Manuel J. Herrera, or Manuel de Jesús Herrera, (Azogues, Cañar, Ecuador) authored a book entitled “Luz y tinieblas del alma” [Light and Darkness of the Soul], which in 1999 made it to the list of 100 best books by authors from Cañar. Almost nothing is known about this author and no copies of the first edition are known to exist. However, an original copy of the second edition, printed in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1930, was found to reside in the National Library of Teachers in Buenos Aires. In 2018, after a written request by Ecuadorian researchers, the National Library of Teachers sent a certified photocopy of the book to the Catholic University of Cuenca who delivered it to the Cañar chapter of the House of Ecuadorian Culture (in Azogues, Ecuador) on February 2, 2018 for research and distribution purposes.
How a copy of “Luz y tinieblas del alma” [Light and Darkness of the Soul] was retrieved
With the assistance of Andrés Abad Flores and Valeria Vélez Redrován, two alumni of the Catholic University of Cuenca, a letter (signed on November 7, 2017) was sent to Graciela Perrone, Director of the National Library of Teachers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with which they were able to obtain a photocopy of “Luz y tinieblas del alma” [Light and Darkness of the Soul] for research and distribution purposes. A certified photocopy of the work was received in Azogues on February 2, 2018 by the House of Ecuadorian Culture in Cañar.
Edgar Palomeque, Director of the House of Culture, upon receiving the work, stated that Manuel de Jesús Herrera was Azogues’ first essayist of the early 19th century. “It is an institutional duty to highlight the cultural virtues of the children of this land and this work is part of the series of the 100 best books by authors from Cañar in 1999.”
Known work
- Luz y Tinieblas del Alma (Editor: Buenos Aires Tall. Gráf. Argentinos, segunda edicion, 1930)