Not only is La Araucana considered the first work in Spanish of literary merit produced about the Americas, it is also one of the finest epic poems of the Spanish Golden Age.
Not only is La Araucana considered the first work in Spanish of literary merit produced about the Americas, it is also one of the finest epic poems of the Spanish Golden Age. The work tells of the conquest of Chile and of the Arauco War (1554-1557) in which the Spanish fought the indigenous Araucanians (modern-day Mapuche). It is considered the cornerstone of a literary tradition in Chile with the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda describing Ercilla as “the inventor and liberator” of Chile.