View source for Cartas Chilenas

{{Infobox Book
|name          = Cartas Chilenas
|author        = [[Tomás António Gonzaga]]
|country       = Brazil
|language      = [[Portuguese language]]
|subject       = Satire
|genre         = Poetry, epistolary novel
|pub_date      = [[1863 in literature|1863]]
|media_type    =
|pages         =
}}
'''''Cartas Chilenas''''' (in {{langx|en|Chilean Letters}}) is an [[unfinished creative work|unfinished]] series of satirical poems attributed to [[Portuguese Brazilian|Luso-Brazilian]] [[Neoclassicism|Neoclassic]] poet [[Tomás António Gonzaga]]. The poems circulated in the city of [[Ouro Preto|Vila Rica]] (now Ouro Preto) via pamphlets for several years before the [[Inconfidência Mineira|1789 Minas Conspiracy]], but were discontinued after the Conspiracy was dismantled, as Gonzaga was exiled to the [[Island of Mozambique]]. It is said that the ''Cartas Chilenas'' were inspired by [[Montesquieu]]'s ''[[Persian Letters]]''.

The poems were first compiled and published in 1863. They were re-edited several times thereafter, reaching their present form in 1957, thanks to the extensive research of Portuguese philologist Manuel Rodrigues Lapa.

==Plot and setting==
''Cartas Chilenas'' is a satirical poem in the shape of an [[epistolary novel]], indirectly written "in honor" of Luís da Cunha Meneses, then-governor of the [[Minas Gerais|Captaincy of Minas Gerais]], and the [[List of Portuguese monarchs|Portuguese Crown]]. It begins with a fictional foreword, in which an anonymous Brazilian man explains how the book came into being: he obtained a copy of a series of letters from a man coming to Brazil from an unnamed [[Hispanic America]] country, and decided to translate these letters from [[Spanish language|Spanish]] to [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] to prevent Brazilian governors from making the same mistakes as Fanfarrão Minésio, the tyrannical governor of Chile.

The thirteen letters were written as [[blank verse]] poems by "Critilo" (the assumed ''nom de plume'' of [[Tomás António Gonzaga]]), who lives in [[Santiago]], [[Chile]] (actually [[Ouro Preto|Vila Rica]], [[Minas Gerais]]), and are addressed to his friend, "Doroteu" (possibly [[Cláudio Manuel da Costa]]), who lives in [[Madrid]]. In each letter, "Critilo" describes life in Santiago under the despotic and corrupt régime of the Chilean governor, "Fanfarrão Minésio" (who is actually Luís da Cunha Meneses).

{{wikisourcelang|pt|Cartas Chilenas}}

{{poetry-stub}}

[[Category:Unfinished poems]]
[[Category:1863 books]]
[[Category:Books published posthumously]]
[[Category:Satirical books]]
[[Category:Epistolary novels]]