''Cartas Chilenas'' (in en, Chilean Letters) is an

unfinished Unfinished may refer to: *Unfinished creative work, a work which a creator either chose not to finish or was prevented from finishing. Music * Symphony No. 8 (Schubert) "Unfinished" * ''Unfinished'' (album), 2011 album by American singer Jor ...

series of satirical poems whose authorship is attributed to

Luso-Brazilian Portuguese Brazilians ( pt, luso-brasileiros) are Brazilians, Brazilians whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Portugal. Most of the Portuguese people, Portuguese who arrived throughout the centuries in Brazil sought economic opportunit ...

Neoclassic poet

Tomás António Gonzaga Tomás António Gonzaga (11 August 1744c. 1810) was a Portuguese-born Brazilian poet. One of the most famous Neoclassic colonial Brazilian writers, he was also the ''ouvidor'' and the ombudsman of the city of Ouro Preto (formerly "Vila Rica" ...

. The poems circulated in the city of Vila Rica (present-day Ouro Preto) via pamphlets for several years before the 1789 Minas Conspiracy, but were discontinued after the Conspiracy was dismantled, as Gonzaga was sent to exile in the Island of Mozambique. It is said that the ''Cartas Chilenas'' were inspired by

Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (; ; 18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the principa ...

's ''

Persian Letters ''Persian Letters'' (french: Lettres persanes) is a literary work, published in 1721, by Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, recounting the experiences of two fictional Persian noblemen, Usbek and Rica, who spend several years in France ...

''. The poems were compiled for the first time and published in 1863. They were re-edited several times after that, reaching their present form in 1957 thanks to the extensive research of Portuguese philologist

Manuel Rodrigues Lapa Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * Manu ...

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 Captaincy of Minas Gerais, and the 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 to Portuguese in order to keep the Brazilian governors from making the same mistakes made by Fanfarrão Minésio, the tyrannic governor of Chile. The thirteen letters were written as blank verse poems by "Critilo" (the assumed ''nom de plume'' of

), who lives in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

(actually Vila Rica,

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

), and are addressed to his friend, "Doroteu" (possibly

Cláudio Manuel da Costa Cláudio Manuel da Costa (June 4, 1729 – July 4, 1789) was a Brazilian poet and musician, considered to be the introducer of Neoclassicism in Brazil. He wrote under the pen name Glauceste Satúrnio, and his most famous work is the epic poem '' ...

), who lives in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. In each letter, "Critilo" describes life in Santiago under the despotic and corruption-filled régime of the Chilean governor, "Fanfarrão Minésio" (who is actually Luís da Cunha Meneses). {{poetry-stub Unfinished poems 1863 books Books published posthumously Satirical books