Criollismo

thumb|Rómulo Gallegos Criollismo () is a literary movement that was active from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century throughout Hispanic America. It is considered the Hispanic counterpart to American literary regionalism. Using a realist style to portray the scenes, language, customs and manners of the country the writer was from, especially the lower and peasant classes, criollismo led to an original literature based on the continent's natural elements, mostly epic and foundational. It was strongly influenced by the wars of independence from Spain and also denotes how each country in its own way defines criollo.

==History== According to the German philologist Ulrich Leo, literary criollismo arose in Venezuela at the end of the 19th century, although it will have to wait several decades to find general acceptance in Latin America. Luis Manuel Urbaneja Achelpohl was the first to use and define the term to refer to his own literature in an 1895 essay entitled "On National Literature", where he argues for "patriotic affairs" and the "tropical soul" denouncing a supposed servile cosmopolitanism: "We are here: today as yesterday we come to advocate for essentially American art (...) Come, my brothers, with the spontaneous flower of your intelligence. The future is assured for us."