Lima Fundada: Identity Politics in a Providential Epic of Conquest

FAIN: FT-51471-03

Jerry M. Williams
West Chester University of Pennsylvania (West Chester, PA 19383-0001)

The 1732 epic poem chronicles the history of cultural-political formations and affirms Creole identity through an architecture of conquest influenced by French neoclassicism and revisionist Bourbon precepts about history. Acknowledging epic models of conquerors, Peralta shifts emphasis from a European to a Creole interpretation of the conquest, where it is defined by governance, service and development over arms, and by a concept of political discourse authorizing religious discourse (conquest of providentialism and a invitation to conquest). Summer research to write a introductory essay leading to publication of the scarce poem will center Peralta within the canon of Latin American letters by refocusing his unique Creole-identity politics.