Epistemologia criolla, practica poetica y soberania simbolica en la Nueva Granada: 'El desierto prodigioso y prodigio del desierto' de Pedro de Solis y Valenzuela

This work seeks to relocate El desierto prodigioso y prodigio del desierto (1650 ca.) within the discursive net of 17th Century Spanish Empire, and to make visible its agendas within the context of the New Kingdom of Granada. Hence, this work states the enunciation of a creole epistemology, defined as an interrogative attitude assumed by the colonial subjects on discourses and forms of writing associated with the Metropoli, which statements of truth and authority are proved inadequate in colonial contexts. These subjects are not necessarily spanish descendants born in America; they are called "criollos" because of their elitist attitude towards their american origin along with their mastering of the discursive reason.;El desierto prodigioso has, at least, two agendas: one, explicitly referred in the text as the defense of the autonomy of agustinos recoletos against the conflicts and claims of dominance from the agustinos calzados -the latter wanted to take control of the convents of the former, and to unify the two spiritualities under one rule. This defense is developed in El desierto through the projection of the augistinian convent as an earthly Paradise, a place of spiritual wealth, poetic practice, and buen gobierno.;Another agenda is the promotion of the creole wit as superior expression of self-governance and prudence, against the climate determinism that many authors developed on the "natural" inferiority of the Indies. Both agendas are supported and legitimized by poetry through three elements: its divine origin, its civilizing character, and the consequent task for the poet of founding civilized republics. The eremitic ideal identified with the augustinian convent of La Candelaria desert, and the erudition and invention of a creole elite who found in the model of a retired life the place for a poetic practice are described in the text as plausible ways of intervention within the empire for claiming for a symbolic sovereignty in creole hands.