Rodó, José Enrique, << roh DOH, hoh ZAY ayn REE kay >> (1872?-1917), was a Uruguayan thinker and essayist. He believed in the human spirit’s infinite capacity to renew itself, but he feared that humanity was pursuing material goals at the expense of the spirit. Rodó was a leader of the Modernist movement in Spanish literature (see Latin American literature (Modernism)). In his landmark essay Ariel (1900), Rodó urged young Latin Americans to maintain their ideals in their intellectual and spiritual development, avoiding the materialism he claimed was damaging the potential of United States culture. In his philosophical work Motives of Proteus (1909), Rodó continued his recommendations for the direction of the mind and spirit. He discouraged the pursuit of technical knowledge in favor of the total cultivation of wisdom.
Rodó was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, probably in July 1872. He died on May 1, 1917.
