Juan del Valle y Caviedes

Who was Juan del Valle y Caviedes?

Juan del Valle y Caviedes, often referenced as Caviedes, was a Colonial poet from Viceregal Peru. He belongs chronologically to the Spanish American Baroque Colonial period, and shares much with Baroque writers such as Mateo Rosas de Oquendo, Sor Juana and Bernardo de Balbuena. He was a sharp social and political critic, pointing out the shortcomings and hypocrisies of the traditional and smug Spanish American colonial administrators.

Caviedes was born in Porcuna, Andalucía, Spain in 1645. He came to Peru at an early age and settled in Lima, later spending some time in the mining area of Huancavelica, where life was hard even for a Spaniard at the top of the social pyramid. As has been shown by various critics, a false biography based on the author's satirical works suggested that he dissipated his fortune on gambling, drink, and women of dubious morals and that as a result of having contracted a venereal disease he directed his satirical bite at the damage done by physicians and their indifferent and rapacious attitude toward their patients. Much to the contrary, however, in his satire of doctors and medicine Caviedes is actually following a long-standing satirical Western tradition.