops, soldiers, governors, and nuns across regions and centuries, from the first chroniclers of Tierra Firme and Peru to late colonial historians and poets. The book moves through the structures that shaped this world: imperial rule from Madrid, censorship, the Inquisition, and a rigid social hierarchy centered in cities like Lima. It also follows the slow growth of printing, the Jesuits' role in education and mission presses, and the rich but constrained literary tradition that favored history, religion, geography, and epic verse. Along the way, Moses highlights figures such as Ercilla, Barco Centenera, Peralta Barnuevo, Francisca Josefa de Castillo y Guevara, and missionary chroniclers of the Orinoco and Llanos, revealing a colonial culture marked by conquest, faith, learning, and enduring imperial ambition.