José Santos Chocano Gastañoi (Lima, Perú b. May 14, 1875 - Santiago, d. Chile July 13, 1934) was a Peruvian poet who is also known as "The Singer of Americas", because the first line of one of his most celebrated poems: "I am the singer of the America, Autochthonous and Savage"" (" Yo soy el Cantor de América, autóctono y salvaje", from the poem "Blasón" in Alma América). In the early twentieth century his fame stretched through the continent and even to Madrid and Paris. One of his best-known collections is the 1906 Alma América, which opened with a dedicatory poem addressed to Alfonso XIII of Spain that cast the collection as the rediscovery of Latin America through verse; elsewhere in the collection.