Simón Espinosa Cordero (Cuenca, October 8, 1920) is an Ecuadorian writer, journalist, editor, and university professor. He became a member of the Ecuadorian Academy of Language in 2013. He has a PhD from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. He has authored over one hundred essays, prologues and nearly three thousand opinion columns, his books include “Comunicación, ética y paz social” (1990, co-author), “Presidentes del Ecuador 1830-2000” (2002), “Grandes escritores de la patria” (2004) and “Los más bellos cuentos del poeta” (2011, co-author). In 2014 he published his latest book, “Vine, vi, linché,” a collection of 124 opinion columns he wrote between 1982 and 2012.
Awards and recognitions
He received, among others, the Latin American Award for opinion columns from FELAPE in Mexico, 1988, in addition to other awards such as the Leonidas Proaño award from the Municipality of Quito for defending human rights, the Fray Vicente Solano award from the Municipality of Cuenca for distinguished journalism and the decoration of the Provincial Council of Pichincha for distinguished citizen of the province. In 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the National Polytechnic School.
Career as editor
He has worked for the press and cultural media, he was editor in chief of the magazine Mensajero (1968-1972), founder and durector of Cultura, the magazine of Ecuador’s Central Bank (1979-1981), director of the magazine Chasqui, of CIESPAL (1985-1987), member of the editorial board of the magazine Diners since its inception in 1985 and a columnist for the magazine Vistazo, of the newspaper Hoy and the newspaper El Comercio, where he was also the director of the cultural supplement. He was also the president of the Corporación Editora Nacional (2011-2015), founder and director of the Center of Research and Culture of Ecuador’s Central Bank and president and director of Fundamedios.