Abstract

This essay will discuss a book by Luko Hilje Quirós, which recounts the behind-thescenes creation of Himno al árbol that has been sung in school by several generations of Costa Ricans for almost a hundred years. It is a story inspired by the nostalgia of childhood, but it also generates many reflections on the figure of the poet José Santos Chocano, his historical moment and the conformation of a continental identity for Hispanic America, a subject in which the natural history of these lands has much to express and teach at the very heart of the creative phenomenon.

Keyword: Naturphilosophy; naturopoetics; transformability; dynamism; imagination; esotericism; identities; continental consciousness; politics; evolutionism