June 2022 - Page 2 of 3 - Ecuadorian Literature

Temístocles José Araúz Rojas

Dr. Temístocles José Araúz Rojas (Machala, October 14, 1871 – ?) was an Ecuadorian doctor, writer, and politician. His best known work is the hymn of El Oro province. He wrote political articles for several newspapers in the country, including El Telégrafo, Diario de Avisos, and El Tiempo. He served as governor of El Oro province and then senator for 9 years.

César Salcedo Parrales

César Salcedo Parrales, pseudonym Galo Salcedo (Machala, Ecuador, August 22, 1938 – August 16, 2011) was an Ecuadorian writer, painter, educator, journalist and historian. He authored approximately 13 books and several articles for various publications. He primarily wrote historical works about Machala and the province of El Oro. He was a member of the Association of Latin American and Caribbean Historians, the Association of Historians of Ecuador, and the House of Ecuadorian Culture’s history section in El Oro. The provincial historical archive bears his name.

Arturo Montesinos Malo

Arturo Montesinos Malo (Cuenca, August 31, 1913 – May 23, 2009) was an Ecuadorian novelist, professor, and translator who lived in the United States for many years where he worked as a translator at the United Nations in New York. In 1959, he received the “José de la Cuadra” Award for his short story collection “Arcilla indócil,” which is considered by many to be his best work. Some of his Spanish-to-English translations of contemporary writers’ short stories and poems appeared in Letras del Ecuador.

Walter Bellolio

Walter Bellolio (Guayaquil, 1930 – 1974) was a well-regarded Ecuadorian short story writer. During his lifetime, he published a number of short story collections, and his work has appeared in several anthologies. He traveled to Spain in 1974 to publish the book that would make him famous, “Crónica del hombre que aprendió a llorar,” [Story of the Man Who Learned to Cry] but was killed by a car that struck him shortly after arriving. The House of Ecuadorian Culture published the book posthumously in 1975. He is the maternal grandfather of the writer Daniela Alcívar Bellolio.

A la costa Movie

“A la costa” is a 1994 movie directed by Carl West based on the novel by Luis A. Martínez.

7 Lunas, 7 Serpientes Movie

7 Lunas, 7 Serpientes is a 1996 movie based on the 1970 novel “Siete lunas y siete serpientes” by Demetrio Aguilera Malta.

El chulla Romero y Flores Movie (1995 Film)

Ecuavisa, 1995

“El chulla Romero y Flores,” a 1958 novel by Jorge Icaza, was made into a TV movie for Ecuavisa in 1995. Carl West directed the film, which was shot in Ecuador. The story is set in 1950s Ecuador and follows the activities of the chulla Luis Alfonso Romero y Flores, including his job as a bureaucrat, bohemian nights spent with friends, and his romance with Rosario Santacruz.

Cecilia Ansaldo

Cecilia Ansaldo Briones (Guayaquil, 1949) is an Ecuadorian professor, essayist, and literary critic. She is currently a professor at both Casa Grande University and the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil in Ecuador. In 2015, she became a member of the Ecuadorian Language Academy, a correspondent organization of the Royal Spanish Academy. She is a member of the Mujeres del Ático group and a founding member of the Open Book Station Cultural Center. She writes an opinion column for the newspaper El Universo. She has chaired the Guayaquil International Book Fair’s content committee since 2015.

Dalton Osorno

Dalton Osorno (Jipijapa, 1958) is an Ecuadorian writer, poet, literary critic, and retired professor. His short novel, “Sonata para jaibas y cangrejos,” won the 2020 La Linares award, which he shared that year with Hans Behr Martinez, who was recognized for his own short novel. Orsono has published a collection of short stories and several collections of poetry. His book of poems, “No hay peor calamidad, desfachatez, infatuamiento que un poeta enamorado,” was awarded the Unique Prize at the VII National Literature Contest in Guayaquil. He has lived in Guayaquil since 1970.

Verónica Coello Moreira

Verónica Coello Moreira (Guayaquil, 1975) is an Ecuadorian journalist, writer, and university and high school professor. She is the author of the novel “Memoria de Papel” (2021), which won the Miguel Riofro National Literary Award, as well as the short story collection “La cena” (2017). She is a columnist for the newspapers El Universo (Ecuador) and El Peruano (Peru), as well as the co-host of the political talk show “Al día.”

Gabriela Vargas

Gabriela Vargas Aguirre (Guayaquil, 1984) is an Ecuadorian poet. Her first collection of poems, “La ruta de la ceniza” (2017), which dealt with her mother’s death, received critical acclaim. She was able to publish the book thanks to a competitive grant from the Ministry of Culture and Patrimony. She has participated in various poetry festivals in Ecuador and other South American nations and her poems have been published in several anthologies. In 2020 her second poetry collection, “Lugares que no existen en las guías turísticas,” won the Vicente Huidobro International Poetry Prize and was published in Spain in 2021 by Valparaíso Ediciones.

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (1989) is a writer from Ecuador. In 2020 she published, “The Undocumented Americans,” which was among Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2020, it was also a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Writing for The New York Times, Caitlin Dickerson called the book “captivating and evocative.” Cornejo graduated from Harvard in 2011, becoming the first undocumented immigrant to do so. She was an Emerson Collective fellow, and as of September 2020 is a Ph.D. candidate in the American studies program at Yale. Her articles have been published in The Atlantic, Elle, Glamour, n+1, The New Republic, The New York Times, and Vogue.

Gastón Calderón

Gastón Calderón Villegas (Guayaquil, November 25, 1993) is an Ecuadorian writer of young adult novels. He has published over 8 books, including “Primero es ella,” which made him the best-selling author in Ecuador of 2019. In 2023, he was honored with the prestigious Gold Medal for Cultural Diffusion by the association La Renaissance Française in Ecuador. The medal was presented to Calderón on January 4th at La Madriguera bookstore by Joëlle Cattan, a French writer and representative of the association.

Margarita Barriga

Margarita Barriga Pino (Guayaquil, 1940) is an Ecuadorian children’s literature author. She is married to Armando Baquerizo, with whom she has eight children and twenty grandchildren. She took Theater and Pedagogy courses and was a teacher of Puppetry and Education at the Santiago de Guayaquil Catholic University for fifteen years. She has performed puppet theater and theater plays. She has owned a bookstore since 1985, where she teaches reading encouragement workshops for children and teachers.

Kerly Palacios

Kerly Palacios Escobar (Guayaquil, 1994) is an Ecuadorian writer and poet. She has published two poetry collections, “El desvelo de mis versos” (2018) and “Secuelas” (2020). In 2021, she published her first novel, “No puedo hacerte el amor,” an erotic romance about a couple who cannot consummate their marriage. She claims to have written it in just four hours in December 2020, while character development and editing took another six months. She has taken part in the International Book Festival of Guayaquil.