José Trajano Mera

José Trajano Mera Iturralde was an Ecuadorian poet, playwright and diplomat with a literary and cultural heritage. He was born in Ambato in 1862 and died in Guayaquil in 1919. His father was the famous author Juan Leon Mera who wrote Ecuador’s first novel Cumanda (1877) and the Ecuadorian national anthem (1865). Trajano earned a degree in jurisprudence from the Central University of Ecuador. He died in Guayaquil in 1919 while holding the position of Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Relations.

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José María Egas

José María Egas (Manta, November 28, 1897 – 1982) was an Ecuadorian poet, lawyer, journalist and university professor. Many of his poems have been turned into the lyrics of “pasillos,” a genre of music very popular in Ecuador. Egas studied law at the University of Guayaquil, graduating in 1927. He was then active as a lawyer and journalist, but became best known for his poetry, being appointed national poet laureate in 1976. His poem “Plegaria Lírica” ​​has appeared in several American and European Anthologies and is reproduced every year in “The Hundred Best Poems in the Spanish Language,” which is published in Madrid, Spain. Egas worked as a professor at the University of Guayaquil. He was the brother of the poet Miguel Augusto Egas, best known by his pen name Hugo Mayo.

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Ulises Estrella

Ulises Estrella Moya was an Ecuadorian poet, writer, professor and film expert. He was born in Quito on July 4, 1939 and died in the same city on December 27, 2014. In 1962, together with Marco Muñoz he co-founded Tzantzismo, a cultural movement of 1960s Ecuador, whose members had a revolutionary attitude and which was mainly expressed in poetry, and to a lesser extent in stories and theater. Estrella directed the film department of the House of Ecuadorian Culture for over 30 years. Among his best known works are: Clamor (1962), co-written with the Argentinian writer Leandro Katz, which marked the beginning of Tzantzismo, and Fuera del Juego (1983), winner of the Jorge Carrera Andrade Prize, Quito.

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Euler Granda

Euler Granda (Riobamba, June 7, 1935 — Portoviejo, February 22, 2018) was an Ecuadorian poet, writer, and psychiatrist. In the second half of the 1950s, he was a member of the poetic group Club 7. Later, in 1962, he was one of the founding members of the Tzántzico group in Quito, which urged a fundamental transformation in Ecuador’s approach to literature and culture. Granda is the author of 17 books of poetry. Among the honors he has received are: two first-place finishes in the Ismael Pérez Pazmio National Poetry Contest (1961 and 1996), the Jorge Carrera Andrade Municipal Poetry Prize (1988), and the Jorge Luis Borges Poetry Prize. He was also a judge for the Casa de las Américas Award (Havana, Cuba). In 2009 he was awarded the Eugenio Espejo Prize, Ecuador’s highest literary honor.

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Francisco Arízaga Luque

Francisco Arízaga Luque was an Ecuadorian poet, writer and politician. He was born in Lima, Peru on February 6, 1900, while his father was exiled by the liberal regime of Eloy Alfaro, and died in Guayaquil, Ecuador on October 22, 1964. Arízaga served as the President of Ecuador from July 14, 1925 to January 10, 1926 as part of the First Provisional Government. Other public posts he held include Minister of Public Education and Ambassador of Ecuador to the United Kingdom and Venezuela.

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Hugo Mayo

Hugo Mayo, pen name of Miguel Augusto Egas Miranda (Manta, November 24, 1895 – Guayaquil, April 5, 1988), was an Ecuadorian avant-garde poet who is referred to as “one of the most influential figures of the 20th century” in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Although he produced most of his poetry while living in Guayaquil, he published most of his poetry outside of Ecuador, so he was not well known in his native country, but was regarded as one of the best poets of his time in other countries such as Argentina and Peru. El zaguán de aluminio, originally written in 1921 but released in 1982, is perhaps his most famous work. The book was supposed to be published in 1922, but its lone copy was lost or stolen from the publishing house before publication. In the introductory notes of the 1982 version, he wrote: “The true originals of El zaguán de aluminio were destroyed long ago. These lines are what I most recall about those poems. May some hypocritical reader pardon me if I am untrue; they are things of memory, bygone years, and fate.” He was the older brother of the poet José María Egas (1896–1982).

Pen name

In 1921, he chose “Hugo Mayo” as his pen name, and he used it for the rest of his life. He was a huge fan of Victor Hugo, thus the name “Hugo,” and “Mayo,” which stood for May, the European springtime month.

Works

  • El regreso (1973)
  • Poemas de Hugo Mayo (1976)
  • El zaguán de aluminio (1982)
  • Chamarasca (1984)
  • Colección la rosa de papel (1986)

Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño

Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño (Guayaquil, August 2, 1889 – Quito, December 7, 1927) was an Ecuadorian poet. Together with Arturo Borja, Humberto Fierro and Medardo Ángel Silva, Noboa was part of the group of poets known as the “Decapitated Generation,” so called for the premature death of its members. This group represents the apogee of the modernismo literary movement in Ecuador. Almost all of Noboa’s work, marked by anxiety and loathing, was collected in a book entitled “Romanza de las Horas” (Romance of the Hours), published in 1922. For some, his poem “Emoción vesperal” (Vesperal Emotion) marked a new era of poetry in Ecuador. The poem, which speaks about taking an afternoon trip to sea without a set course, with sorrow dying as the day dies out, is an allegory for death. He is one of the most read poets in Ecuador, and many of his poems are recited and sung by the people.

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Horacio Hidrovo Peñaherrera

Horacio Hidrovo Peñaherrera (Santa Ana, June 24, 1931 – June 9, 2012) was a poet, writer, professor, cultural promoter, former mayor of Portoviejo, and former president of the House of Ecuadorian Culture in Manabí. Hidrovo was a literature professor at the Civil University Eloy Alfaro of Manabí (Portoviejo Ecuador). He authored over 20 books, including poetry, novels and essays. In 2009 Hidrovo was awarded the Eugenio Espejo Prize in the Cultural Activities category. Some of Hidrovo’s poems have been translated into English and Portuguese. Hidrovo’s father was the celebrated writer Horacio Hidrovo Velásquez (1902-1962).

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Gonzalo Escudero

Gonzalo Escudero Moscoso (Quito, September 28, 1903 – Brussels, October 10, 1971) was an Ecuadorian poet, academic and diplomat. He earned a doctorate in jurisprudence at the Central University of Ecuador. He was a distinguished professor of international law at the University of Quito, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Congress, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He served as Ecuador’s ambassador to Uruguay (1942-1845), Peru (1956), Argentina (1961), Colombia (1963), Brazil (1965), UNESCO (1960) and Belgium (1971). In 1964 he was appointed Chancellor of the Republic. At age 16 he published his first book of poems “Los Poemas del Aire,” which won the National Intercollegiate Poetry Contest of 1918. His second book of poems “Las Parábolas Olímpicas” won at the University Floral Games of 1922. He published over a dozen other books, including 2 books posthumously: “Réquiem por la Luz” and “Nocturno de Septiembre.”

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Medardo Ángel Silva

Medardo Ángel Silva Rodas (Guayaquil, June 8, 1898 – Guayaquil, June 10, 1919) was an Ecuadorian poet and member of the “Generación decapitada” [Decapitated Generation]. He is considered the most pure of Ecuadorian modernists. The “Decapitated Generation” is a moniker given by journalists and historians to to a group of 4 writers in early 20th century Ecuador, because of similarities in their poetry and because they each died at a young age. The four members of the group are Medardo Ángel Silva and Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño from Guayaquil, and Arturo Borja and Humberto Fierro from Quito. The cause of Silva’s death is not certain; he died at 21 while visiting a young girlfriend. He is believed to have committed suicide, but may have been murdered as the result of a love triangle. Among his most famous poems is “El alma en los labios” [My soul on my lips], made famous in a song by Ecuadorian singer Julio Jaramillo.

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Vicente Amador Flor

Vicente Amador Flor Cedeño (Portoviejo, July 19, 1903 – December 3, 1975) was an Ecuadorian poet known for his poems about his native city Portoviejo. The central park of Portoviejo has borne his name since October 30, 1981, and many educational institutions in Ecuador bear his name. In 1983 a bust statue of Flor was placed in the central park of Portoviejo.

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Luis Enrique Fierro

Luis Enrique Fierro (Tulcán, Carchi Province, November 14, 1936) is an Ecuadorian physician, writer and poet. His literary portfolio includes poetry collections like “Baratillo de esperanza,” “Metástasis,” “Arrecife,” “De Muelles y Caminos,” and “Antología Poética.” In the medical field, Fierro served as the Provincial Director of Health from 1965 to 1972 and later became the director of the pediatrics department at the Luis Gabriel Dávila Hospital. His cultural contributions extended to leadership roles as well, where he served three terms as the president of the Carchi branch of the House of Ecuadorian Culture during the periods of 1983-1987, 1992-1997, and 2001-2005. Ecuador’s president honored Fierro with the Eugenio Espejo Award in Culture in 2005.

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