Writers from Quito - Ecuadorian Literature

Fernando Cazón Vera

Fernando Cazón Vera is an Ecuadorian poet, columnist, editor, and university professor. He was born in Quito on June 5, 1935 and has lived in Guayaquil most of his life. He comes from a family of well-known cultural figures in Ecuador, including his uncles Pedro Jorge Vera (1914-1999), who was an acclaimed writer, and Alfredo Vera Vera (1910–1999), who as Minister of Education promoted the establishment of the House of Ecuadorian Culture in 1944, in addition to his cousin Noralma Vera (1936-), an important figure of the Ecuadorian ballet. His first book of poetry, “Las canciones salvadas,” was published in 1957 by the House of Ecuadorian Culture after being read and championed by the organization’s founder, Benjamn Carrión. He has worked as a columnist or editor for newspapers and magazines such as La Hora, Expreso, Extra, La Nación, and La Razón for more than 50 years. He was twice president of the House of Ecuadorian Culture’s Guayas chapter. President Lenin Moreno bestowed Ecuador’s highest honor, the Eugenio Espejo Award in Literature, on Cazón in 2018.

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.

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.”

Ignacio Lasso

Ignacio Lasso (Quito, 1911 – 1943) was an Ecuadorian poet who was the mentor and founder of the magazine of the poets of Elan, a group comprised of Ecuadorian poets born between 1905 and 1920. He worked with several magazines during his career.

Humberto Fierro

Humberto Fierro Jarrín (Quito, June 17, 1890 – Quito, August 23, 1929) was an Ecuadorian poet of modernismo, a literary movement that took place primarily during the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth-century in the Spanish-speaking world. He was close friends with Arturo Borja, Ernesto Noboa, and other tormented poets of the early twentieth century who committed suicide and were thus dubbed the “Decapitated Generation.” This group was heavily influenced by Rubén Darío’s modernismo movement as well as 19th-century French romantic poetry. Fierro’s best known poems can be found in his poetry collections, “El Lad en el Valle,” published in 1919, and “La Velada Palatina,” published posthumously in 1949. He spent almost all of his working life as a clerk in a Public Ministry Office. He died at the age of 39 in 1929 from a mountain fall, which some believe was suicide.

Oswaldo Calisto Rivera

Oswaldo Calisto Rivera, known by his pen name Cachibache, often spelled Cachivache (Quito, September 22, 1979 – October 10, 2000) was an Ecuadorian poet and painter who died of suicide at the age of 21. In 2001 Cachibache’s only book of poems “Rojo encanto de la marmota” was published posthumously by the House of Ecuadorian Culture in Quito. He also completed a yet unpublished poetic trilogy which consists of: “La cachiva,” “Comible Sr. Lucas Alombrey” and “La falta de pantuflismo.” Cachibache’s poems have been included in several anthologies, such as Memorias del primer festival de poesía joven Hugo Mayo (2005), 13 poetas ecuatorianos nacidos en los 70 (2008), and Premonición a las puertas (2012).

Arturo Borja

Arturo Borja Pérez (Quito, 1892 – Quito, November 13, 1912). He died at the age of 20. The poetic contribution of Arturo Borja is collected in La flauta de ónix, which was published in 1920, some eight years after his death.

Nicolás Kingman Riofrío

Nicolás Kingman Riofrío (Loja, November 18, 1918 – Quito, March 19, 2018) was an Ecuadorian writer, journalist and politician

Francisco Tobar García

Francisco Tobar Garcia (Quito, November 3, 1928 – Quito, February 1, 1997) was an Ecuadorian poet, playwright, short story writer, essayist, journalist, literary critic, diplomat and university professor.

Jorge Núñez Sánchez

Jorge Núñez Sánchez (Bolivar, February 6, 1947 – Quito, November 1, 2020) was an Ecuadorian writer, historian, and professor. He was the author of 56 books and co-author of 66 other books. He was a professor at the Central University of Ecuador and Treasurer of the National Academy of History. In 1992 he was appointed the director of the Department of History and Geography of the House of Ecuadorian Culture. In 2010 he was awarded the Eugenio Espejo Prize in Culture by the President of Ecuador.

Galo René Pérez

Galo René Pérez (Quito, April 3, 1923 – June 18, 2008) was an Ecuadorian writer, poet, literary critic, biographer, and college professor. He held various posts in literary and cultural institutions of Ecuador. He was Secretary of Public Education during the government of the former President Galo Plaza, and served as Secretary General of the Council of Government. He was also President of the House of Ecuadorian Culture and Director of the Ecuadorian Academy of Language. He published 14 books in his career. His lectures, essays, articles, literary criticism have been collected and published for study abroad. His style, which is simple and elegant, has won him admirers the world over. He was the 2004 recipient of the “Premio Eugenio Espejo” Ecuador’s highest literary award.

Gonzalo Zaldumbide

Gonzalo Zaldumbide (Quito, December 25, 1884 – Quito, November 30, 1965) was an Ecuadorian writer and diplomat. He was ambassador to Paris, minister of Foreign Relations (1929) and ambassador to London (1950).

Jorge Salvador Lara

Jorge Salvador Lara (Quito, September 4, 1926 – Quito, February 8, 2012) was an Ecuadorian politician, diplomat, columnist, writer, and historian. Lara held the position of Ecuador’s Foreign Minister twice. In 1966, he was appointed Foreign Minister in the administration of interim President Clemente Yerovi. From 1976 to 1977, Lara served as Foreign Minister under Vice Admiral Alfredo Poveda’s military regime.

Federico González Suárez

Federico González Suárez (Quito, April 12, 1844 – Quito, December 1, 1917) was an Ecuadorian priest, historian and politician who served as the Archbishop of Quito for twelve years. Prior to becoming the Archbishop of Quito, he served as a senator in the Ecuadorian government in 1894 and then as the Bishop of Ibarra from 1895 to 1905. He wrote several books about the history of Ecuador, among them the book Historia General de la República del Ecuador, which is considered a masterpiece for its objectivity, painstaking research and erudition. He was not shy about criticizing the Church in Ecuador for abuses during the colonial period. The publication of the fourth volume of his history in 1894 was particularly scandalous since it uncovered the sexual liaisons of seventeenth-century Dominican friars in Quito. Although this work drew criticism from his superiors, he was ultimately vindicated, with the Vatican acknowledging the veracity of his analysis.

Simón Corral

Simón Corral (Quito, January 5, 1946) is an Ecuadorian poet and dramatist. He studied sociology at the Central University of Ecuador, and was the president of the Federation of University Students of Ecuador. He was later a professor at the Central University of Ecuador.