The Culture and the Colonial Letters in Santo Domingo

La cultura y las letras coloniales en Santo Domingo (The Culture and the Colonial Letters in Santo Domingo) trace a historical panorama of the literary tradition of the Dominican Republic. This work by Pedro Henríquez Ureña shows his intellectual wealth with an abundant bibliographical documentation. Throughout Spanish America, the independence movement and the concerns of the new life made us forget and disdain the colonial existence for a hundred years, proclaiming a rupture that only had reality in the intention. In fact the traditions and habits of the colony persisted, although people, works, events were forgotten. There was an effort to break with the culture of three centuries: to enter the modern world, it was urgent to undo the medieval framework that inhibited us -our colonial era is our Middle Ages-; but we end up destroying even the useful portion of our inheritance.

(Description has been translated into English, book edition is in Spanish)