Juan Manuel Rodríguez López

Juan Manuel Rodríguez López is a novelist, short story writer, literary critic, columnist and professor. Born in Bilbao, Spain in 1945, Rodríguez is a naturalized Ecuadorian citizen and has lived in Quito most of his adult life. Rodríguez’ award-winning fiction includes the novels El poder de los vencidos (2003), El pulso de la nada (1996), and El Espantapájaros (1990 & 1995). In 1990, his short story collection Fricciones won the prestigious Aurelio Espinosa Pólit Prize.

Man of Ashes – controversy

Man of Ashes is a book co-authored by Salomon Isacovici and Juan Manuel Rodriguez which was published in Mexico in 1990 as A7393: Hombre de Cenizas. The book recounted Isacovici’s youth in Romania, his years in Nazi Germany, and his eventual emigration to Ecuador. It was described by its publisher as a “cruel and truthful testimony of the Nazi concentration camps.” The book was awarded the Fernando Jeno literary prize by Mexico’s Jewish community in 1991. In 1995, the University of Nebraska Press planned an English translation by Dick Gerdes, a professor at George Mason University, Virginia. The university press described the book as important to Holocaust studies as a rare account of a Romanian and Latin American Jew. However, its publication was delayed by a dispute about the book’s principal authorship and status as a novel or autobiography. Isacovici asserted that the book was his memoir, and that he had hired Rodriguez to improve the Spanish text. Rodriguez threatened legal action, stating that the book was fictionalized, incorporated some of his own memories, and argued he was the main author and should be credited as such. The controversy has been critiqued as an example of literary usurpation and as an attempt to cast doubt on a Holocaust survivor’s experience. The English translation was published in 1999 with Isacovici and Rodriguez listed as co-authors. Isacovici died in February 1998 before the English translation was published.

Awards

• Second prize, Gabriel Miró International Short Story Contest (Alicante, España), for the short story ‘Levedad del vino’, 1986.
• Finalist,’Novedades y Diana’ International Literary Prize (Mexico), with the novel El espantapájaros, 1988.
• Ecuador’s National Prize for Literature ‘Aurelio Espinosa Pólit’ for the short-story collection Fricciones, 1990.
• Second Prize for Art and Literature, Universidad Central del Ecuador, for the novel El espantapájaros, 1991.
• Finalist,’Planeta/Joaquín Mortiz’ Award (Mexico), with the novel La derrota, 1992 (later published in revised form in 2003 as El poder de los vencidos).
• First Prize for Art and Literature, Universidad Central del Ecuador, for the short-story collection El Mar y la Muralla, 1992.
• Third Prize, IV Biennal Ecuadorian Novel Contest, for the work El pulso de la nada, 1996.
• Doctorado Honoris Causa en Artes (‘in artibus’) de la Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), 1998.

Published works

Fiction

Novels

• Camaleón albino. Quito: Dinediciones, 2012.
• Cinturón de Fuego. Quito: Ediciones Libri Mundi, 2005 (2nd ed. Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 2009).
• El Poder de los Vencidos. Madrid: Mileto Ediciones, 2003.
• El Pez Perfume. Quito: Grupo Editorial Norma, 1997 (2nd ed. Madrid: Mileto Ediciones, 2002).
• El Pulso de la Nada. Quito: Libresa, 1996.
• El Espantapájaros. Mexico: Editorial Diana, 1990 (2nd ed. Quito: Libresa, 1995).
• Jorma el Predicador. Madrid: Alba, 1983 (2nd ed. Quito: Universidad San Francisco de Quito, 2015).

Short stories

• Trepa la Nube. Quito: Rayuela Editores, 2019.
• El Mar y la Muralla. Quito: Libresa,1992 & 1997 (3rd ed. Quito: Editorial Universitaria, Universidad Central del Ecuador, 1994).
• Fricciones. Quito: Ediciones de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, 1991.
• Algunas Compras y Otros Encargos. Quito: Ediciones y Distribuciones J.L.I., 1981.

Nonfiction

• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (2017). El animal infoxicado. Quito: Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (2015). Convivencias del caminante. Quito: Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (2009). “Cosmovisión, ideología y alienación en El muelle”. In Égüez, Ivan (ed.). Capítulo Aparte. Quito: Campaña Nacional Eugenio Espejo por el Libro y la Lectura.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (2008). Información Estética en el Relato. Quito: Ediciones Ciespal.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (2007). “El ombligo: enchufe o puerto”. Anaconda, Cultura y Arte. Quito.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (2003). “Desafíos de la Televisión Frente a Otros Medios de Comunicación”. In Jaramillo Salas, Edgar P (ed.). Evolución y Retos de la Televisión. Quito: CIESPAL.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (December 2002). “Viaje hacia la noche”. Re/incidencias: Centenario de Jorge Carrera Andrade (1902-1978). Quito: Centro Cultural Benjamín Carrión (1): 311–318.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (2002). “Riqueza Informativa, Miseria Comunicacional”. In Jaramillo Salas, Edgar P (ed.). El Futuro de los Diarios. Quito: CIESPAL.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel; Mónica Burbano de Lara (2001–2002). Educar para la Vida: Desarrollo del Pensamiento, Vol. 1-10. Quito: Libresa.
• Isacovici, Salomon; Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (1999). Man of Ashes. trans. by Dick Gerdes. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (1998). Diccionario de Conjugación de los Verbos Castellanos. Quito: Universidad San Francisco de Quito: Grupo Editorial Santillana.
• Isacovici, Salomon; Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (1990). A7393: Hombre de Cenizas [A7393: Man of Ashes]. Mexico: Editorial Diana.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (1986). Manual de Conjugación de los Verbos Castellanos. Madrid: Alba.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (1979). “Aproximación à la Estructura Narrativa de la Novela Cumandá”. In Corrales Pascual, Manuel; Aguirre, Francisco E (eds.). Cumandá, 1879-1979: Contribución a un Centenario. Quito: Ediciones de la Universidad Católica.
• Rodríguez, Juan Manuel (1977). “R. Pérez Torres o el Absurdo Agónico”. In Corrales Pascual, Manuel (ed.). Situación del Relato Ecuatoriano, Vol II. Quito: Centro de Publicaciones, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador.