Jorge Icaza Coronel

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Jorge Icaza Coronel, (1906—1978) is considered one of Ecuador's greatest and most prolific writers. He achieved international fame with his novel Huasipungo (1934) which told about the exploitation of Ecuador's Native Americans by Ecuadorian and North American "whites." This book is one the most popular and well-known “Indigenist” novels, a movement in Latin American literature that preceded Magical Realism and emphasized brutal realism. Fragments of the book first appeared in English translation in Russia, where it was welcomed enthusiastically by Russia's peasant socialist class. (Jorge Icaza was later appointed Ecuador's ambassador to Russia). The first complete edition of Huasipungo was first translated into the English language in 1962 by Mervyn Savill and published in England by Dennis Dobson. An “authorized” translation appeared in 1964 by Bernard H. Dulsey and published in 1964 by Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL as “The Villagers.”

Jorge Icaza’s literary career began as a playwright. His plays include El Intruso (1928), La Comedia sin Nombre (1929), Cuál es (1931), Sin Sentido (1932), and Flagelo (1936). His books include Sierra (1933). En las calles (1936), Cholos (1938), Media vida deslumbrados (1942), Huayrapamushcas (1948), Seis relatos (1952), El Chulla Romero y Flores (1958), and Atrapados (1973).

Although the latter two books are recognized as Jorge Icaza’s greatest literary achievements by such experts as Theodore Alan Sackett, Huasipungo continues to be Icaza’s most popular book and has been translated to over 40 languages. While Jorge Icaza was tremendously popular internationally (he was invited to many U.S. colleges to lecture about the Ecuadorian Indians' problems), many of his countrymen accused him of exaggerating about interracial and social class conditions in Ecuador to shock his readers. Jorge Icaza and his Huasipungo are often compared to John Steinbeck and his Grapes of Wrath (1939) as a great work of social protest.