Rodo, Jose 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. Rodo was a leader of the Modernist movement in Spanish literature (see Latin American literature). In his landmark essay Ariel (1900), Rodo 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), Rodo 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. Rodo was born in Montevideo. He died on May 1, 1917.