Epic of Chile: Colonial literature on the big screen

The USS Humanities Lab, in collaboration with The Sign agency, developed this video in a giant screen format for the Tobalaba Urban Market. The video displays a transition of images from the first editions of La Araucana (Alonso de Ercilla) and La Histórica Relación del Reyno de Chile (Alonso de Ovalle), along with a selection of texts from these works of Chilean colonial literature. The production is being shown on the giant screen that connects the MUT with Tobalaba Metro station in Santiago, Chile, during November 2025.

The project aimed to create and disseminate a four-and-a-half-minute animation (shown intermittently during the day) that is being exhibited on the giant screen at the Metro and Tobalaba Urban Market (MUT) five times a day from Monday to Friday and seven times a day on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, throughout the entire month of November. This allows the historical and literary richness of Chile to be shared with a wide and diverse audience, thus revealing the dialogues between both texts, which enable us to showcase the descriptions of Chile, its geography, its people, and its struggles. These elements helped consolidate and shape our nation, revaluing the genius and contribution of these two significant treasures of literary and historical sources that gave Chile its character in its early steps.

The San Sebastián University, through its academics and students from the involved programs, committed to producing an animation that was created by professors and students from the Animation Production Workshop of the Digital Animation Design program at the Concepción campus, in collaboration with professors and students from the History and Literature programs, guided by the creative team. All of this was accompanied by the musical backdrop of colonial baroque music by the Jesuit priest Bernardo Havestadt (18th century) and his Mass in Mapudungun, Chili Dúgú, performed by Víctor Rondón and Syntagma Musicum, along with the children's choir of Huilliche children from Castro, Chiloé.

The project aimed to contribute to the professional training of students, strengthening their technical, creative, and collaborative skills, and promoting greater awareness and appreciation of Chilean cultural heritage both within the university community and in society at large.

The video could be seen live and in real time on the MUT screen during November and on the YouTube Channel of the USS Humanities Lab.