Alfonso Barrera Valverde (1929-2013) was an

Ecuadorian Ecuadorians ( es, ecuatorianos) are people identified with the South American country of Ecuador. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Ecuadorians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collect ...

writer and diplomat. He was born in Ambato in 1929, the sixth of seven siblings. The family moved to

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 ...

, where the young Alfonso studied at the Colegio La Salle and then at the

Central University of Ecuador , image = Escudo de la Universidad Central del Ecuador.png , caption = , alt = , motto = ''Omnium Potentior est Sapientia'' , established = , type = National university , president = , ...

. He also did postgraduate studies at Harvard University. Starting his career at the foreign ministry, he rose to be ambassador to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

, then under the dictatorship of Leonidas Trujillo. He also served as Ecuador's ambassador to Spain, Canada, Germany and Argentina. In 1980, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by President

Jaime Roldós Aguilera Jaime Roldós Aguilera (5 November 1940 – 24 May 1981) was 33rd President of Ecuador from 10 August 1979 until his death on 24 May 1981. In his short tenure, he became known for his firm stance on human rights. Early life and career Roldós ...

. He was minister during the 1981

Paquisha The Paquisha War or Fake Paquisha War () was a military clash that took place between January and February 1981 between Ecuador and Peru over the control of three watchposts. While Peru felt that the matter was already decided in the Ecuadorian� ...

incident on the Peruvian border. He turned down an offer to run for president, concentrating on the ministry where he spent a total of 49 years. As a writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction, he was regarded as a writer of national importance. Some of his notable works include his account of the Paquisha conflict, ''Hombres de paz en lucha'' (1982), the children's novel ''El país de Manuelito'' (1984) and ''Sancho Panza en América'' (2006). He died in 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrera Valverde, Alfonso Ecuadorian writers 1929 births 2013 deaths