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El poeta, cuya influencia es grande, es mi abuelo.

El poeta, cuya influencia es grande, es mi abuelo.
The poet, whose influence is great, is my grandfather.
From Lesson 267:Relative possessive adjectives (cuyo)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El poeta, cuya influencia es grande, es mi abuelo.

Why is it cuya and not cuyo if the poet is a man?
The word for "whose" (cuyo, cuya, cuyos, cuyas) must match the gender and number of the thing being possessed, not the owner. Here, it matches influencia (feminine, singular), so it becomes cuya, even though the poet (el poeta) is masculine.
Wait, isn't poeta feminine since it ends in "-a"?
Actually, poeta is traditionally a masculine word (el poeta). Many Spanish words ending in "-ta" or "-ma" that come from Greek are masculine. If the poet were a woman, you would say la poeta (or la poetisa), but the article el here tells us the grandfather is a man.
Why is it grande and not the shortened form gran?
You only shorten grande to gran when it comes directly before a singular noun, like in the phrase una gran influencia (a great influence). Because the adjective comes after the verb es in this sentence, it keeps its full form: es grande.
Is it possible to use de quien instead of cuya to mean "whose"?
You could say la influencia de quien (literally, "the influence of whom"), but cuya influencia is the standard, natural way to say "whose influence." The word cuyo is perfectly designed for this exact situation where "whose" is directly followed by the noun being possessed.

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