Writers from Cuenca - Ecuadorian Literature

Inés Márquez Moreno

Inés Márquez Moreno (Cuenca, June 7, 1914 – August 18, 2017) was an Ecuadorian poet. Her first poetry collection, “Denuncia del sueño,” was published by the House of Ecuadorian Culture in Azuay in 1963. Her style is characterized by great simplicity and evocative force, and her subjects include love, land, friendship, and family. In 1994, the House of Ecuadorian Culture published her second collection of poems, “Camino de mediodía.” She was awarded the Fray Vicente Solano Medal by the city of Cuenca, which is given to the city’s most distinguished authors. She was a member of the Ibero-American Academy of Poetry in Cuenca since its inception. She continued to write into her 90s and died at the age of 101.

Arturo Montesinos Malo

Arturo Montesinos Malo (Cuenca, August 31, 1913 – May 23, 2009) was an Ecuadorian novelist, professor, and translator who lived in the United States for many years where he worked as a translator at the United Nations in New York. In 1959, he received the “José de la Cuadra” Award for his short story collection “Arcilla indócil,” which is considered by many to be his best work. Some of his Spanish-to-English translations of contemporary writers’ short stories and poems appeared in Letras del Ecuador.

Manuel María Palacios Bravo

Manuel María Palacios Bravo (Cuenca, 1891 – 1960) was an Ecuadorian poet and priest. His best known poems include: Jesús Campesino (1919), Chabita (1922), and Cantos de ayer (1953). He was a member of the Ecuadorian Academy of Language. In 1957, the University of Cuenca released a collection of his poems selected by Rigoberto Cordero y León.

Alfonso Moreno Mora

Alfonso Moreno Mora (Cuenca, April 21, 1890 – Cuenca, April 1, 1940) was a modernist poet. He co-founded the magazine Páginas Literarias with his cousin Miguel Moreno Serrano in 1918, becoming its editor in chief. He published poems in this magazine under the pseudonyms Enrique de Rafael and Raedel. He also promoted the work of modernist poets such as Argentina’s Leopoldo Lugones and Nicaragua’s Rubén Darío. Some of the magazines that published Moreno Mora’s poems include Austral, Azul, Proteo, and América Latina. He also contributed to the daily newspapers Diario del Sur, La Nación, and El Mercurio. He was a member of Ecuador’s so-called Decapitated Generation and authored works such as “Visión lírica,” “Epístola a Luis Felipe de la Rosa,” and “Elegías.” On April 1, 1940, shortly before his 50th birthday, Alfonso Moreno Mora passed away in his hometown. Eleven years later, his brother and fellow poet Manuel Moreno Mora published “Alfonso Moreno Mora. Poesía,” a compilation of his literary work.

Camila Peña

Camila Peña (Cuenca, 1995) is an Ecuadorian poet, radio host and ballet dancer. In 2020 her first poetry book “Jardín Transparente,” won the Francisco Ruiz Udiel Hispanic American Poetry Award and will be published by Valparaíso Ediciones. She has a master’s degree in Artistic, Literary and Cultural Studies with a specialty in Comparative Literature, Literary Theory and Rhetoric from the Autonomous University of Madrid. In addition, she is a ballet dancer with 19 years of training and experience in creating artistic projects. She is currently the host of a cultural program on a radio station in Cuenca.

Carlos Vásconez

Carlos Francisco Vásconez Gomezcoello (Cuenca, May 16, 1977) is an Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer, essayist, columnist and educator who has published short stories and novels since 1999. He is the president of the PEN Center Ecuador and was the president of the Azuay branch of the House of Ecuadorian Culture from 2011-2016. He is the vice-rector and a teacher at Las Pencas Educational Unit in Cuenca, Ecuador. He is also a professor at the School of Language and Literature at the University of Cuenca. He is the director of the newspaper La columna del invertebrado and is part of the Editorial Board of the cultural magazine Arrebol. He has been a columnist for several magazines and newspapers, such as Rocinante, Diners, BG Magazine, Cartón Piedra and La Casa. He has prefaced several anthologies of Ecuadorian short stories and poetry.

Miguel Moreno Serrano

Miguel Moreno Serrano (Cuenca, July 27, 1886 – Cuenca, January 19, 1943) was an Ecuadorian poet and literary critic. He had a PhD in biology as well as a medical degree in surgery, but he never practiced. He worked as the director of the Bank of Azuay, secretary of the University of Cuenca, and treasurer of Public Assistance of Azuay. He was the son of the poet Miguel Moreno Ordóñez.

Patricio Guzmán Cárdenas

Patricio Guzmán Cárdenas (Cuenca, January 31, 1965) is a doctor, writer and poet. He has lived in Loja since the age of 14 and works as an anesthesiologist at the Macas General Hospital. His works have been published in different cities of Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador. His poems cover a wide range of topics, many of which are inspired by his work as an anesthesiologist. He has published 4 books of poetry and a book of stories.

Antonio Lloret Bastidas

Antonio Lloret Bastidas (Cuenca, February 5, 1920 – November 5, 2000) was an Ecuadorian writer, journalist, critic and educator. He wrote several books of various genres: poetry, history, biography, fiction and nonfiction. From 1947 to 1960, he received several poetry awards, and in 1975, his novel “Los signos de la Llama,” which received praise from Jorge Luis Borges, won the House of Ecuadorian Culture’s novel competition. That same year, the Municipality of Cuenca awarded him the “Fray Vicente Solano” Cultural Award. In 1993, he joined the Ecuadorian Academy of Language. He was a founding member of the Azuay Union of Journalists and the Director of the Municipal Library. In 1993, Cuenca’s Municipal Council named him “Lifetime Chronicler of Cuenca.”

César Hermida Bustos

César Hermida Bustos (Cuenca, 1943) is an Ecuadorian doctor, university professor and novelist. He is the son of the writer Dr. César Hermida Piedra. He was a professor at the Central University of Quito from 1972 to 1993. Later he was an honorary professor there. In 2019 his novel Amoríos won the “La Linares” award. He returned to live in Cuenca in 2018.

César Hermida Piedra

Dr. César Hermida Piedra (Cuenca, 1912-2005) was a doctor, university professor, writer, poet and a historian of Ecuadorian medicine. He served as the Undersecretary-General of Health at the Ministry of Public Health in Quito. As a professor in the Medical Sciences Department of the University of Cuenca, Dr. Piedra taught “history of medicine.” His son, César Hermida Bustos, is an award-winning novelist.

Agustín Cuesta Vintimilla

Agustín Cuesta Vintimilla (Cuenca, 1884 – December 6, 1946) was an Ecuadorian poet, medical doctor, university professor, historian, legislator, and director of public assistance. “Cantos de mi heredad,” his poetry collection, was published in 1918. A school bearing his name can be found in Baños, a parish located to the south-west of the Cuenca canton.

Ramón Burbano Cuesta

Ramón Burbano Cuesta was an Ecuadorian poet. In 1982 he published, “Arena removida : relatos y prosa poetica.”

Alfonso Cuesta y Cuesta

Alfonso Cuesta y Cuesta (Cuenca, Ecuador, 1912 – Mérida, Venezuela, 1991) was an Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer, poet and university professor. At the Central University of Venezuela he studied law, philosophy and literature, later earning postgraduate degrees in Santiago, Chile and Madrid, Spain. He taught high school level when he returned to Cuenca, and later became rector of the prestigious Benigno Malo School. Around this time, he became known as a writer and formed the Elán group. His first poetry book was Motivos nuestro (1930) and his first book of short stories was Llegada de todos los trenes del mundo (1932), for which he is recognized as one of the best representatives of the indigenist movement in early 20th century Ecuadorian literature. In 1940 Cuesta again left Ecuador and moved to Caracas, Venezuela to teach at the high school named Liceo Fermín Toro, from there he went on to teach at the Central University of Venezuela, he also chaired the literature department at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of the Andes.

Arturo Cuesta Heredia

Arturo Cuesta Heredia (Azogues, August 18, 1922 – Cuenca, November 12, 2006) was an Ecuadorian lawyer, judge, writer and avant-garde poet. He obtained a law degree from the University of Cuenca in 1947. Cuesta is a member of the “ELAN group.” As a young writer he was often called, “the metaphor magician,” for his brilliant use of metaphors. His poetry book “Hermano Miguel” (1963) has been translated into various languages including Polish. Cuesta also wrote fiction, such as his short story book El callejón de los eucaliptos (1962). In 2002, the Ministry of Education and Culture awarded him the Cultural Merit Award.