Spring 2015
SPANISH NEW WORLD POETRY
by
Stephen Zelnick
P
The Landing of Colombus by John Vanderlyn
oetry is a powerful force in Latin America. There is not much positive about the Spanish
Conquest of the New World, but it did establish a Latin America formed by the Spanish
language. Most of South America (except Brazil and a few other nations and locales), all
of Central America, and the most prominent islands of the Caribbean speak Spanish
and share one another’s art and culture. They share, too, a pre-Columbian history of
indigenous peoples – Mayan and Incan, Carib and Taino -- whose heritage persists. They
also share the brutal conquests that enslaved and wiped out so many cultures, the
establishment of an alien Christianity, a century or more of liberation struggles, and the
re-colonization (or its modern equivalent) by the United States. Neruda’s “Educación
del Cacique” (Education of the Chieftain), for example, may have been written with
Chilean tribal people in mind, but it’s meaning is clear a thousand miles north in Puerto
Rico.
The Linnet's Wings