A prolific Modernista poet, José Chocano led a life colored by violence, arrogance, and a sense of adventure. His difficult personality, as well as the autobiographical nature of his poetry, made him an extremely polemical figure. Embodying indigenous and social themes, his verse is well known for its vivid descriptions of not only landscapes and nature but also Spanish American historical characters and episodes. Chocano, who was called "Poet of America," wrote about the continent of South America as a land of economic, social, and industrial promise. At the start of his career Spanish American writers were still trying to establish their identities, and the aesthetic movement of Modernismo, just beginning to take hold at that time in literary circles of the Hispanic world, aided Chocano in his own identity quest. Deeply influenced by this trend, he is recognized as the founder, in 1895, of Peruvian Modernismo. For...