Homosexual Writers - Ecuadorian Literature

Dudley Poore

Dudley Poore (September 6, 1893 – 1981) was an American poet, author, and translator. He was renowned for his translations of notable works from Spanish and Portuguese into English, including “Our Daily Bread” (1943) by Ecuador’s Enrique Gil Gilbert, which received honorable mention at Farrar Rinehart’s Latin-American Prize Novel Contest. Poore’s translation of “The Bonfire” (1944) by Cecilio J. Carneiro of Brazil also garnered critical acclaim. Apart from translation, Poore co-edited “Fiesta in November: Stories from Latin America” (1942) and “North American Storytellers” (1946). His poetry was featured in “Eight Harvard Poets” (1917). The “Dudley Poore papers,” which document both his personal and professional life, are housed in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. This collection includes his correspondence, writings, photographs, notebooks, and other materials.

Purita Pelayo

Purita Valentina Pelayo, also known by the pseudonym Alberto Cabral (Esmeraldas, March 24, 1957) is an Ecuadorian transgender activist and author. She was one of the founders and the president of the Coccinelle Association, the first organization of transgender people in the history of Ecuador, which played a leading role in the campaign for the decriminalization of homosexuality in the country, which achieved its goal in November 1997. She is also the author of the award-winning non-fiction work “Los fantasmas se cabrearón” (2017), which recounts police abuse and the birth of LGBT activism in Ecuador at the end of the 20th century.

Juan Carlos Cucalón

Juan Carlos Cucalón (Guayaquil, 1963) is an Ecuadorian short story writer and playwright. In 2007 he won first place in the Pablo Palacio Short Story Biennial with his story “Miedo a U2” [Fear of U2]. His book of short stories “Surcos obtusos” won the 2009 edition of the Luis Félix López National Literature Contest. Among the themes of the book are homoeroticism and masculinity in Latin America. In 2010, he premiered his play “Exododedosexos,” whose plot follows two transgender women named Malva Malabar and Simoné Bernadette who prepare to stage a play by Tenesse Williams. Cucalón is openly homosexual, and throughout his career he has published numerous stories featuring characters of various sexual orientations.

Pedro Artieda Santacruz

Pedro Artieda Santacruz (Quito, 1964) is a psychologist, novelist, short story writer, journalist, essayist, literary critic, and professor. In 2003, he published a study titled “La homosexualidad masculina en la narrativa ecuatoriana” [Male Homosexuality in Ecuadorian Narrative], which received the Manuela Saénz Prize in 2004. His first novel, “Nadie sabe con certeza” [Nobody Knows For Sure], was published in 2001, followed by the psychological science fiction novel “La última pared roja” [The Last Red Wall]. In 2011, he released a collection of short stories titled “Lo oculto de la noche” [The Hidden Night], and in 2013, his third novel “Bajo el hábito” [Beneath the Habit] received an honorable mention at the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Prize for Best Novel of the Year. This novel tells the story of a transgender Franciscan living in a monastery in Quito. Pedro Artieda Santacruz has contributed to newspapers such as El Comercio and Hoy, and his articles on literature, cinema, and gender have been published in various magazines including Diners, El Búho, and Vistazo, among others.

David Ledesma Vásquez

David Ledesma Vásquez (Guayaquil, December 17, 1934 – March 30, 1961) was an Ecuadorian poet, writer, journalist, stage actor, and radio drama and radio soap opera actor. Although his work went unnoticed for several years after his death, it eventually acquired a cult following. He belonged to Club 7, a group of poets from the port city of Guayaquil in the 1950s. He committed suicide by hanging at the age of 27 in 1961. He left behind several unpublished works, including one ominously titled “La risa del ahorcado” [The Hanged Man’s Laugh]. Ileana Espinel Cedeño, a fellow Club 7 member, oversaw the posthumous publication of his poetry collection “Cuaderno de Orfeo” [Orfeo’s Notebook] in 1962.

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.

María Auxiliadora Balladares

María Auxiliadora Balladares Uquillas (Guayaquil, 1980) is an Ecuadorian writer, poet, and professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. She holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from the University of Pittsburgh and has published widely in poetry, short stories, and essays. Her short story Jamón serrano won second place in the 10th Pablo Palacio Short Story Biennial, and her major works include Las vergüenzas (2013), Animal (2017), Guayaquil (2019), and Acantile duerme piloto (2022), which earned her the 2023 Jorge Carrera Andrade Award. Her writing often explores themes of identity, LGBTQI+ issues, and the natural world.

Sonia Guiñansaca

Sonia Guiñansaca (Cuenca, 1989) is a migrant poet, cultural organizer and activist whose work aims for culture equality and social justice, focusing on migrant rights, climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, and gender discrimination. At the age of 5 Guiñansaca migrated to the United States to reunite with her parents in New York City.

Roy Sigüenza

Roy Sigüenza (Portovelo, El Oro Province, Ecuador, 1958) is an Ecuadorian poet known for his homoerotic themes and transforming ordinary life into settings for intimate encounters. While his poetry often favors brevity and simplicity, he occasionally incorporates stylized language and references to other gay writers from Europe and the U.S. Within Ecuador’s poetic scene, Sigüenza has pioneered a new lyric voice, openly writing about marginalized sexual experiences, influencing a generation of poets. His candid, confessional style has established him as a literary rebel in the country.