JOSÉ SANTOS CHOCANO: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

José Santos Chocano (1875-1934) was a Peruvian poet who obtained important recognition for trying to explain and synthesize the history and culture of Latin America through poetry. In addition, he is listed as one of the representatives of modernism.

Despite having experimented with various styles of poetry, his writings showed a romantic sense and expressed the poet's love for the landscapes and cultures of the Latin American continent. She expanded her knowledge thanks to the trips she made to several Latin American countries, such as Cuba and Puerto Rico.

At an early age he established a link with activities related to the world of politics, which at some point led him to jail due to his position with respect to the leaders of the time.

Among his most recognized works are Alma América, La epic del morro, Virgin jungle, In the village and Iras santas.

Biography

Early years and studies

José Santos Chocano was born on May 14, 1875 in Peru. He was the son of José Chocano de Zela and María Gastañodi de la Vega.

He was also a great-grandson of Francisco de Zela, who was a precursor of Peruvian independence. In addition, the poet claimed that he was also a descendant of the politician and soldier Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, but there is no exact record of the veracity of his claim.

Later, he began studying at the Alexander von Humboldt Peruvian German School, known as the Lima Institute and which was run by Germans; however, shortly after he changed to the Colegio de Lima. There he generated an important link with the writer and critic of literature Clemente Palma.

A few years later, he entered the National University of San Marcos, located in Lima, to study the career of Letters.

Jail

Approximately four years after starting his university studies, Santos Chocano ventured into journalism to collaborate with a newspaper that had an editorial line contrary to the government of the Peruvian Andrés Cáceres.

Among the publications he made in the newspaper were several satirical verses to criticize the government of Cáceres. For this reason, he was imprisoned before the age of 20 in the Fortaleza del Real Felipe, a military building located in Peru, after being accused of subversion.

During his stay in jail, he met the Peruvian politician Óscar Benavides. In 1895, after spending about six months in detention, he was released after the triumph of the civic-democratic revolution; the new government supported the poet. Shortly after, he began to publish his first collections of poems and was in charge of editing several newspapers.

The experience of having been imprisoned for his political beliefs led him to write the volume of Iras santas the same year of his liberation.

Freedom

After being released from prison, he began to work for important political figures in Peru such as Manuel Candamo, president of the Government Junta, and Elías Malpartida, minister of finance.

In 1895 he obtained the concession of a printing press, with which he could make the edition of Iras santas. A year later, he published a collection of poems. He collaborated with most of the magazines that were published in America at the time, according to the Chocano bibliography.

Shortly after, he married Consuelo Bermúdez, with whom he had three sons. The woman was the inspiration of the poet in the first compositions he made.

It is also presumed that he tried to carry out activities in the coffee farm in the province of Chanchamayo, located in the jungle of that country; However, he was unable to obtain positive results from such activity, so he returned to Lima to dedicate himself to poetry.

His tour of Peru gave him the necessary impetus to write La Selva Virgen, one of his most successful works.

Tour of Latin America

Shortly after making his first publications, the author began touring the American continent as part of a series of diplomatic activities. He managed to visit Colombia and several countries in Central America. In addition, he made a trip to Spain at the beginning of the 20th century that motivated him to move to the capital, Madrid.

In the European country, the work of the new poet was recognized for the first time by literary and artistic groups in Spain, so important artists and writers invited him to recite poems during their meetings.

The experience allowed him to interact with Spanish and Latin American representatives of the literature and arts union. Shortly after, in 1906, he published the collection of poems Alma América. The work gave him recognition in Spain, France and in several Latin American countries.

army

After being linked to an alleged scam to the Bank of Spain, Chocano traveled to countries such as Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Once in Mexico, the Peruvian poet joined the forces of Francisco Villa, known as Pancho Villa, who was a revolutionary and guerrilla leader from Mexico who fought against regimes such as Porfirio Díaz and Victoriano Huerta.

Such activity kept Santos Chocano as an active revolutionary throughout his life; Diplomatic missions allowed him to travel to most of the countries of Central and South America.

In 1915 he traveled to Guatemala, a country in which he collaborated with the dictator Manuel Estrada. His connection with the politician put him at risk of being shot five years later when the president was overthrown. The help of world personalities managed to prevent the poet from being assassinated.

Return to Peru

After being pardoned from the execution, the artist returned to Peru, where he generated a connection with the politician Augusto Bernardino Leguía. In 1922, he received recognition from the Peruvian government as the most outstanding poet of that country.

This is how he was awarded as "The Poet of America" ​​during a ceremony with Leguía, various ministers and delegates from Peruvian provinces. It was also acclaimed by both new and well-known writers.

Back to jail

About three years after the recognition, several students from Peru began to support Mexican politician José Vasconcelos Calderón. The event prompted journalist Edwin Elmore to make a post about the situation, sparking an argument between the reporter and the poet.

Elmore decided to make another post about the discussion he had with Chocano. This made the poet go to the headquarters of the newspaper El Comercio in Peru, where after sustaining a new fight, Chocano shot him.

After the event, the poet was deprived of liberty in the Military Hospital, where he enjoyed communities during the trial. The sentence dictated that Santos Chocano had to serve three years in prison. The judges took into account who he was when making a decision, which significantly shortened his sentence.

Furthermore, it is presumed that the poet continued to attack both the journalist's memory and that of his father while he was detained. The judicial process that he faced motivated him to write three volumes of The book of my process, in 1927.

Stay in Peru

After obtaining his freedom, he decided to move to Santiago de Chile. In his new country, he began to face severe economic problems, so he made an attempt to survive with journalistic content.

His financial situation led him to pawn the recognition he had obtained in 1922 in Lima, Peru. Despite this, his desire to write was not reduced: he made some memoirs, which he published in various newspapers in America; as well as Primicias de Oro in the Indies.

In addition, in 1933 he wrote The Leticia scandal before the conferences in Rio de Janeiro, a work he did after a war between Colombia and Peru took place.

Santos Chocano decided to invest what little money he had left in games of chance, which led to his ruin. He developed an obsession to search for a treasure that had been hidden by the Jesuits in the center of the Chilean city, according to those who knew him.

Death

On December 13, 1934, Santos Chocano was assassinated by an individual on a short-distance train in Santiago de Chile. The man was stabbed three times, killing him almost instantly.

The criminal responsible for the event, identified as Martín Badilla, assured that he was a partner of the poet to search for lost treasures and pointed out that he committed the crime because he was sure that Chocano had obtained profits without giving him his share.

The criminal was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, for which he was confined in an asylum. He died at the scene a few years later.

Despite having died with few economic resources, the body of the poet was transferred to Lima, Peru, and buried in the General Prebísterio Matías Maestro Cemetery Museum, located in that city. Chocano was honored by local officials after his funeral.

Plays

Literary style

Chocano is considered by many as an important representative of the current of modernism. Despite this, there are several arguments about the true current that the poet would have followed when carrying out his works; several theories suggest that his style had a more romantic tendency.

The writings he made, nurtured by the many trips he made around Latin America, reflected the admiration he felt for the landscapes and cultures that he got to know. On the other hand, some authors agree that the poet was inclined towards epic works; others claimed that he had a lyrical tendency.

You will go saints

Written by Chocano in 1895, the same year he was released after facing charges of subversion against the government of Andrés Cáceres, Iras santas is a series of 19 compositions that show the poet's civil protest.

Some hypotheses suggest that this work summarizes the history of the social and cultural life of Peruvians, and that the writings show a visceral attitude on the part of Chocano.

In the village

It was Chocano's second work, which was published in 1895 when the author obtained a concession from a state printing company. In the village is a collection of literary fragments that resulted from the poet's inspiration for rural landscapes.

It is presumed that the work was written by the author when he was approximately 18 years old, in 1983. In addition, In the village you can see the unification of Chocano's qualities, which increased in his later works.

Other authors think that the work could have served as the antithesis of Iras Santas, due to the fact that it has a character of love or sweetness, totally contrary to the first work by Chocano in which a visceral attitude abounds.

Virgin jungle

This work was written thanks to the inspiration that Chocano felt by the natural landscapes of Peru. It had a second edition that was titled with the name of The Virgin Forest, which compiled a set of poems, and was published in 1901 in Paris - France.

The poems developed in Selva virgen were disseminated through different newspapers and collected in said volume.

The epic of the nose

Inspired by the battle of Arica, also known as the assault and taking of the Morro de Arica, which occurred in 1880. In the historical event, several Peruvians voluntarily lost their lives to defend their country.

The work won the gold medal at El Ateneo de Lima, located in Peru, during the contest held in mid-1899. The poem suffered a reduction by the author after winning the award: it went from 1941 verses to 575.

Soul america

Considered by the author as one of his most important works, Alma América was a work published in 1906 and it was a collection of poems that initially collected 100 sonnets. The number increased dramatically thanks to the additional work of Chocano.

The prologue to this collection was made by the Nicaraguan poet and journalist Rubén Darío; it was also dedicated to Alfonso XIII, who was the King of Spain. Several of the poems that are in Alma América became classic pieces of Latin American poetry.

The publication of this work significantly increased the author's prestige in society. In it, he superficially mentioned the vocation of miscegenation that existed in the continent.

References

1. José Santos Chocano, Wikipedia in Spanish, (nd). Taken from wikipedia.org
2. José Santos Chocano, Wikipedia in English, (nd). Taken from wikipedia.org
3. José Santos Chocano, Encyclopedia Britannica, (nd). Taken from britannica.com
4. Biography of José Santos Chocano, The Biography Website, (nd). Taken from thebiography.us
5. José Santos Chocano. History of Peru Online, (nd). Taken from historiaperuana.pe
6. José Santos Chocano. Complete Poems First Volume, (nd). Taken from books.google.com