Jorge Icaza

Jorge Icaza Coronel (born June 10, 1906 in Quito , † May 26, 1978 ibid) was an Ecuadorian author and theater director. Besides Benjamin Carrión , he is seen by many as the most important Ecuadorian writer of the 20th century. With his novel Huasipungo and the relentless description of the oppression and exploitation of the Ecuadorian indigenous people (Indios) contained therein , he founded literary indigenism in Ecuador and became one of its most important representatives for all of Latin America .

Life

Jorge Icaza was born into an impoverished middle-class family in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, where he studied at the Universidad Central and the Conservatorio Nacional with great financial hardship. Through long stays at his uncle's hacienda in the Andes , he got to know the life of the indigenous population as a child. However, he himself was white-skinned and saw himself as a cholo , a member of the mestizo population group. His lifestyle at a young age was closer to the so-called bohemian . After he had broken off his medical studies and lost his mother and stepfather, he was accepted as an actor in the Compañía Dramática Nacional and also wrote numerous plays himself; However, he earned his living as an official in the Ministry of Finance of his country.

He married the actress Marina Moncayo, with whom he had a daughter, Fenia Icaza Moncayo. Years earlier, he had an illegitimate child, Cristina Icaza. In 1928 he wrote his first play, El Intruso (The Intruder), which was performed by his own company. As a director and dramaturge , Icaza repeatedly had problems with censorship and with the opposition to the Catholic Church in his country: For example, the premiere of his play Flagelos (= lashes, because behind the stage the sound of lashes as a symbol of the oppression of the people heard) in their own country and could not take place until 1940 in the Teatro del Pueblo in Buenos Aires under the direction of Leónidas Barletta . After his drama El dictador had to take sharp criticism in 1933, Icaza switched to writing novels and opened a bookstore next to it, but without giving up his job as a tax clerk. The author had great success with his first novel Huasipungo in 1934: The book was translated into numerous languages ​​and has since been considered a milestone in the history of the indigenous novel and probably the best-known work in Ecuadorian literature. From this time on, the writer was frequently invited to lectures and seminars abroad. As a member of the Social Democratic Party, he campaigned for the Indians; he also founded the writers 'and artists' union in his country and worked in the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana .

Icaza headed the Ecuadorian National Library for a while (from 1960) and later held numerous diplomatic posts; Among other things, he was cultural attaché in Buenos Aires and in the 1970s his country's ambassador to the Soviet Union (1973), Poland and the GDR . He died in Quito on May 26, 1978.

Works

In his early work Icaza still wrote many dramas, but after 1936 he turned completely to the novel and the story . Typical of his prose is the use of expressions from the Kichwa , so that most of the texts for Spanish-speaking readers had to be provided with a glossary at the end . In terms of content, the pointed criticism of the excesses of the feudalist organized latifundia system stands out, as well as the demonstration of an incipient tendency towards globalization by foreign, especially US- American capital. This anti-capitalist attitude as well as the strongly didactic orientation of his novels, in which brutal abuses were described very directly, was also emphasized by his opponents in order to question the literary qualities of his works. For the novel En las calles (1935) the author received the national literary prize.

Dramatic works

• 1928 El Intruso
• 1929 La comedia sin nombre
• 1929 Por el viejo
• 1931 ¿Cuál it?
• 1931 Como ellos quieren
• 1932 Sin Sentido
• 1933 El dictador
• 1936 Flagelo

Most of his pieces premiered at the Teatro Nacional Sucre in Quito.

Novels

• 1934 Huasipungo . Quito: Imprenta Nacional [newer edition z. B. Madrid: Cátedra, 1994] (Title of the German translations: Huasi-Pungo: Call of the Indians / Huasipungo: Our little piece of earth )
• 1935 En las calles (city novel)
• 1937 Cholos
• 1942 Media vida deslumbrados
• 1948 Huayrapamushcas. Hijos del viento . With wood engravings by Eduardo Kingman
• 1958 El chulla Romero y Flores (German title: Caballero in borrowed tailcoat)

stories

• 1933 Barro de la Sierra
• 1952 Seis relatos
• 1969 Relatos

Autobiographical writings

• 1973 Atrapados ( trilogy )

Web links

• Literature by and about Jorge Icaza in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Jorge Icaza in the catalog of the Ibero-American Institute of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin
• Biography and text excerpts (both in Spanish)
• Biography (in more detail, span.)