DEMETRIO AGUILERA MALTA: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Demetrio Aguilera Malta was a multifaceted Ecuadorian outstanding in painting, film, writing, and diplomacy. A man with extensive experience and recognition in each branch practiced, both within his country and outside it. Aguilera's lyrics and art have left a deep mark on Ecuadorian and world literature.

This need to publicize the culture of the people and their discomforts make him a character of great value. Latin American culture found in Aguilera Malta the perfect amalgamation between popular knowledge and literature, which managed to faithfully capture the feelings of the coastal peoples of Ecuador in favor of their defense and appreciation.

Demetrio Aguilera Malta together with his last wife, Velia Marquez

Biography

Early years

Raúl Demetrio, as he was named by his parents, was born at 6 in the morning on Monday, May 24, 1909, in the city of Guayaquil. His eyes saw the light in a house located on the corner of Industrias and Manabí, a property that his parents rented at that time.

His parents were Demetrio Aguilera Sánchez -an avid merchant dedicated to the management of factories of different fields and farms- and Teresa Malta and Franco, an extremely cultured woman who worked as a teacher in Guayaquil or, as it was said at the time, as a tutor..

Literary ancestors

The letters came from his blood. His maternal great-grandfather was Juan José de Malta y Salcedo, a renowned Ecuadorian writer and journalist of the 19th century.

Raúl Demetrio discovered it through his works, in a library of the house that the old playwright had inherited from Teresa Malta's family.

Education

Regarding the first instructions received in his education, his mother was very meticulous and hired specialist teachers to assist him. Teresa also participated actively in the formation of the child.

Raúl Demetrio spent his first years of life on a farm on the Island of San Ignacio, in the Gulf of Guayaquil. The farm belonged to his father, as well as the island where he was; He acquired them after selling a batch of machinery to Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño in 1918. There they grew corn, cotton, and fruits until 1927.

Between 1918 and 1922 Demetrio dedicated himself to country life on his father's farm. He spent the day enjoying the reeds and cornfields, and enjoying the intricate island system off the Ecuadorian coast. When he got home, he learned from his mother and went into his great-grandfather's library.

Among the books by Juan José de Malta and Salcedo, he found a copy of the play El gran caballero edited by his great-grandfather, which he read and reread, and inspired him for his later work.

Back to Guayaquil

At the end of 1922, his father decided to send him to Guayaquil to continue his formal studies. He was received by his paternal uncle, León Aguilera Sánchez, who hosted him at his home. He had a brief stint at Professor Nelson Matheus' school, and immediately enrolled in the Vicente Rocafuerte mixed school.

At this school in Guayaquil, at the age of 14, he saw literature classes with Dr. José de la Cuadra, who immediately appreciated his gifts for letters. In addition, he saw drawing classes with José María Roura Oxandeberro, who encouraged him to also dedicate himself to canvases and oil.

Since then, Raúl Demetrio devoted himself with equal zeal to painting and letters. In Guayaquil he used to spend the afternoons playing piano with his grandmother, Teresa Franco. He was a very cheerful young man, but at the same time a fighter; not in vain around the block they called him "Aguilera pescozón".

A momentous change

In 1923, she met a man who changed her life and marked her intellectual and literary path; that character was Joaquín Gallegos Lara.

Demetrio himself said of this: "When I met Joaquín Gallegos Lara, it was a true dazzling… He was one of the strongest and most interesting personalities that I have ever met."

The young people of the time used to meet in the writer's house; among them was Raúl Demetrio. This is how strong the influence of Joaquín Gallegos was in Aguilera's life that, on the recommendation of Gallegos, Demetrio never again used his name “Raúl”.

In an interview, Demetrio clearly remembered that moment in which Joaquín Gallegos told him: "Take off the name Raúl and leave the name Demetrio, which is a good name and very popular in Russia." So it was. Such was Gallegos Lara's admiration for the young writer, who was already seeing his intercontinental career.

Literary flourish

The year 1924 meant for Demetrio a time of literary flourishing. His experiences touched his sensitivity and the lyrics flowed very freely. In that year he published his first poems in the magazine Cromos; in addition, he directed the literary magazine called Ideal, belonging to the newspaper La Prensa.

It is in Ideal magazine where he published his first story: Estrella. In that same literary space she published La maldita canoa, which is considered her first “cholo” work. In the Guayaquil area, "cholo" refers to that allusive to the coastal people and their way of life.

In 1927 he published La primavera interior, a collection of poems in four hands together with his friend Jorge Pérez Concha. That same year he was hired by the magazine Voluntad, where he directed the artistic part; and he was appointed librarian of the Vicente Rocafuerte school.

Arts and literature

The subsequent three years turned out to be of great impact on his artistic and literary work, as well as on a professional level. In 1929 he graduated from high school and published El libro de los manglares, where he included cholo poems and illustrated externally and internally himself.

After graduating, he began his law studies, but withdrew, not feeling identified with the career; thus he was able to devote himself fully to the arts and writing.

He visited Panama in 1930. There his literary and artistic work was highly valued, becoming a chronicler of three newspapers: El Gráfico, La Estrella de Panamá and El Diario de Panamá. He also made works inspired by the ruins of ancient Panama and sold them to the Panama Herald. In Panama he married Ana Rosa Endara del Castillo.

Those who leave

His mentor and guide, Joaquín Gallegos Lara, in that year compiled the cholo stories of Demetrio and his partner Enrique Gil Gilbert, 24 stories in total. He united them in a book, baptized them Los que se van and put it to shoot in Guayaquil and beyond.

As is often the case, the book was not very celebrated in Ecuadorian lands; However, it received very good comments from the Spanish literary critic Francisco Ferrandis Albors, who knew how to expose it very well in his column in the newspaper El Telégrafo. With that book the literary protest movement was framed, giving it character.

In 1931 he returned to Guayaquil with his wife. He worked for the newspaper El universo, with a column called "Savia." In 1932, while Leticia was editing, she was working on her novel Don Goyo -narration about the life of a cholo on the Island of San Ignacio-, which was published the following year in Spain and received excellent reviews.

Correspondent facet

Demetrio Aguilera had a marked communist tendency that he reflected in his work, so he made it clear in his work Canal Zone. The Yankees in Panama, 1935. Between 1936 and 1939 he served as a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War and the conflicts that occurred in the Panama Canal.

In 1942 he published his work La isla virgen, using a very rich Creole language with a mixture of that magical cholo realism. This work was also lent to criticize the rise of colonialism, and the mistreatment and contempt of the indigenous.

Diplomatic career

During the mandate of Carlos Julio Arosemena Tola, Demetrio Aguilera was sent to the Ecuadorian embassy in Chile to be in charge of business.

After holding this position, he was sent to Brazil as cultural attaché in 1949, and in 1979 he was appointed ambassador to Mexico, where he had lived since 1958.

Given his extensive diplomatic career and his knowledge of the world and letters, he developed English and French, languages ​​that the versatile man spoke and wrote fluently.

Aguilera Malta had only three children: a boy, Ciro, to whom he owes his Ecuadorian descent; and Ada Teresa and Marlene the ones he had with the Panamanian Ana Rosa. Her last life partner was Velia Márquez.

In general, Aguilera displayed an enormous affinity for the Aztec land, its customs and its culture.

Death

Demetrio Aguilera Malta died in Mexico on December 28, 1981, after a stroke resulting from a fall that he suffered in his bedroom the day before. At that time he was already almost blind as a result of the diabetes he developed.

His connection with the Mexican land was such that, when he died, his body was cremated, his ashes sent to Ecuador, and his heart (the physical organ) was left resting in Mexico.

When his ashes arrived in his homeland, they were thrown into the sea using a snail shell, on Thursday, January 7, 1982. This was done so that his wish would be fulfilled, as he said: "For my shadow to float like Don Goyo".

Featured works by genre

Bibliography

Novels

Filmography

Feature Films

References

1. Demetrio Aguilera Malta. (S. f.). (n / a): Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org
2. Demetrio Aguilera Malta. (2012) Ecuador: Demetrio Aguilera Malta. Recovered from: demetrioaguile.blogspot.com
3. Áviles Pino, E. (S. f.). Demetrio Aguilera Malta. Ecuador: Encyclopedia of Ecuador. Recovered from: encyclopediadelecuador.com
4. Demetrio Aguilera Malta (Ecuador). (S. f.). Mexico: The story from Mexico. Recovered from: elcountdesdemexico.com.mx
5. Demetrio Aguilera Malta, the cholo storyteller. (2008). (n / a): The universe. Recovered from: eluniverso.com