Enrique Noboa Arízaga (Cañar, January 22, 1921 – September 10, 2002) was an Ecuadorian poet and public official who held positions such as Director of Education of Cañar, National Vice President of the House of Ecuadorian Culture, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture, among others. His poetry collections include: “Orbita de la pupila Iluminada,” “Ambito del Amor Eterno,” “Biografía Atlántida,” “Las Posadas de Otoño” and “Poética.” He was awarded a “Gold Medal” in the Ibero-American poetry contest in Uruguay, “Capulí de Oro” in Ambato, and First Prize in the “Ismael Pérez Pazmiño” poetry contest, to name a few. He was nicknamed “Oso” [Bear] by his friends due to his corpulent body. Several schools in Ecuador bear his name.
Madrugada Group
Enrique Noboa Arízaga was a member of a group of poets called “Madrugada,” which published their poems in a magazine by the same name founded by Galo René Pérez and Galo Recalde.
A member of Madrugada described the group thusly: “On several occasions, when speaking or writing about Madrugada, I have said that we are children of the Second World War and, consequently, of the atomic bomb; of the aborted Revolution of May 28, 1944 and the Peruvian invasion and imposition of the Rio Protocol of 1941. Regardless of what we wanted or not, what we poets of Madrugada wrote reflected the awareness against Nazi-fascism, the disappointed hope of what could have been a bourgeois-democratic revolution. And finally, the bloody invasion and the Protocol, imposed on the pretext of preserving Pan-American unity in the face of world war.”
Members of Madrugada include:
- Eduardo Ledesma
- Jorgenrique Adoum
- César Dávila Andrade
- Enrique Noboa Arízaga
- Eugenio Moreno Heredia
- Jacinto Cordero Espinosa
- Teodoro Vanegas Andrade
- Jorge Crespo Toral
- Miguel Augusto Egas Orellana
- Tomás Pantaleón
- Cristóbal Garcés Larrea
- Alejandro Velasco
- Rafael Díaz Ycaza
Posts held
Enrique Noboa Arízaga held important posts such as:
- Director of Education of Cañar
- Vice President of the Municipality of Azogues
- Fiscal Minister of Quito
- National Vice President of the House of Ecuadorian Culture
- National Director of Culture of the Ministry of Education
- National Executive Secretary of the “Andrés Bello” Accord
- National Director of the Ecuadorian Institute of Educational Credit and Scholarships (IESS)
- Undersecretary of the Ministry of Government
Education
Enrique Noboa Arízaga attended elementary school in Cañar and then Cuenca, and then the “Benigno Malo” High School in Cuenca. In 1958 he earned a doctorate in jurisprudence and social sciences from the University of Cuenca.
Partial list of prizes
- First prize, Gold Medal, Floral Games of the Central University of Ecuador, 1942.
- First prize, Gold Medal, Ibero-American poetry contest, Montevideo, Uruguay 1952.
- First prize Violeta de oro, lyre festival, Cuenca 1948.
- First prize prize, Rosa de Oro y Brillante, National Festival of Letters, University of Guayaquil, 1958.
- First prize Capulí de Oro, Floral Games of the XII, Festival of flowers and fruits. Ambato, 1963.
- First Prize, V National Poetry Contest of the newspaper El Universo, Guayaquil, 1963.
Works
- Orbita de la pupila Iluminada (1947)
- Ambito del Amor Eterno (1949)
- Biografía Atlántida (1967)
- Las Posadas de Otoño (1985)
- Del hombre Maravillado
- Selección poética (2005)
- Morada y perfil de la canción frutal (1963)