DescriptionMy dissertation illuminates the ecopoetic work of three distinct poets from the Southern Cone region of South America and contends that their ecopoetry demonstrates an awareness of the interrelational reality of nonhuman-human relationships. More in particular, my dissertation focuses on the importance of place and ethics in Spanish American ecological thought. Using the support of ethical ecological thinking from such critics as Bruno Latour, Timothy Morton, and Ursula Heise, I study the poetry of the Argentine poets Juan L. Ortiz (1896 - 1978) and Alfredo Veiravé (1928 - 91) and the Chilean poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña (1948 -). Principally, I take an ecocritical approach and determine that each of these poets significantly contribute to a grossly understudied reading of Spanish American poetry: ecopoetry. With the historical backdrop of before, during, and beyond a critical era in global environmentalism movements — a time centered in the 1960s and 1970s — known in this study as the environmental turn, I frame these poets’ work chronologically as affected or not affected by the growing globalization of environmentalism. More importantly, my dissertation explores the ways in which these poets present the interconnectedness of nonhumans and humans as essential to a complete understanding of humanity’s role in both the preservation and destruction of global and local ecosystems.