La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga

In 1959, an epic poem is published, “La Araucana”, by Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga. In this poem the poet tells us about the wars between the Spaniards and the natives. During the Golden Century, Ercilla was considered a great figure in the Spanish Poetry Circles. In "La Araucana" Ercilla places all the great indigenous heroes in a great light like Caupolicán and Lautaro, over those of the Conquistadores from Felipe II. Ercilla placed in grand level the Araucan Chiefs and his epic poem became the first of its kind in the Americas, leaving a Polemic image of the Spanish Government and  its military and religious representatives during the occupation of America.

What do we know of Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga?

Don Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga was born in Madrid on the 7th of August,1533, Nobility and educated, servant of the future King Felipe II. As a result, he was able to travel across Europe. In 1555, a young Alonso began his journey to Perú with Jerónimo de Alderete, who died near Panamá, and later arrived to Chile in 1557, becoming part of the expedition headed by the new governor García Hurtado de Mendoza. Later, on June 26 of the same year, the Spanish Conquistadores disembark on Quiriquina Island, where they went through the once destroyed city of Concepción (today named Penco) were a fort was built to repel the constant attacks from the Araucanos Natives.

After many bloody battles, they continued Southward until they reached the Island of  Chiloé, where the return vogage began. Ercilla  himself points in his poem the fact that he was the first to have reached the coasts of Chilotas, and he is careful to point out the time and date (28-II-1558):

"Aquí llegó, donde otro no ha llegado,
don Alonso de Ercilla, que el primero
en un pequeño barco deslastrado,
con solos diez pasó el desaguadero
el año de cincuenta y ocho entrado
sobre mil y quinientos, por Hebrero,
a las dos de la tarde, el postrer día,
volviendo a la dejada compañía".

(Estrofa XXIX, Canto XXXVI de "La Araucana")
"Here has arrived, where no other has arrived,
Don Alonso de Ercilla, the first one
in a small ship without ballast,
with only ten it went through the Canal
on the year fifty-eigth preceded by 
a thousand five hundred, in February,
at two in the afternoon,  the last day,
returning  to the company left behind.

In this manner, the poet and soldier Ercilla stayed involved with the Wars of  Arauco in 1557  until the next year, something occured that he was exiled by orders of the governor  García Hurtado de Mendoza.

La Araucana was written in eight verse lines (octavas reales) and divided in Three Parts (Tres Partes) with a total of  XXXVII chants, "La Araucana" by don Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, is the firs great epic poem dedicated to the America Conquest and the best done in Castellano. According to Roque Esteban Scarpa, Premio Nacional de Literatura 1980.

"...Chile tiene el honor, gracias a don Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, de ser la única nación posterior a la Edad Media cuyo nacimiento es cantado en un poema épico como lo fueron España con el "Poema del Cid", Francia con "La Chanson de Roland" o el pueblo germano con "Los Nibelungos..." "...Chile has the honor, thanks to Don Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga, of being the only nation after the middle ages being sang in an epic poem as were Spain in the "Poem of  Cid," France in "La Chanson de Roland," of the Germany in "Nibelungenlied."

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 El poema completo, con sus Tres Partes, se publicó en Madrid, por primera vez, en 1590. Since it was found in 1569 ,"La Araucana", was successful , which forced Ercilla to write and publish the second in 1578 and third part in 1589. The complete poem was published in Madrid for the first time in 1590.

Married to María de Bazán and named a Gentleman of the Court and Knight of Santiago, Don Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, who in 1580 was a censurer of books in theCounsil of Castile, died in Madrid on the 29th of November, 1594.