Humberto Salvador

Humberto Salvador (born December 25, 1909 in Guayaquil , Guayas Province , † 1982 ) was an Ecuadorian writer.

Salvador studied law, medicine and psychology at the Universidad Central del Ecuador in Quito . He successfully completed his law degree and was even admitted to the bar, but he never practiced that profession. After living in Quito for a few years, he got a job as a school director in his hometown. He was later entrusted with the management of the city's school board in Guayaquil.

In addition, Salvador founded the magazine “La Semana” and was its main editor for many years. He made his debut as a writer with a play that was never performed.

reception

Since, in Salvador's opinion, no suitable stage could be found in his country, he gave up writing plays and turned to narrative prose. In his early novel - e.g. B. "Camarada" - he describes bourgeois society almost analytically in a kind of Marxist social criticism and Freudian psychoanalysis .

In his novel “Noviembre” Salvador deals with the dictatorship of President Federico Páez . With irony, he reveals the much-vaunted danger of communism in his country as a pretext for politicians to remain in office. His empathy and his precise knowledge of the circumstances prevent “Noviembre” from degenerating into a satire without telling.

Salvador was a great admirer of Thomas Mann . In 1943 he set a small memorial to the revered writer. In a key scene of his “Prometeo”, the school inspector Carlos purchases a copy of “ Magic Mountain ” for a monthly salary of 70 sucres, and six years later Salvador designed his novel “La fuente clara” based on the Magic Mountain; he had the action set in a health resort in Ecuador.

Works (selection)

Novels

• Camarada . 1933.
• La fuente clara . 1946.
• Noviembre . 1939.
• Prometeo . 1943.
• Trabajadores. Recuredos de un muchado desvalido . 1935.

Non-fiction

• Esquema sexual . 1939.
• Freud o el psicoanálisis .
• Los fundamentos de psicoanálisis . 1947.
• Panorama de relato en Chile .

Plays

• Amor la zarpa .
• El miedo de amor .
• Un preludio de Chopin .

literature

• B. Contreras: Narrativas vanguardista latinoamericana . Bid & Co Editor, Venezuela 2007, ISBN 978-98-0674-149-2 .
• Angel Flores: Spanish American Authors. The 20th century . Wilson Books, New York 1992, ISBN 0-8242-0806-4 .
• José Ótero: Humberto Salvador. El hombre, sus temas, su creación . Dissertation, University of Albuquerque, NM. 1970.
• Dieter Reichardt: Latin American authors. Literary dictionary and bibliography of German translations . Erdmann Verlag, Tübingen 1972, ISBN 3-7711-0152-2 , pp. 464-465.