Diario las Américas., 1958-01-21
Know thv
Neighb"r
By ANTONIO RUIZ

struggle with the untamed natives
of Arauco, a young captain named
Alfonso de Ercilla wrote verses on
bits of paper, strips of leather, or
whatever he could lay his hands
on. When he returned to Spain,
he incorporated them into a long
poem and published the first part
in 1869. "La Araucana," the re-
cord of Chile's beginning as a ma
ton is the greatest epic in Spanish
American literature. Most Chilean
children know parts of its 81 can
tos" by heart before they enter
high school.
Numerous editions and transla-
tons have appeared throughout
the world. "The Araucaniad," a
version in English verse was pub
lished in the United States in 49,
As. Ercilla and Arauco provided
Chilean writer's of the 18th and
18th centuries with most of their
inspiration. Poets as we'll as chron-
iclers set out to study the Araucan-
ian Indians at home and in bat
tie. Best among Ercilla's imitators
was Pedro de Ona, whose "Arauco
Domado," published in English in
1948 as "Arauco Tanned" skillfully
recounts events of the same wars,
but without the heroic quality of
the earlier masterpiece.
During the chaotic struggle for
independence in Chile, creative
writing Jagged behind literature
that was aimed at spreading the
doctrine of the revolution. New
life was dramatically injected in
to Chilean letters around 1912,
when the controversy between
classicism and romanticism was at
its height in Santiago. While Sar-
miento, s%elf-taught Argentine edu-
Gator, was calling for romantic
freedom of expression a progress
Sive concept of culture, and emu
lation of the French writers, Be
Ito and his followers were defend
ing a strict literary standard, the
purity of the Spanish language and
the supremacy of Spanish culture.
Even after Bello withdrew from
the debate, some of his disciples
continued the argument. Soon af.
forwards, however, opponents OF
Sarmiento's principles and even
Bello himself - adopted romantic
tendencies in their writings.
Towards the end of the 10Th cen
fury, "costumbrismo," the fashion
of presenting various phases Of
contemporary life in short, inform
al sketches, made its way from Eu.
rope to America. The humorist
Jose Joaquin Vallejo, a member Of
the generation of 1912, was a fore
runner of the Chilean "costumbris
ia" school, which later turned to
longer stories or novels OF man
ners and customs.
The greatest novelist after the
pattern of Balzac was Alberto Blest
Cana, whose works are detailed
full-scale protraits of Chilean so
ciety. Luis Orrego Luco was a real
istic novelist of the following gen
Grafton. The novelist, short story
writer and literary critic, Mariana
Latorre, has for years headed the
"criollista" school, faithfully re
producing landscapes and types
and customs of rural life. Luis Du'
rand is another important contem
porary "criollista" writer.
A complete picture of Chilean
city life as seen through the eyes
of a naturalist is presented in ]
Edwards Bello's realistic novels
The first Chilean short story writ
er to point up his c%ountry's so
cial problems was Baldomero Ii
Ito, who was influenced by Zols
and other European naturalists.
Two outstanding novelists have
made direct studies of Santiago's
middle class. Eduardo Barrios,
master of abnormal psychology
portrays the s~ufferings of a pre-
cocious child in one book, the
struggle of a sensitive man in 8
hostile materialistic enforcement
in. another, and the emotional tor
ments of a monk in a third novel
Augusta D'Halmar, abandoning the
crude realism of his earlier works
turns to oriental escapism in his
later novels and, short stories.
Spanish Version Page 3