Demetrio Aguilera Malta
Demetrio Aguilera Malta | |
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Born | May 24, 1909 Guayaquil,Ecuador |
Died | 29 December 1981 Mexico City,Mexico | (aged 72)
Occupation | Writer |
Genre | Social Realism,Magical Realism |
Notable works | Seven Serpents and Seven Moons |
Demetrio Aguilera Malta(Guayaquil, May 24, 1909 – México D.F., December 29, 1981) was an Ecuadorian writer, director, painter, and diplomat. He was a member of theGuayaquil Groupof the 1930s, who usedsocial realismin their writings. He usedmagical realismin his masterpieceSiete lunas y siete serpientes(1970), which was translated into English asSeven Serpents and Seven MoonsbyGregory Rabassain 1979.
Biography
[edit]Aguilera Malta was born on May 24, 1909, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He was the son of Demetrio Aguilera Sánchez and Teresa Malta y Franco. His father officially named him Demetrio Abdon, but his mother hated the name Abdon, and always called him Raúl Demetrio. He stopped using Raúl on the advice ofJoaquín Gallegos Lara.His father was a businessman who owned factories and farms. His maternal great-grandfather, Juan José de Malta y Salcedo, was a playwright, and the young Aguilera Malta discovered his works in the library he inherited from his grandfather. Aguilera Malta spent much of his childhood on his family's farm on an island in the Gulf of Guayaquil. He was home-schooled by his mother and tutors. He went to high school at Vicente Rocafuerte School, from which he graduated in 1929.José de la Cuadrawas his literature teacher. At the beginning of his college education, he studied law in Guayaquil, but he quit these studies in 1931. Later, he studied literature on a Ministry of Education scholarship in Ecuador and in Madrid, just before the start of theSpanish Civil War.
Among other posts, Aguilera Malta was Undersecretary of Education andcharge d'affairesin the Ecuadorian Embassy in Chile in 1947 under the government ofCarlos Julio Arosemena Tola.Later, he was Cultural Attache in Brazil in 1949 and Ambassador of Ecuador to Mexico from August 1979 until his death in 1981.
He held conferences and courses at several universities in North and South America, includingClaremont Collegesand theUniversity of California, Irvine.
He was a war correspondent during theSpanish Civil War.He worked for the journalsLa PrensaandEl Telégrafoin Guayaquil. He also worked for thePanamanianjournalsEl Diario de Panamá,El Gráfico,andLa Estrella de Panamá.
Aguilera Malta is considered one of the most important Ecuadorian writers. He was a founding member of the Casa de la Cultura (House of Ecuadorian Culture) and of theGuayaquil Group(together with his best friendJoaquín Gallegos Lara), of the Iberoamerican Community of Writers, and of the Latin American House of Culture. His books have been published around the world and translated into several languages.
Aguilera Malta moved to Mexico in 1958. He had one son, Ciro, with his first love. With his wife, the Panamanian Adda Rosa Endara he had two daughters, Adda Teresa and Marlene. He was with Velia Marqués since 1950, but they had no children.
Aguilera Malta suffered from diabetes and blindness since the early eighties. He died on December 29, 1981, in Mexico City, due to a cerebral hemorrhage after a fall.
Awards
[edit]In the 1930 Art Salon, he won two awards. In 1971, he received a gold medal from the Municipality of Guayaquil during the Latin American Writers Meeting. He was awarded theEugenio Espejo Prizein 1981 in recognition of his outstanding literary career.
Filmography
[edit]Feature films
[edit]- La Cadena Infinita "(Chile, 1948)
- Entre dos Carnavales (Brazil, 1949) first movie in color in Brazil
Documentaries
[edit]In 1954, Aguilera Malta filmed four documentaries commissioned by the Ministry of Public Works to promote Ecuador.
- El transporte de banano
- Los Salasacas
- Los Colorados
- Las Iglesias de Quito
Bibliography
[edit]Novels
[edit]- Don Goyo(Madrid, 1933); English translation:Don Goyo(1980) by John and Carolyn Brushwood
- Canal Zone(Santiago de Chile, 1935, ed. Ercilla)
- La isla virgen(Guayaquil, 1942)
- Una cruz en la sierra Maestra(Buenos Aires, 1960)
- La caballeresa del sol(Madrid, 1964); English translation:Manuela. A Novel About Simon Bolivar(1967) byWillis Knapp Jones
- El Quijote de El Dorado(Madrid, 1964)
- Un nuevo mar para el Rey(Madrid, 1965)
- Siete lunas y siete serpientes(México, 1970); English translation:Seven Serpents and Seven Moons(1979) byGregory Rabassa
- El secuestro del general(Mexico, 1973); English translation:Babelandia(1985) by Peter Earle
- Requimen para el diablo(1978)
Stories
[edit]- Los que se van (Guayaquil, 1930) Co-author
- El cholo que se vengó (Mexico, 1992)
- Tu mama la tiene mas grande que tu papa (Mexico 2012)
Plays
[edit]- España leal (Quito, 1938)
- Campeonatomanía (1939)
- Carbón (1939)
- El sátiro encadenado (1939)
- Lázaro (Guayaquil, 1941)
- Sangre azul (Washington,1946)
- Dos comedias fáciles (1950)
- No bastan los átomos, Dientes blancos (Guayaquil, 1955)
- El tigre (1955)
- Honorarios (Quito, 1957)
- Infierno negro (México, 1967)
- Fantoche (1970)
- Muerte S. A. -La muerte es un gran negocio- (1970)
- Una mujer para cada acto (1970)
- Teatro completo (México, 1970)
References
[edit]- 1909 births
- 1981 deaths
- Ecuadorian male short story writers
- Ecuadorian film directors
- Ecuadorian diplomats
- Ambassadors of Ecuador to Mexico
- People from Guayaquil
- 20th-century novelists
- 20th-century Ecuadorian painters
- 20th-century dramatists and playwrights
- Ecuadorian male novelists
- Ecuadorian male dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century short story writers
- 20th-century male writers
- Accidental deaths from falls