Some of the most outstanding Ecuadorian literary works are Huasipungo by Jorge Icaza, Polvo y ceniza by Eliécer Cárdenas, María Jesús by Medardo Ángel Silva, Siete lunas, seven snakes by Demetrio Aguilera Malta, among others.
Ecuador, a neighboring country to Argentina and Chile, the cradle of poets and writers such as Benedetti or Cortázar, is also a literary reference in the South American continent. Writers like Jorge Enrique Adoum or José Queirolo, were born in Ecuador.
Some of them have crossed borders with literary works such as Requiem for the Rain, or The Tree of Good and Evil, a poetry written by Medardo Ángel Silva in 1918.
Ecuadorian literature has been expanding in recent years, taking as a reference the most outstanding contemporary works from Spanish-speaking countries.
Unpublished works, such as the literary works of Pablo Palacio, show the great literary and cultural enrichment that Ecuador transmits to the world through its prose. Débora or Life of the Hanged Man are works by this writer that in his time did not achieve sufficient attention or the necessary diffusion.
Classic poets from the time of the War of Independence, such as Julio Zaldumbide, set a point of reference for other writers.
You may also be interested in seeing a list of the 8 most recognized Ecuadorian poets in history.
10 important works of Ecuadorian literature
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Jorge Icaza is a popular writer who narrated the Andean indigenous culture of Ecuador in his works. His work Huasipungo, originally published in 1960, narrates the class struggle that was going on at the time.
It develops arbitrariness and modern slavery by the Ecuadorian landowner class. Jorge Icaza tells us about the class division in which the popular sectors were overwhelmed by the ruling class and the introduction of liberalism in Ecuador.
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José de la Cuadra was born in Guayaquil on September 3, 1903. Versatile in law, journalism and literature, he gives us a literary work in the style of One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Originally written and published in 1939, Los Sangurimas is the story of a powerful Ecuadorian family full of myths and legends typical of the time.
Full of mysticism, esotericism and intertwined stories that reveal even how Nicasio Sangurima had made pacts with the devil.
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This young writer, about whom a mystery is woven about his death at age 21, was born in 1919. In the style of María de Jorge Isaacs, Silva delivers his little novel of ten chapters in which he tells the melancholic story of a man wounded returning to the field.
There he finds the longed-for joy that he missed in the city, which he described as a place of bad men.
A poetic story in which a little love story unfolds between the narrator and María, a nice fifteen-year-old daughter of a revolutionary.
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Luis Alfredo Martinez was a political writer with a marked career and liberal ideas. In 1904 he introduced his book A la costa, a literary work that contrasts with the conservative customs of the time, showing a rebellious romantic face between Luciano and Mariana.
It is a critical narrative with the religion and customs of the time. The history of each of the characters in this novel is blurred through the narrative, taking an unforeseen variation.
Salvador, the main protagonist, manages to marry Consuelo, and after several years of love and happiness the story takes an unexpected turn.
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Literary work polished by Juan Montalvo, who was born on April 13, 1832. He is considered by a large part of Ecuadorian intellectuals one of the greatest illustrators in the country and a benchmark of the country's critical and political literature.
In his work Las Catalinarias, Juan Montalvo unscrupulously fights the dictatorship of Ignacio de Veintemilla, which he classifies as tyrant and corrupt.
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Novel written by Eliécer Cárdenas, who was born in 1950 in Cañar, Ecuador.
P olvo y Ceniza is a popular novel in Ecuadorian culture, in which the majority sentiment of the population of the time is revealed.
Naún Briones is a peasant warrior who faces the exploitation of the fief towards the peasant. Cárdenas surrounds the main character in a semantics of romanticism, realism and mysticism, which reflects what would be the true feeling for the time. It is a contemporary work.
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Jorge Carrera Andrade is an Ecuadorian writer and poet born in Quito in 1903. His most momentous work is El camino del sol.
The poet tells us the history of Ecuador through poetry, in which each chapter becomes a popular tale that intertwines struggles, stories and indigenous characters of the Republic of Ecuador.
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Demetrio Aguilera Malta was a renowned Ecuadorian writer and filmmaker, whose birth dates back to 1909.
In the same genre as One Hundred Years of Solitude, this novel tells the story of an infant named Candelario Mariscal.
The chronicle takes place in the town of Santorontón, a place full of mysticism and that is managed to combine with reality by giving bits of literary fantasy. It is a work of recognized cultural value in Ecuador.
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Luis Alberto Costales was a notable Ecuadorian writer and philosopher, as well as a poet.
Exiled in the verse is a work in which the author transmits his most fanciful thoughts, revealing the Ecuadorian culture through poetry.
Luis Alberto Costales reflects his life stories in this poetry, turning it, according to the same author, into an extension of his mental lineage.
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From the writer Juan León Mera, Cumandá is a romantic novel that tells the story between Carlos and the protagonist.
Through this literary work, Juan León Mera combines romanticism with the cultural and indigenous problems that were experienced at the time, also recounting the exploitation of the indigenous by the indigenous himself.
References
- Medardo Ángel Silva (1918). Maria Jesus. Quito. The Total Book Foundation.
- Mera, Juan León (1983). Cumandá or a drama between savages. Quito: Popular Cultural Promoter.
- Universal Virtual Library. Editorial del Cardo. library.org.ar.
- Montalvo, Juan (1966) Las Catalinaires. Latacunga: Editorial Cotopaxi.
- Ribadeneira, Edmundo (1968). The modern Ecuadorian novel. Quito: House of Ecuadorian Culture.