180 Hispanic America
ture reflect these two important periods of our history.
The life of the Incas and the picturesque legends of the
early days of the colonial period were collected and re-
corded by the historian Garcilaso de la Vega in a style full
of ingenuity, color, and grace.
The different aspects of the Peruvian colonial life, which
are reproduced more or less in all the countries of Spanish
America, were painted by the gifted pen of Ricardo Palma,
who created a new literary genus intermediate between
history and fiction. His Tradiciones are original produc-
tions in Spanish-American literature that possess, at one
and the same time, grace and the maliciousness of Spanish
literature.
The legends of Garcilaso portrayed the historical back-
ground of Spanish-American literature and culture, but they
became active and dynamic in the productions that sprang
up and gathered about the struggle for an independent life
and democratic organization and social and pedagogical
reforms.
The letters and speeches of Bolivar reflect the thoughts
and ideals of all Spanish America during the opening years
of the period of independence. After the democratic and
republican ideal, proclaimed with inimitable eloquence in
the documents written by the Liberator, there was to come
a new ideal, and it was that of the mastery of the soil, the
wresting of its wealth and resources: the ideal of economic
education in order to strengthen the political organism;
and these ideals, heralded by Sarmiento and Alberdi, mark
the second stage of our intellectual evolution. At the pres-
ent moment we are witnessing the birth of new ideals.
It is true that the larger part of the Spanish-American
people desire to strengthen the economic organism, to ex-
ploit the natural resources, to increase their population,