Resumen de La Christiada in its Colonial Context

Galen Yorba Gray

• Fray Diego de Hojeda's La Christiada, an epic recasting of the Passion of Christ composed in colonial Peru, is primarily a Spanish work with universal pretensions, but its colonial context also points to the beginnings of Spanish American self-awareness. Although reference to America it slight in the poem, the author's ideological environment of transplanted Spaniard, Dominican, laborer among lhe poor, ascetic, etc., provides valuable contextualization for a fuller understanding of the interplay of his life and poetic work. It is not an eíther/or question of colony or Spain, but a dialogical both/and correlation. Hojedas monumental epic occupies a distinctive spot in the cultural and spiritual heritage of the Spanish-speaking world. Examination of the colonial context of both poem and poet helps to situate the literary event that is La Christiada