richard - Ecuadorian Literature

Antonio C. Toledo

Antonio Clímaco Toledo Sánchez (1868-1903) was an Ecuadorian poet. His poetry was influenced by Romanticism and Neoclassicism. He has been compared to the Spanish poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. In 1915 a posthumous collection of his poetry was published in a book titled Poesías, prologued by José Trajano Mera.

Juan Jacobo Melo

Juan Jacobo Melo Fierro (Tulcán, 1973) is an Ecuadorian writer, critic and essayist. He has a masters degree in Latin American Literature from the Private Technical University of Loja. Some of his work has been published in prestigious literary magazines in Ecuador as well as Spain, Mexico, Chile and Argentina. Some of his essays have been translated into English and French.

Emilio Gallegos del Campo

Emilio Gallegos del Campo (Guayaquil, September 20, 1875 – May 15, 1914) was a poet, playwright, journalist and diplomat. In 1898 General Eloy Alfaro, who was a friend of his family and called him “Emilito,” appointed him Consul of Ecuador in London, a post which he held until 1901. In Europe, he was decorated by the French government with the Legion of Honor. Together with his brother, he founded several newspapers, including “América Modernista,” which published poets of the modernismo movement. His brother was the poet Joaquín Gallegos Del Campo whose son was the celebrated novelist Joaquin Gallegos Lara.

Adolfo Hidalgo Nevares

Adolfo Hidalgo Nevares, sometimes spelled Nevarez, (Guayaquil, March 18, 1891 – Quito, 1934) was a doctor, writer and poet. Under the pseudonym Máximo de Bretal he wrote articles for El Guante magazine on topics such as politics, literature and poetry. He also wrote for El Telégrafo of Guayaquil and El Universitario of Quito. In 1920 he was appointed Deputy of Guayas. In 1925 he became a professor at the University of Guayaquil’s new Dentistry and Veterinary schools, and in 1926 he was named Minister of Public Education. He led a bohemian life and had an on and off again addiction to morphine which he sometimes used in the company of some of the members of the Decapitated Generation, a group of young Ecuadorian poets who died young by suicide. He too died by suicide in 1934, at the age of 43.

Nicolás Augusto González

Nicolás Augusto González Tola, also N.A. González (Guayaquil, April 14, 1858 – Buenos Aires, Argentina, January 18, 1918) was an Ecuadorian writer, playwright, novelist, journalist, poet, historian and diplomat. His plays in verse are among his best known works, which include, “Hojas secas,” “Entre el amor y el honor,” and “Amor y Patria,” which he co-wrote with Alfredo Baquerizo Moreno (President of Ecuador from 1916-1920). “Cuestión Histórica, el Asesinato del Gran Mariscal Ayacucho,” (written between 1887 and 1889), is perhaps his most important and controversial work, in which he accuses General Juan José Flores of being behind the assassination of Antonio José de Sucre, prompting hatred and persecution from Flores’ son Antonio Flores Jijón (President of Ecuador from 1888-1892). Due to his political views and polemic writing he was exiled to other countries, such as Peru, Colombia, Guatemala and Spain. From 1908-1913 he lived in Spain as a diplomat, and published there his poetry book, “Humo y cenizas” (1908) and his novel “La Llaga” (1908). He returned to Guayaquil in 1917 where a special committee chaired by José Luis Tamayo (President of Ecuador from 1920-1924) awarded him the “Golden Lyre”.

Jorge Reyes

Jorge Reyes (Quito, 1905-1977) was an Ecuadorian poet, journalist, essayist and socialist. He directed the literary section of the socialist newspaper La tierra, and for many years he was an editorial staff writer for the newspaper El Comercio. His poetry books include: “Treinta poemas de mi tierra” (1926) “Quito, arrabal del cielo” (1930) and “El gusto de la tierra” (1977).

Leovigildo Loayza Loayza

José Leovigildo Loayza Loayza (Piñas Canton, El Oro Province, October, 1905 – Guayaquil, August, 1971) was an Ecuadorian poet. He worked at the Guayaquil branch of the Central Bank of Ecuador, and at the César Borja Lavayen night school. In 1972, a high school named after him was founded in the town where he was born – El Colegio Nacional Técnico Leovigildo Loayza Loayza. He authored the lyrics of the pasillo songs “Obsesión” and “Madrigal de seda,” and also wrote poems and hymns.

César Chávez Aguilar

César Chávez Aguilar (Tulcán, Ecuador, 1970 – November 10, 2022) was an Ecuadorian writer, bibliographer and librarian. He studied law at the Central University of Ecuador. His stories and essays were published in national and international magazines such as: Línea Imaginaria, Letras del Ecuador, and Encuentros (National Magazine of Culture). He carried out bibliographic research for the Municipality of Guayaquil and for the Benjamín Carrión Cultural Center in Quito, where he was employed as the library director. In 2012 he published “Herir la perfección,” his first book of short stories.

Pío Jaramillo Alvarado

Pío Jaramillo Alvarado (Loja, May 17, 1884 – July 24, 1968) was an Ecuadorian writer, liberal lawyer, politician, law professor and sociologist. His best-known book El indio ecuatoriano (1922; The Ecuadorian Indian), established him as one of Ecuador’s leading intellectuals and a key participant of the indigenista movement. Born to a white mestizo family, he critiqued indigenous realities from a non-indigenous perspective, which is typical of early twentieth century indigenistas. In 1940 he led the Ecuadorian delegation to the Pátzcuaro Congress in Mexico that founded the Interamerican Indigenist Institute (III). Three years later he helped found the Ecuadorian Indigenist Institute (IIE), for which he subsequently served as director. He contributed essays to newspapers throughout the country, most significantly under the pseudonym Petronio in the liberal newspaper El Día.

Gonzalo Rubio Orbe

Gonzalo Rubio Orbe (Otavalo, Imbabura, June 29, 1909 – October 24, 1994) was an Ecuadorian anthropologist, historian, biographer and educator. He was a protégé of Pío Jaramillo Alvarado, a key leader of the indigenista movement. Rubio’s works represent some of the earliest anthropological assessments of indigenous societies in Ecuador. His principal book is Los Indios Ecuatorianos (1987; The Ecuadorian Indians). From 1971 to 1977, he directed the Inter-American Indian Institute (III), based in Mexico. He also wrote biographies on notable Ecuadorians, such as Luis Felipe Borja and Eugenio Espejo. An indefatigable educator, he continued to lecture to university students until his dying day.

Miguel Ángel Granado Guarnizo

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.

José Antonio Falconí Villagómez

José Antonio Falconí Villagómez, aka Jose A. Falconí Villagómez or J.A. Falconí Villagómez, (Guayaquil, May 26, 1894 – Guayaquil, 1967) was an Ecuadorian poet, literary critic, translator, and medical doctor. In 1910 he began publishing his poems in the magazine El Guante, and by 1913 in El Telégrafo. In 1916 he founded the magazine Renacimiento, in which he published his poem, “Ruth adora a los cisnes.” He was greatly influenced by the French Symbolists of his time and was a champion of the avant-garde in poetry. In 1921 he published, “Arte Poética nº 2,” a dadaist poem which introduced the European avant-garde into Ecuadorian letters. In 1953 he was designated a Member of the House of Ecuadorian Culture. In 1964 he was decorated with the National Order of Merit, and in 1965 the city of Guayaquil conferred on him the Gold Medal of Literary Merit.

José Joaquín Pino de Ycaza

José Joaquín Pino de Ycaza (Guayaquil, January 30, 1902 – Guayaquil, February 25, 1959) was an Ecuadorian poet, educator, historian and politician. Since as early as 14 years old he began publishing his poems in national literary magazines such as Patria and Helios, and later also in Juventud (Quito) and Proteos (Guayaquil). He directed the magazine Hermes, which published the most prominent early 20th century poets of Ecuador, such as Wenceslao Pareja, Miguel E. Neira, José Antonio Falconí, and his friend Medardo Angel Silva. In 1984 the Guayas branch of the House of Ecuadorian Culture published a collection of his poems in a small book entitled “Sándalo.”

Camilo Destruge

Camilo Destruge Illingworth (Guayaquil, October 20, 1863 – Guayaquil, February 26, 1929) was an Ecuadorian historian, journalist, and chronicler. He served as the first director of the Museo Municipal de Guayaquil, where he helped preserve the city’s historical artifacts, and he also directed the Municipal Library for many years. Destruge authored numerous historical works, including La Entrevista de Bolívar y San Martín (1918) and the five-volume Álbum Biográfico Ecuatoriano (1903–1905). He contributed to and edited various newspapers, such as El Telégrafo and La Nación. A member of the National Academy of History, he was also honored by the Venezuelan government with the Orden del Libertador. Declared “Cronista Emérito de la Ciudad” (Honorary Chronicler of the City), Destruge’s legacy is commemorated through a historical institution, a school, and a street named after him in Guayaquil.

Víctor Manuel Rendón

Víctor Manuel Rendón Pérez (Guayaquil, December 5, 1859 – Guayaquil, October 9, 1940) was an Ecuadorian writer, poet, novelist, playwright, biographer, translator, doctor, diplomat, pianist, and composer. He wrote the novel Lorenzo Cilda in 1906 in French, later translating it into Spanish; in 1921, he was accepted into the Ecuadorian Academy of Language, and in 1925, the Académie Française awarded him a Gold Medal for the work. Rendón translated numerous works, including Olmedo, homme d’état et poète américain, chantre de Bolívar (1905), a French-language work combining a biography of José Joaquín de Olmedo with Rendón’s translations of Olmedo’s poetry. Fluent in four languages, Rendón published over forty books in Spanish and French, with works released in France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Ecuador.