Theatre in Spanish America in the nineteenth century was limited to a few larger cities. Neoclassicism was dominant until about 1810; thereafter the dominant aesthetic was essentially romantic, although often disguised by forms borrowed from other schools. While European Romanticism disappeared after mid century, the Spanish American version is more long lasting, and is closely related to two developments which span the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Costumbrismo, the depiction of regional customs which is often a mask for growing nationalism, and a popularly based urban theatre. Traditional terms such as Neoclassicism, Romanticism, post-Romanticism, or Modernism are misleading, for these trends often coexist and are profoundly influenced by romantic attitudes. These complexities and the difficulties involved in treating jointly a number of national literatures make the historiography of Spanish American letters a complicated and often polemical undertaking on which there is no broad agreement. For purposes of convenience, the organization used here is that developed by José Juan Arrom, which follows a generational scheme based on a thirty-year pattern. This deals adequately with literary change and development overall if applied with flexibility allowing for the considerable variations within individual nations and each generation.

The Generation of 1804

Although it includes the movement for political independence, the Generation of 1804, born between 1774 and 1804, is a transitional movement, a tie to the past rather than a rupture with the status quo. There were no profound socio-economic changes, despite political chaos, and the period tends toward the retention of forms and ideas inherited from the preceding generation.