The Latin American ecocultural reader

Introduction: Genealogies of Latin American Environmental Culture

New World Natures

"Letter to Various Persons Describing the Results of His First Voyage and Written on the Return Journey" (1493) / Christopher Columbus

From General and Natural History of the Indies (1535-57) / Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés

From The Discovery of the Amazon (ca. 1542) / Gaspar de Carvajal

"Plague of Ants" (ca. 1561) / Bartolomé de las Casas

"Of the Trees, Herbs, Roots, and Exquisite Fruits Produced by the Land of Brazil" (1578) / Jean de Léry

"Of the Three Kinds of Mixtures That Will Be Dealt with in This History" (1590) / José de Acosta

From Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiché Maya (ca. 1554-58; 1701)

From Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru (1609) / Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca

Creole Landscapes

From The Spiritual Conquest Accomplished by the Religious of the Society of Jesus in the Provinces of Paraguay, Paraná, Uruguay, and Tapé (1639) / Antonio Ruiz de Montoya

From The True Life of Saint Rosa of Lima, Patron Saint of America, the Philippines, and the Indies (1897) / Saint Rosa of Lima (canonized 1671)

"She Flees to the Desert and God Sends Her Back Home" (1697) / Saint Mariana of Quito

From Brazil at the Dawn of the Eighteenth Century (1711) / André João Antonil

From Buffon's Natural History, Abridged (1749-88) / Georges-Louis Leclerc, Count Buffon

"On the Goodness and Excellence of the Open Spaces of This City and the Entertainment and Recreation Outings That One Enjoys" (1761) / José Martín Félix de Arrate y Acosta

From Geographical Description of Mexico (1780) / Francisco Javier de Clavijero

From The Geographical, Natural, and Civil History of Chile (1782) / Juan Ignacio Molina

Nature and the Foundation of the Nation-States

"My Delirium on Chimborazo" (1822) / Simón Bolívar

"Ode to Tropical Agriculture" (1826) / Andrés Bello

"Observations on the Terrain of Vincocaya with regard to the Project of Redirecting the Natural Course of its Waters and Transporting them along the Zumbai River to the Fields of Arequipa" (1830) / Simón Rodríguez

From Journey to Paraguay in the Years 1818 to 1826 (1835) / Johann Rudolf Rengger

"In a Storm" (1822) / José María Heredia y Heredia

From Sab (1841) / Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda

"Physical Aspect of the Argentine Republic, and the Ideas, Customs, and Characters It Engenders" (1845) / Domingo F. Sarmiento

"Former Physical and Social Conditions of the New World" (1861) / José María Samper

Regionalism and the Export Boom

"Our America" (1891) / José Martí

"The Invalids" (1904) / Baldomero Lillo

"The Log-Fishermen" (1913) / Horacio Quiroga

From The Vortex (1924) / José Eustasio RiveraH

"Mun Hospital" (1935) / César Uribe Piedrahita

From 53rd Parallel South (1936) / Juan Marín

"The Birds" (1938) / Graciliano Ramos

"Green Destiny" (1950) / Ramón Amaya Amador

Modern Metropoles

"In the Country" (1893) / Julián del Casal

"Tree Haters" (1907) / Rafael Barrett

"Le tour du propriétaire" (1911) / Manuel González Prada

From The American Anarchist City (1914) / Pierre Quiroule

"Cannibalist Manifesto" (1928) / Oswald de Andrade

Poems (1890-1907) / Rubén Darío

Poems (1918-38) / Alfonsina Storni

"The Tree" (1939) / María Luisa Bombal

Developmentalism

"The Heights of Macchu Picchu" (1947) / Pablo Neruda

"Luvina" (1953) / Juan Rulfo

"The Ceiba Tree" (1954) / Lydia Cabrera

"Bridge over the World" (1958) / Jose̹ Mari̹a Arguedas

"Life in the Woods" (1966) / Esteban Montejo

From The Passion According to G.H. (1964) / Clarice Lispector

"Farewell to the Seven Falls" (1982) / Carlos Drummond de Andrade

From I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (1985) / Rigoberta Menchú

Neoliberalism and Globalization

"The Landowners Strike Back" (1989) / Chico Mendes

"In Search of the Present" (1990) / Octavio Paz

From Única Looking Out to Sea (1994) / Fernando Contreras Castro

From Waslala (1996) / Gioconda Belli

Subcomandante Marcos

A Letter from Subcomandante Marcos to Saramago (1999)

"Greenpeace" (2000) / Eduardo del Llano

Poems (2008-12) / Esthela Calderón

Poems (2014) / Juan Carlos Galeano

End Times: Climate Change and Mass Extinction

Poems (1993) / José Emilio Pacheco

Poems (1994-2014) / Homero Aridjis

"Indian Hut" (1997) / Mayra Montero

"Ceremony of Love"; "Ceremony of Death" (1998) / Jaime Luis Huenún

From Fever Dream (2014) / Samanta Schweblin

Goldman Environmental Prize Acceptance Speech (2015) / Berta Cáceres

From Laudato Si' (2015) / Pope Francis

Poems (2013) / Eduardo Chirinos.