Juan de Espinosa Medrano
Encyclopedia
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian cleric, preacher, author of philosophical
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and literary tracts, and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
. The year and place of his birth, as well as his ethnic origins, have been a matter of dispute. Some scholars believe that Espinosa Medrano was of Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
ancestry and thus discriminated against, during his career, by colonial and ecclesiastical authorities. Clorinda Matto de Turner
Clorinda Matto de Turner
Clorinda Matto de Turner was a Peruvian writer who lived during the age of the Latin American independence movements. Her own independence inspired women throughout the region as her writings sparked controversy in her own culture.- Biography :She was born and raised in Cuzco, Peru...
wrote an “indigenist” legend around Espinosa Medrano, making him a man of indigenous ancestry, “but archival research has shown that there is no evidence that Espinosa Medrano was a pitifully poor Indian, but on the contrary, that he was a man of fairly substantial means...closer to the figure of a ‘baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
gentleman’...”
He may have been born at Cálcauso in the Apurímac Region
Apurímac Region
Apurímac is a region in southern-central Peru. It is bordered on the east by the Cusco Region, on the west by the Ayacucho Region, and on the south by the Arequipa and Ayacucho regions...
.
It is known that he entered the Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
of San Antonio Abad in Cuzco. There, as a young student, he wrote many of his plays. He wrote plays in both Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Quechua
Quechua languages
Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...
. He wrote in Spanish the drama Amar su propia muerte (To Love One’s Own Death) (ca. 1645). Characters of this play include Sísara, a general of Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
; Jabín, king of Canaan; Jael; Barac, a general of the armies of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
He wrote in Quechua a religious play, El hijo pródigo (also known as Auto sacramental del hijo pródigo; The Prodigal Son
Parable of the Prodigal Son
The Prodigal Son, also known as the Lost Son and the Prodigal Father, is one of the parables of Jesus. It appears in only one of the Canonical gospels of the New Testament. According to the Gospel of Luke a father extravagantly gives his sons their inheritance before he dies...
), as well as a mythological piece, El rapto de Proserpina (The Abduction of Proserpina
Proserpina
Proserpina or Proserpine is an ancient Roman goddess whose story is the basis of a myth of Springtime. Her Greek goddess' equivalent is Persephone. The probable origin of her name comes from the Latin, "proserpere" or "to emerge," in respect to the growing of grain...
). The theatrical piece Ollantay is also attributed to him.
In 1654, he graduated from the Jesuit university of San Ignacio de Loyola.
He also wrote a piece defending Góngora’s
Gongora
Gongora, abbreviated Gga in horticultural trade, is a member of the Orchid family . It consists of 65 species known from Central America, Trinidad, and tropical South America, with most species found in Colombia...
poetry called Apologético en favor de Don Luis de Góngora, Príncipe de los poetas lyricos de España: contra Manuel de Faria y Sousa, Cavallero portugués (1662). In the Apologético, published in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
in 1662, Espinosa Medrano eruditely displays his knowledge of classical and contemporary literature. To support his arguments, Espinosa Medrano refers to, among others, Apuleius
Apuleius
Apuleius was a Latin prose writer. He was a Berber, from Madaurus . He studied Platonist philosophy in Athens; travelled to Italy, Asia Minor and Egypt; and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the...
, Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
, the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, Camoens, Cervantes
Cervantes
-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...
, Erasmus, Faria
Manuel de Faria e Sousa
Manuel de Faria e Sousa was Portuguese historian and poet during the period of the Iberian Union, frequently writing in Spanish.right|thump|300px|Portrait of Manuel de Faria e Sousa in Ásia portuguesa...
, Garcilaso, Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
, Lope de Vega
Lope de Vega
Félix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature...
, and Pedro de Oña
Pedro de Oña
Pedro de Oña is considered the first known poet born in Chile, and is best remembered for his verse epic poem Primera parte de Arauco domado . Born in Angol, he was the son of a military captain, Gregorio de Oña, who had perished during the conquest of Chile by Spain...
. His defense of Góngora has been viewed as "a plea for recognition on behalf of himself and of writers living and working on the periphery of the Spanish empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
."
Antonio Cortéz de la Cruz, one of his disciples, collected Espinosa Medrano's sermons and published them posthumously in Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
, in a book entitled La novena maravilla (The Ninth Wonder) (1695).
Espinosa Medrano also wrote La Lógica (Logic), the first volume of a tract devoted to the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, which was published in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1688.
Sources
- Atlas departamental del Perú, varios autores, Ediciones Peisa S.A., Lima, Perú, 2003 ISBN 9972-40-257-6
- El Perú en los tiempos modernos, Julio R. Villanueva Sotomayor, Ediciones e Impresiones Quebecor World Perú S.A., Lima , Perú, 2002.
- Historia de la República del Perú, Jorge Basadre Grohmann, Diario "El Comercio", Lima, Perú, 2005. ISBN 9972-205-62-2.
- Nuevo Atlas del Perú y el Mundo, Juan Augusto Benavides Estrada, Editorial Escuela Nueva S.A., Lima, Perú, 1991.