Epic of Chile:
Stories that forged a nation

Chile is a land of poets, but its literary tradition did not begin with the monumental works of Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, but centuries before, with the pen of authors such as Alonso de Ercilla and Alonso de Ovalle. These and other writers marveled at the landscapes, the people, the fauna and the history of this southern region of the world. However, while in other times La Araucana was even learned and recited by heart, the verses that forged the first literary chapter of the nation are little known today, and their presence in the classrooms is increasingly scarce.

Faced with this scenario, the USS Humanities Lab has developed an interdisciplinary and multimedia project that fuses tradition and innovation. Through a book, a video and an interactive digital humanities website, we use the media of our present day to bring these texts written 400 years ago, but whose validity remains intact, to a wide and diverse audience.