Alfredo Gangotena

Alfredo Gangotena

Alfredo Gangotena Fernandez Salvador (Guayaquil, April 19, 1904 – Quito, December 23, 1944) was an Ecuadorian poet who wrote in French and Spanish. In Paris in the 1920’s he befriended Jean Cocteau, Jules Supervielle, Henri Michaux and Max Jacob.

French to Spanish translations

In 1940 Gangotena published his last book Tempestad Secreta, which contained poems of his he’d translated from French to Spanish, as well as poems he’d written originally in Spanish. Gangotena’s poetry has been translated from French to Spanish by Georges Pillement (1920s) and Eduardo Riofrío (1945). Some of his poems were also translated into Spanish by Gonzalo Escudero and Filoteo Samaniego for the book Poesía (published by the House of Ecuadorian Culture, 1956), and also by Margarita Guarderas de Jijón, Verónica Mosquera and Cristina Burneo in the 1990s. Gangotena’s poetry has not yet been translated into English.

Correspondence with European writers

In 2014 a collection of letters to Alfredo Gangotena from European writers such as Henri Michaux, Jules Supervielle, Pierre Morhange, Max Jacob, Marie Lalou were published under the title Sous le figuier de Port-Cros. Lettres à Gangotena (English: Under the fig tree of Port-Cros. Letters to Gangotena). In 2016, a spanish edition was published under the title Bajo la higuera de Port-Cros. Cartas a Gangotena by the University of San Francisco in Quito, translated by Cristina Burneo Salazar.

Mona-Claire Mouradian Gangotena speaks about her uncle the poet Alfredo Gangotena

Uploaded to YouTube in 2014.

Works in Spanish

  • Tempestad Secreta, 1940.
  • Poesía, 1956, published by the House of Ecuadorian Culture.

Works in French

  • Veillée, 1926, Roseau d’Or n° 10, Chroniques – deuxième numéro, p. 223–226
  • L’orage secret, 1927.
  • Orogénie, Paris, Éditions de La Nouvelle Revue française, 1928
  • Absence, 1932.
  • Nuit, 1938.

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