SOURCE: Torres-Ríoseco, Arturo. “Gaucho Literature.” In The Epic of Latin American Literature, pp. 133-67. New York: Oxford University Press, 1942.

In the following excerpt from a longer work on Latin American writing, Torres-Ríoseco traces the evolution of Gaucho literature from its folkloric origins to its later incarnations in the novels of the 1920's.

The Gaucho: Origins of Folk Literature

Spanish America's literary history, like her history in general, may be viewed as a continuous struggle for independence. That is to say, for ‘literary Americanism.’ This concept does not imply any chauvinistic notions of originality at all costs; it does not suggest that to treat of new topics, Spanish American writers must necessarily abandon the achievements of literary technique and tradition. Rather, it describes the growing effort of a New World to express that which is closest to its soil and truest to its racial temperament. This literary...