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Juan del Valle y Caviedes
Juan del Valle y Caviedes (1645?-1697), often referenced as Caviedes, is a Colonial poet from Viceregal Peru. He belongs chronologically to the Spanish American Baroque Colonial period, and shares much with Baroque writers such as Mateo Rosas de Oquendo, Sor Juana and Bernardo de Balbuena. He is a sharp social and political critic, pointing out the shortcomings and hypocrisies of the traditional and smug Spanish American colonial administrators.
Caviedes was born in Porcuna, Andalucia, Spain in 1645. He came to Peru at an early age and settled in Lima, later spending some time in the mining area of Huancavelica, where life was hard even for a Spaniard at the top of the social pyramid. As has been shown by various critics, a false biography based on the author's satirical works suggested that he dissipated his fortune on gambling, drink, and women of dubious morals and that as a result of having contracted a venereal disease he directed his satirical bite at the damage done by physicians and their indifferent and rapacious attitude toward their patients. Much to the contrary, however, in his satire of doctors and medicine Caviedes is actually following a long-standing satirical Western tradition.
As a writer Caviedes shares many characteristics with several of the writers of Spanish Golden Age, such as Francisco de Quevedo and Luis de Gongora, partially because of his satirical, biting, vulgar, popular, and picaresque wit. But behind this criticism is a sharp social and moral attack on the abuses, injustices, and double standards of the Colonial period. He is also the author of serious love and religious poetry.
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Juan del Valle y Caviedes
