Miguel Ángel Granado Guarnizo (Guayaquil, 1895 – Guayaquil, 1955) was an Ecuadorian modernist poet, playwright, and literary critic. He began publishing poetry and literary critiques as early as 1912 and was a key figure in Ecuador’s early 20th-century literary scene, co-founding the influential El Telégrafo Literario (1913). He is best known for his play El Hermano Cándido (1919), his biographical and critical work Fisonomías (1914), and his collection of critical essays Horas de Luz (1917). Granado Guarnizo was part of a close-knit literary circle that included his friend, the poet Medardo Ángel Silva. His career was tragically cut short in 1926 when he was diagnosed with a mental illness, leading to his long-term institutionalization until his death. He was the brother of the poet Carlos F. Granado Guarnizo.
Early Life and Education
Miguel Ángel Granado Guarnizo was born in Guayaquil in 1895, the penultimate of seven siblings, including his brother, the poet Carlos F. Granado Guarnizo. His parents were Tomás Rosendo Granado Castillo, a farmer, and Ercilia Guarnizo Romano. After becoming an orphan at a young age, he attended Colegio Mercantil for his primary education and later completed his secondary studies at Colegio Vicente Rocafuerte, where he graduated with a high school diploma in 1913. By this time, Granado had already shown an interest in literature, making his first steps into the field in 1912.
Literary Career
Miguel Ángel Granado Guarnizo began his literary career as a critic and poet, publishing in El Telégrafo Literario, where he used various pseudonyms such as Carlos D’Harbach and Diógenes de Apolonia. Influenced by the Spanish poet Vicente Medina Villaespesa, Granado’s early work, including his poetry collections El Espejo Encantado and Lámparas Nativas, reflected a modernist sensibility.
In 1914, he published a series of biographical and critical sketches of Ecuadorian writers titled Fisonomías. The following years saw him producing a variety of works, including theatrical pieces such as La Eterna Lucha (1915) and La Mística (1916), and modernist short stories in Historias Breves. His critical essays, which he began publishing in 1917 with Horas de Luz, marked him as a significant literary figure in Ecuador.
His collaboration with Medardo Ángel Silva on the modernist magazine Azul in 1918, although short-lived due to financial constraints, further cemented his reputation as a modernist writer and critic.
One of his most notable works was the one-act play El Hermano Cándido (1919), which was part of a broader collection that included philosophical prose and short stories. Although his play was the only entry meeting the requirements for a national theater competition celebrating Guayaquil’s independence centennial, it was controversially overlooked for an award.
Personal Life and Decline
A member of Ecuador’s vibrant modernist literary community, Granado lived a bohemian lifestyle, often characterized by heavy drinking and intense artistic involvement. His close friendship with Medardo Ángel Silva, whose suicide in 1919 deeply affected him, coincided with a noticeable decline in his mental health. By the mid-1920s, Granado’s literary output diminished, and he was increasingly isolated due to morphine addiction and depression. He published his final critical essay in 1926, focusing on the failures of the national spirit following Ecuador’s Juliana Revolution.
That same year, Granado was diagnosed with a severe mental illness, which led to his indefinite institutionalization in a psychiatric hospital. Despite his illness, he maintained a reputation for his refined manners and eloquent speech, though he would never fully recover.
Legacy and Posthumous Recognition
Though Granado spent the final 31 years of his life in psychiatric care, his early works left a lasting impact on Ecuadorian modernist literature. His writings are now considered rare bibliographic treasures, with his fame gradually fading over the years. However, he remains remembered as a prominent figure in Guayaquil’s literary scene during the early 20th century, and his critique of Medardo Ángel Silva’s poetry stands as a key contribution to Ecuadorian literary criticism.
Granado’s unpublished works, such as El Libro Inútil, Años de Risa y Juventud, and El Libro de los Aparecidos, add to the mystique surrounding his incomplete legacy. Critics note the deep melancholy and existential reflections in these manuscripts, revealing a poignant portrait of an artist whose career was tragically cut short by mental illness.
Death
Miguel Ángel Granado Guarnizo passed away in 1955 at the age of 60, following complications from a long illness. His final years were marked by solitude and isolation, yet he remained a figure of quiet dignity. Despite his once-prominent standing, by the time of his death, Granado’s literary contributions had largely faded from public memory, though they continue to be appreciated by scholars and collectors of Ecuadorian literature.
El Telegrafo Literario
El Telegrafo Literario was a supplement of the newspaper El Telegrafo which ran between October 9, 1913 and January 22, 1914. The last issue featured a photograph of Wenceslao Pareja, a doctor and poet who had published his poems in the publication.
El Telegrafo Literario was founded, directed and edited by M.A. Granado Guarnizo, M.E. Castillo y Castillo and J. A. Falconí Villagómez during the four months of its existence. A young Medardo Ángel Silva submitted his poems to El Telegrafo Literario for publication, but the three editors believed the poems were too perfect in form for a fifteen year old to have written, and assumed they were actually plagiarisms of Heredia’s poems, so they declined to publish them, which is why one of Ecuador’s best poets of all time was never published in El Telegrafo Literario.
The cultural success of El Telegrafo Literario led the newspaper to create a new supplement called Los Jueves Literarios, which Medardo Ángel Silva ran from 1915 to 1919. Silva published a great deal of his poems, literary criticisms, prose and articles in the new supplement.
Works
Poetry
- En el bar (1913; published in Letras magazine)
- La flauta (1915; published in Letras magazine)
- En el umbral del tedio (1915; published in Letras magazine)
- Lentamente, cierro los ojos… (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- El poema de tu belleza (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- Idealizando… (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- Versos paganos (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- La tristeza de la hora (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- Sugestión (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- Soneto de invierno (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- Medallón (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- Olvido… (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- Nochebuena (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- El retorno (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- Crepúsculo de oro (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- La hora del sol (1914; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
Prose
- Las manos de Jesús (1914; published in Letras magazine)
- Mi visita a un filósofo (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- Historia de una vida (1913; published in El Telégrafo Literario magazine)
- Poesía de Medardo Ángel Silva (1966; prose, Medardo Ángel Silva juzgado por sus contemporáneos)
Literary Articles and Criticism
- Fisonomías (1914; biographical and critical sketches)
- Horas de Luz (1917; critical essays on Latin American books and authors)
- El poeta Jacinto (1915; published in Letras magazine)
Plays
- La Eterna Lucha (1915)
- La Mística (1916)
- El Hermano Cándido (1919; one-act play with eight scenes)
Name variations
- Miguel Ángel Granado Guarnizo
- Miguel Ángel Granado y Guarnizo
- M.A. Granado Guarnizo
References
- Rodolfo Pérez Pimentel, “Granado y Guarnizo, Miguel Ángel.” Retrieved on October 15, 2024. Click to view.
- Xdoc, “Informe Final de Proyecto de Investigación Fernando Balseca.” Retrieved on October 15, 2024. Click to view.
- FLACSO Andes, “CCE Revista V11 N20 (1958).” Retrieved on October 15, 2024. Click to view.