Criollismo

Criollismo is a literary movement also known as costumbrismo that was active from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century in Latin America, and is considered equivalent to American literary regionalism. Using a realist style to portray the scenes, language, customs and manners of the country the writer was from, especially the lower and peasant classes, criollismo led to an original literature based on the continent's natural elements, mostly epic and foundational. It was strongly influenced by the wars of independence from Spain and also denotes how each country in its own way defines criollo, which in Latin America refers to locally-born people of Spanish ancestry.^[1]

Notable criollista writers

Notable criollista writers and works include: [Mariano Latorre]], Augusto D’Halmar and Baldomero Lillo from Chile, Francisco Lazo Martí and Rómulo Gallegos’s “Doña Bárbara” (1929) from Venezuela, José Eustasio Rivera’s jungle novel “La vorágine” (1924) from Colombia; Horacio Quiroga (Uruguay-Argentina), Ricardo Güiraldes, Benito Lynch (Argentina), Mario Augusto Rodriguez (Panama), Mario Vargas Llosa and Manuel Gonzales Prada (Peru).

Criollismo in Chile

In Chile, the criollismo movement shifted the cultural focus from urban life to rural life, and incorporated the rural world into the formation of the national identity. Some of the most representative Chilean criollista works are: Baldomero Lillo’s novels “Sub Terra” and “Sub Sole”, Mariano Latorre’s novels “Zurzulita” and “Cuna de Condors” (Cradle of Condors), Federico Gana’s novel “Días de campo” (Countryside Days) and Antonio Acevedo Hernández’s plays “Árbol Viejo” and “Chañarcillo”.^[2]

See also

• Literature of Latin America
• Chilean literature

References