His major literary influences were Manuel Gutierrez Nájera, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer and Edgar Allan Poe, Rubén Darío and a taste for modernism for its “oddities” which was influential in the era; but in his work there is also a social element which could have been derived from reading Maxim Gorki and Leo Tolstoy. Subsequently, at the beginning of the 20th century, he took a position as a journalist in the "El Chileno", "La Comedia Humana" and "La Voz del Pueblo" newspapers. This occupation as a journalist served as a medium that allowed Pezoa Véliz to get close – albeit, as reporter - to the workings and customs of the offices of nitrate mines of the north of Chile, which was vividly documented in his short story: "El taita de la oficina". (The office daddy)