Ariel

Ariel (1900) is a “lay sermon” written for the youth of America by José Enrique Rodó. The work had a great impact in Latin America, with its vision of the United States as an empire of matter or kingdom of Caliban.
Rodó aquí refers to a place, where utilitarianism would have imposed itself on spiritual and moral values. Ariel is inspired by Caliban (1878) by Ernest Renan. It is also part of the modernist current of Rubén Darío and his essay El triunfo de Calibán.
However, Ariel also points elsewhere. Its background is, in our opinion, in the Draft Constitution for Latin America, by Francisco de Miranda and the Convocation to the Congress of Panama, by Simón Bolívar. With Miranda and Bolívar in the background, this text born with the twentieth century, had the right tone to become a continental message.