This dissertation studies the newspaper articles written by Nemesio R. Canales (1878-1923), who published his work between 1908 and 1923. His literary oeuvre comprises different genres: novels, essays and poetry. Although Puerto Rican literary history establishes Canales within the Modernist movement, this study intends to demonstrate that even though his work shows ideological aspects which relate him to the Modernist's world-view and, moreover, to those that configured the Puerto Rican Modernist period, his discourse anticipates the avant-garde movement The first chapter focuses on the Puerto Rican Modernist movement which ran parallel to the most important event in Puerto Rican reality: the U.S. invasion of 1898. The Puerto Rican writers of the turn of the century brought to literature their preoccupation with the historical and political development of Puerto Rico. The 1898 invasion meant the loss of political hegemony and the imposition of a foreign language: English. Furthermore, it made this generation realize the necessity of configuring a national identity which gave the movement its nationalistic tinge. As a result, the movement was removed from the preciosity and escapism which characterized the Modernist movements of Spanish America The second chapter summarizes the most relevant criticism on Canales' work. We also analyze more carefully and/or reject some of these critics' opinions The last three chapters study in detail the characteristics of Canales' Modernist ideology as well as the options that Modernism itself offered. But these traits show an avant-garde sensibility. We study the discursive strategies that transform the popular and the daily into literary phenomena by the use of such techniques as simile, metaphor and anecdotes of popular tradition, as well as colloquial lexicon. These strategies reflect a profound questioning of the traditional social interpretations that are particular to certain social classes Through his articles, Canales projects himself as a writer that transformed the popular to the realm of literary ideas. Moreover, Canales is the forerunner of the Puerto Rican contemporary writers who have given literary status to the street talk, the language of the folk