Ecuadorian literature

Ecuadorian literature has been characterized for essentially being costumbrista and, in general, closely linked to events that are exclusively national in nature, with narratives that provide a glimpse into the life of the common citizen.The origins of Ecuadorian literature go back to the ancestral narratives that were passed down from generation to generation. These first stories dealt with fantastical, mythological, and legendary themes.
In recent years, Ecuadorian literature has achieved international notoriety thanks to authors such as Mónica Ojeda and María Fernanda Ampuero.
There are no records of written works before the arrival of the Spaniards. This is mostly due to the fact that the Incas did not have an established writing system, so their legends and other tales had to be passed down orally from generation to generation. However, during the Real Audiencia of Quito, starting in the second half of the 17th century, literary expressions began to appear. The most prominent figures of this period were Antonio de Bastidas [es], Jacinto de Evia—whose El sueño de cielo is considered "the earliest example of the western narrative tradition"—and Jacinto Collahuazo. The first one of these, Bastidas, is considered the first poet of Ecuador, according to literary critic and professor Aurelio Espinosa Pólit. On his part, fellow literary critic Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo had considered Bastidas to be originally from Seville, making the latter's discovery quite controversial. However, once it was proven that he had been born in Guayaquil, he gained historical importance. Along with his student, Jacinto de Evia, Bastidas wrote most of the poems found in the poetry book Ramillete de varias flores poéticas recogidas y cultivadas en los primeros Abriles de sus años por el Maestro Xacinto de Evia, published in Spain during that period. His style corresponds to the culteranismo movement, since Luis de Góngora had a major influence on the poetry of the time. At the same time, the writings of Ecuadorian indigenous peoples are of great importance. The most famous one is Elegía a la muerte de Atahualpa, attributed to Jacinto Collahuazo, a cacique who was born near the city of Ibarra.
During the 18th century, there was an upsurge in the quality of Ecuadorian poetry, according to literary critic Gonzalo Zaldumbide, who discovered the talent of the man who would become the greatest representative of that century's poetry, Father Juan Bautista Aguirre (1725–1786). Aguirre's culteranismo remains strong and renewed, as well as his themes, which included religion, love, comedy, and mythology. His best known poem is Carta a Lizardo.
In addition to Aguirre, one work that also stands out is the poetry collection Los jesuitas quiteños del extrañamiento, edited by Espinosa Pólit and published in 1960. It includes works by Jesuit writers who were ousted from the Real Audiencia of Quito by King Charles III and who spent the rest of their lives around the city of Faenza, Italy. From there, they started a literary mailing list that would be collected later by Juan de Velasco under the title Colección de poesías varias hechas por un ocioso en la ciudad de Faenza or simply Ocioso de Faenza. The list is extensive and includes names such as Juan de Velasco, José de Orozco [es], Pedro Berroeta [es], and others.
On the other hand, it is important to mention Eugenio Espejo (1747–1795), who would become one of the first literary critics in Latin America, according to Menéndez y Pelayo. His translation of Longinus's treatise On the Sublime, as well as his criticism of the rhetoric of the sermons given at the time, is remarkable. Ironically, Espejo did not speak well of Bautista Aguirre, although the latter's style was far superior albeit a bit more afectado y extravagante due to his persistent gongorismo.
Guayaquil-born José Joaquín de Olmedo (1780–1847) was the author of epic poems about the independence of Ecuador and the Americas. He was a purely neoclassical poet and author of well-renowned works, such as La victoria de Junín. Canto a Bolívar—which Simón Bolívar himself objected to at first, due to Olmedo having included Sapa Inca Huayna Capac as one of the protagonists—and Canción al 9 de octubre—which was chosen as the anthem of the city of Guayaquil, with music composed by Ana Villamil Icaza.
Romanticism in Ecuador started with Quito-born poetess Dolores Veintimilla (1830–1857), whose themes included love, the struggle against prejudice, and the longing for unrequited love. Her famous poem ¡Quejas! is an example of the great sadness that plagued her and that would ultimately lead her to commit suicide in the city of Cuenca in 1857.
Other romantic poets were Julio Zaldumbide [es] (Quito, 1833–1887) and Numa Pompilio Llona (Guayaquil, 1832–1907). The latter enjoyed great fame both in Ecuador and Peru, where he lived for a time. He served as a diplomat in Spain, Italy, Colombia, and France, where he met Victor Hugo himself.
Regarding romantic narrative, one of its representatives is author Juan León Mera (Ambato, 1832–1894), whose works are considered classics of Ecuadorian and Spanish-speaking literature. His masterpiece, Cumandá o Un drama entre salvajes, is also one of the first Ecuadorian novels and a clear symbol of the ideals of romanticism. He also wrote the National Anthem of Ecuador and a book of short stories, Novelitas ecuatorianas.
In the essay genre, Juan Montalvo (1832–1889), is its greatest Ecuadorian representative. His works include Las Catilinarias, Siete tratados, and the novel Capítulos que se le olvidaron a Cervantes. He was a harsh critic of Gabriel García Moreno and dictator Ignacio de Veintemilla. In fact, Montalvo himself helped in removing them from power through his essays, in which he called on the people to rise and topple the dictatorship. This is what one of his famous phrases—Mi pluma lo mató — refers to, regarding García Moreno. He gave Veintemilla the nickname Ignacio de la Cuchilla or Ignacio Cuchilla.
The modernismo literary movement arrived in Ecuador fairly late when compared to other countries. This was due to the constant civil wars the country was going through because of hostilities between conservatives and liberals. However, the representatives of modernismo in Ecuador reached a very high level of prestige throughout the Americas. Even today, they are still included in world poetry anthologies. All of them read Baudelaire, Hugo, Rimbaud, and Verlaine in the original French, and their poetry is full of allusions to death and mysticism.
The four members of modernismo in Ecuador were Medardo Ángel Silva (1898–1919) and Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño (1891–1927), from Guayaquil; and Arturo Borja (1892–1912) and Humberto Fierro (1890–1929) from Quito. These were later referred to as the Generación decapitada, mainly because two of them—Silva and Borja—committed suicide at a young age, while Noboa and Fierro died later in life under unclear circumstances, also believed to have committed suicide. They were also grouped together because of the commonalities found in their poems.
Silva was the one who received the most praise and is considered "the most pure of Ecuadorian modernists" and the finest poet Ecuador has ever had, although he published only one book of poetry during his lifetime, El árbol del bien y del mal. Other Ecuadorian poets also considered modernistas are Alfonso Moreno Mora (Cuenca, 1890–1940) and José María Egas (Manta, 1897–1982).
During the early 20th century, other poets who stood out were Jorge Carrera Andrade (Quito, 1903–1978), whose work is characterized by the constant combination of universal and local themes, as well as Gonzalo Escudero (Quito, 1903–1971), Hugo Mayo (Manta, 1895–1988), and Alfredo Gangotena (Quito, 1904–1944).
Literary realism began in Ecuador with A la costa, a historical novel written by Luis A. Martínez (Ambato, 1869–1909), which professor Felipe Aguilar Aguilar called una de las más grandes novelas ecuatorianas. On his part, writer Jorge Enrique Adoum referred to it as (...) la primera novela ecuatoriana. Primera expresión de la voluntad de ver y de explicarse el país. The novel recounts the ups and downs experienced by a boy from a conservative family in Quito when his father dies. He is then forced to work on a hacienda and, at the same time, has to see how his family gradually deteriorates until it disintegrates completely. All this happens against the backdrop of the victory of the liberal revolution. It has been compared to the works of Upton Sinclair.
However, the book that marked the appearance of social themes in literature is Los que se van, a compilation of short stories by Guayaquil-born writers Demetrio Aguilera Malta (1909–1981), Joaquín Gallegos Lara (1909–1947) and Enrique Gil Gilbert (1912–1973). Professor David William Foster referred to the book as:
Aguilera, Gallegos, and Gil, along with José de la Cuadra (1903–1941) and Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco (1908–1993), made up the so-called Grupo de Guayaquil. All these writers were committed to social issues and were determined to show the reality of the cholo montubio through popular parlance, harsh scenes, profanity, and other resources.
The numerous works produced by the members of this group include classics such as Los Sangurimas by José de la Cuadra, Nuestro pan by Enrique Gil Gilbert, Las cruces sobre el agua by Joaquín Gallegos Lara, Siete lunas y siete serpientes by Demetrio Aguilera Malta, and Baldomera by Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco. All these books are well-renowned for their strong social content and for the crudeness with which they portray reality.
However, the greatest example of modern Ecuadorian literature is most likely novelist Jorge Icaza Coronel (1906–1978) and his work Huasipungo, perhaps the Ecuadorian novel that has been translated to the most languages. The novel El chulla Romero y Flores is another famous work by Icaza with relevant social content.
Trying to find a unifying theme in the narrative approaches by the generation of writers of the 1930s is an arduous task, due to the amount of criticism and comments that make it ambiguous to categorize the principles and ideals of a minor literature such as the one from Ecuador. Icaza himself, in his essay, Relato, espíritu unificador, en la generación del año 30, complains about the lack of commitment from Ecuadorian scholars and intellectuals:
Moreover, Icaza mentions that this unifying spirit beat in the three groups of Ecuadorian writers located in Guayaquil, in Quito, and in Loja, despite the regional differences, in a country that was in the evolutionary stage of development, forming a society that sought a destiny in the political, economic, and literary spheres, where the capital cities of the montubios, cholos, and indigenous peoples incorporated the presence of national themes in the literature.
Authors and representative works of the 1930s generation include:
Ecuadorian narrative gained strength once again starting in the 1970s, coinciding with the appearance of major literary magazines such as La bufanda del sol, which began to be published in 1972. The most outstanding works during this time renewed the local narrative by using experimental techniques to transmit messages of political and social criticism. Under this umbrella, iconic novels started to appear, such as Entre Marx y una mujer desnuda by Jorge Enrique Adoum (Ambato, 1926–2009), La Linares by Iván Egüez (Quito, 1944–), El pueblo soy yo by Pedro Jorge Vera (Guayaquil, 1914–1999), and María Joaquina en la vida y en la muerte by Jorge Dávila Vásquez (Cuenca, 1947–).
During this period, novelist Alicia Yánez Cossío (Quito, 1928–) burst onto a literary scene that until then had been dominated by male figures, thanks to the publication in 1973 of her acclaimed novel Bruna, soroche y los tíos. The latter was followed by more than a dozen novels that cemented Yánez's place as the great Ecuadorian author of the 20th century, with a style that mixed criticism of the status of women in society and the search for the mestizo identity with magical realism. Other women writers also stood out in later years: poetess and narrator Sonia Manzano Vela (Guayaquil, 1947–) and essayist Lupe Rumazo (Quito, 1933–).
Several narrative authors also stood out during this time, including Eliécer Cárdenas (Cañar, 1950–2021), particularly with Polvo y ceniza; Jorge Velasco Mackenzie (Guayaquil, 1949–2021), with his novel about marginalization in Guayaquil, El rincón de los justos; and Abdón Ubidia (Quito, 1944–). On the short story genre, the greatest representatives during this time were: Raúl Pérez Torres [es] (Quito, 1941–), who, with a prolific career as a short story writer managed to win the prestigious Casa de las Américas Award; Javier Vásconez (Quito, 1946–), and Huilo Ruales [es] (Ibarra, 1947–).
In poetry, César Dávila Andrade (Cuenca, 1918–1967) especially stands out, although also important are: Efraín Jara Idrovo (Cuenca, 1926–2018), Alejandro Carrión (Loja, 1915–1922), Iván Carvajal (San Gabriel, 1948–), Julio Pazos Barrera (Baños, 1944–), Humberto Vinueza (Guayaquil, 1942–2017), Carlos Eduardo Jaramillo Castillo (Loja, 1932–), Euler Granda (Riobamba, 1935–2018), Fernando Nieto Cadena [es] (Quito, 1947–2017), Sonia Manzano Vela, Luis Alberto Costales (Riobamba, 1926–2006)—considered one of the "absentees" of the Eugenio Espejo Award— and Adalberto Ortiz (Esmeraldas, 1914–2003). The latter was known for describing the spirit of the Afro-Ecuadorian population in Ecuador.
In recent years, Ecuadorian narrative has been marked by the emergence of three women writers who have achieved international renown: Brazilian-born Gabriela Alemán (Rio de Janeiro, 1968–), Mónica Ojeda (Guayaquil, 1988–), and María Fernanda Ampuero (Guayaquil, 1976–). The latter two have described wretched and horrific settings in their work to explore violence, power relations, and family ties, in titles such as Nefando (2016), Mandíbula (2018), and Pelea de gallos (2018). Ojeda, in particular, has received international recognition, including the ALBA Award for Narrative and the Prince Claus Next Generation Award, as well as being a finalist for the Mario Vargas Llosa Biennial Award for Novel and the Ribera del Duero Short Narrative Award.
Other writers who have stood out in recent decades are Raúl Vallejo [es] (Manta, 1959–), with his novel Gabriel(a) (2019) and Óscar Vela [es] (Quito, 1968–).
The most relevant names in poetry today are: Juan José Rodinás [es] (Ambato, 1979–), Carla Badillo Coronado (Quito, 1985–), Ernesto Carrión [es] (Guayaquil, 1977–), María Auxiliadora Balladares (Guayaquil, 1980–), and Mónica Ojeda.