Laura Romo Rivera de Crespo Toral (Baños, March 28, 1916 – Quito, 2011) served as the director of Ecuador’s “Eugenio Espejo” National Library for more than 60 years (until 2008). When she was 28 years old in 1944, the library only had 200 books, but by 2011, it had grown to house 150,000. On August 9, 1944, she co-founded the House of Ecuadorian Culture with Benjamn Carrión. Many artists found inspiration in her, including Jaime Andrade, whose wood carving of her likeness won the National Sculpture Prize. She was also subject of a César Dávila Andrade poem, and also one by her husband Jorge Crespo Toral. Her friends included several of the most prominent names in Ecuadorian literature: Benjamín Carrión, Jorge Carrera Andrade, Jorge Icaza, and Alfredo Pareja, to name a few. Her collaboration has been credited in the works of scholars such as Paulo Carvalho Neto (folklore), Ricardo Descalzi (theatre), and Plutarco Naranjo (Montalvo).
Video of the “Eugenio Espejo” National Library
Variations of name
- Laura Romo de Crespo
- Laura Romo Rivera de Crespo Toral
- Laura Romo Rivera