MEXICAN LITERATURE).
The period under consideration produced a great amount of verse, apart from the rhymed chronicles. Much of this has been lost and such of it as has been preserved is, on the whole, not of a very high class (See MEXICAN LITERA TURE for an account of literature of this nature in New Spain). Among the few poetical works of the period that are still of interest are the 'Miscelanea austral' of Diego de Avalos of Lima (1603) ; the
The body of Spanish-American literature of the colonial period, on the whole, faithfully rep resents the life in Spanish America, with its adventures, its strongly religious element and its close relation to the mother country. A part of it, too, shows the Indian side of the ques tion. This latter is strongly brought out in such works as <011anta,> a Peruvian drama written in the Quichua language; (Cautiverio feliz' (already mentioned) of Francisco Nuilex de Pifieda; and the drama
Throughout the colonial period of Latin American literature, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile acted and reacted upon one another in some manner; but their literary resemblance to one another is more due to their common famil iarity with and imitation of Spanish writers. For this reason they have all been reviewed under one head. But the Revolutionary period and the years following have seen a very con siderable divergency in literary aspirations and achievements throughout all the republics which had their origin in the Spanish-American colo nial possessions. Therefore it has been found convenient to treat the literature of each one of these nations separately, connecting them only when it is necessary to show the influence that one national literature has had upon the others.
Revolutionary The general char acteristic of the literature of the Revolutionary period throughout Latin America is that of a strong resentment against Spain, an intense, somewhat idealized desire for liberty, and a general breaking away from the old order of things. It signified also the rise to power of the native population of the various colonies as distinguished from the Spanish-born rulers. It was inspired by the Napoleonic conflict in Europe, the troubles in which the Spanish gov ernment found itself, and by the ideals of the American and the French revolutions. (For the
restrictions placed upon native Indians and Spanish creoles, see MEXICAN LITERATURE). Naturally, possessing the ideas on government that they did, and the antipathy to Spanish rule that they had shown for some years, the Amer ican revolutionists inclined strongly toward re publican institutions. Once each country se cured its independence the people proceeded to set up a republic in name at least. This feeling toward Spain and Spanish government and this love for republicanism and for the institutions of the United States and France are strongly reflected in the Latin-American literature of the Revolutionary period; and the more revolu tionary the writers and the more they showed their hatred for the past the more they were likely to be popular with their fellow country men. Yet for all this there is, at the beginning of republican institutions in Spanish-America, very little literary breaking away from Spain, whose literary bondage had become so firm and lasting that it may still be said to remain com paratively firm. The revolutionary writers who sprang into prominence in the Spanish-Amer ican colonies used the Spanish language in all its varied literary forms as their most powerful weapon against the mother-country, at the same time fanning the native hatred against every thing Spanish. The whole land was sharply divided into two parties, those who were pro Spanish and those who were anti-Spanish. The latter identified themselves with the cause of the Indian and the mestizo. The slumbering hatred of the oppressors who had so cruelly treated, for three centuries, the descendants of the native races, and had kept them in bondage, burst forth with terrible intensity and Spaniards were everywhere treated with the same cruelty that they had meted out to the vanquished na tives. All this is reflected in the Spanish American literature of the revolutionary period. Though it falls short of correct literary form, this literature never lacks intensity and direct ness of aim. Much of it is very bitter; and the greater part of it still more markedly local in its point of view. But it has in it a sense of indi viduality and the breath of national freedom which had never before been known in Spanish America. This revolutionary feeling is strongly exhibited in the 'Martha patriotica> of the Ar gentina, L6pez y Planes, which, though it was long the national anthem of the Argentine, is intensely anti-Spanish. Most of the literature of this period is controversial and political and shows all the ear-marks of having been written for revolutionary ends. Little of it is of very great value from a literary point of view. Its worth, however, consists in the fact that it served as a training field for the writers who were to follow in all the countries of Latin America and to produce, in each case, a national literature.