Alba Calderón de Gil (July 27, 1908 – 1992) was an Ecuadorian social realist painter, leftist activist, and feminist. She founded the movement for the recognition of women's rights in Ecuador. Alba Calderón was born in Esmeraldas and died in Guayaquil.

Personal life

In 1933 Alba Calderón was introduced to the novelist

Enrique Gil Gilbert Enrique Gil Gilbert (July 8, 1912 – February 21, 1973) was an Ecuadorian novelist, journalist, poet, and a high-ranking member of the Communist Party of Ecuador. Gil Gilbert was born and died in the coastal city of Guayaquil, and was the young ...

of the " Guayaquil Group" by

Demetrio Aguilera Malta 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 the Guayaquil Group of the 1930s, who used social realism in their writings. He us ...

. Calderón married Gil Gilbert in 1934. Gil Gilbert's best friend and fellow social realist writer

Joaquín Gallegos Lara Joaquín Gallegos Lara (April 9, 1909 – November 16, 1947) was an Ecuadorian social realist novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist. Biography Joaquín Gallegos Lara was born in Guayaquil in 1909, the son of Emma Lara Calderon and Joa ...

was the best man at the ceremony. Calderón and Gil Gilbert had two sons: Enrique Gil Calderon, a

choral director Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duti ...

, and Antonio Gil Calderon, a doctor and businessman.

Communist life and exile

In 1953 the Communist Party of Ecuador sent Alba Calderón as a delegate to the Third Congress of the International Federation of Women, to fight for peace and the defense of women and children. She then organized the Union of Women of Guayas, for which she was elected Secretary General, while Aurora Estrada was elected its president, and Blanca Arce de Salcedo its vice president. In 1958 she helped numerous Cuban refugees, and traveled to Cuba twice soon after the Cuban Revolution. Between 1961-1963 she was the Provincial Counselor of Guayas during the presidency of

Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy (24 August 1919 – 5 March 2004) was an Ecuadorian politician. Arosemena Monroy was elected as Vice President of Ecuador in 1960 and due to the ousting of President José María Velasco Ibarra, became President of ...

. But during the dictatorship of 1963 the government arrested several leaders and members of the communist party, and Alba Calderon had to go into exile in Chile. Her husband Gil Gilbert, who was a high-ranking member of the communist party, was imprisoned for 15 months, and her son Enrique and his family had to go into hiding. The Union of Women of Guayas got dissolved at this time, but years later its members founded the United Front of Women, with Ana Abad de Monroy as its president, whose purpose was the development of women in the historic framework of Ecuador.

Artwork

Alba Calderón was a social realist artist whose artwork includes paintings, watercolors, drawings and sketches that are usually characterized by the portrayal of everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor of Ecuador. Her works were exhibited in

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

, Lima, Santiago,

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

, New York City, and Paris. In 2004 the museum of the

Central Bank of Ecuador The Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE, per its abbreviation in Spanish) is an institution of the Executive Function, which has institutional, administrative, financial, and technical autonomy. Is in charge of executing the monetary policy established ...

in Guayaquil acquired some of Calderón's paintings from her son Enrique Gil Calderón. Other paintings can be found at the

House of Ecuadorian Culture La Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana (''The House of Ecuadorian Culture'') is a cultural organization founded by Benjamín Carrión on August 9, 1944, during the presidency of Dr Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra. It was created to stimulate, to direct and ...

. Private owners, such as the art critic Juan Hadatty Saltos and Cecilia Hasing, have also lent their private collections for exhibitions. One of Calderón's most remarkable and complex paintings is '' Escogedoras de café (Coffee Pickers)'' (1939). In this tropical-colored painting, peasants are toiling on a coffee plantation, while a

majordomo A majordomo is a person who speaks, makes arrangements, or takes charge for another. Typically, this is the highest (''major'') person of a household (''domūs'' or ''domicile'') staff, a head servant who acts on behalf of the owner of a large ...

, with a sheathed machete, oversees. The peasants are portrayed as a collective, individuality does not matter; that is why their faces are not shown or are covered by

sombreros A sombrero (Spanish , ) is a type of wide-brimmed Mexican men's hat used to shield the face and eyes from the sun. It usually has a high pointed crown, an extra-wide brim (broad enough to cast a shadow over the head, neck and shoulders of the we ...

References

ALBA CALDERON DE GIL - Diccionario Biográfico Ecuador

Grupo de Guayaquil
Editor: Dr. Edison Galárraga

Lunes 21 de agosto del 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Calderon, Alba 1908 births 1992 deaths Ecuadorian women painters Ecuadorian feminists 20th-century women artists