Calle Ercilla

Alonso de Ercilla, born in Madrid in 1533, grew up in the service of the future Philip II and traveled through Europe in his retinue. In London he met the newly appointed governor of Chile and set sail for the Indies, where he fought in the campaigns against the Mapuche. From that experience came his only work, La Araucana, an epic on the war between Spaniards and Araucanians. He composed much of the verse on the ground, in the lulls of the campaign, writing on hides for want of paper, so the story goes. The poem drew notice for portraying the Araucanian enemy with heroic dignity, something rare in the literature of the conquest. Today the street is a short way in the Acacias neighborhood.