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
The Guayaquil Group (''Grupo de Guayaquil'', "Cinco como un puño") was a literary group from the 1930s - mid 1940s, that emerged as a response to a chaotic social and political climate where the Ecuadorian "montubio" and mestizo were oppressed by ...
of the 1930s, who used
social realism
Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...
in their writings. He used
magical realism
Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to:
* Magical (horse)
Magical (foaled 18 May 2015) is an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse who excelled over middle distances and was rated in the top twenty racehorses in the world in 2018 and ...
in his masterpiece ''Siete lunas y siete serpientes'' (1970), which was translated into English as ''Seven Serpents and Seven Moons'' by
Gregory Rabassa
Gregory Rabassa, ComM (March 9, 1922 – June 13, 2016), was an American literary translator from Spanish and Portuguese to English. He taught for many years at Columbia University and Queens College.
Life and career
Rabassa was born in Yonkers, ...
in 1979.
Biography
Aguilera Malta was born on May 24, 1909, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He was the son of Demetrio Aguilera Sánchez and Teresa Malta y Franco. His father officially named him Demetrio Abdon but his mother hated the name Abdon and called him always Raúl Demetrio. He stopped using Raúl on the advice of
Joaquín Gallegos Lara. His father was a businessman who owned factories and farms. His maternal great-grandfather, Juan José de Malta y Salcedo, was a playwright, and the young Aguilera Malta discovered his works in the library he inherited from his grandfather. Aguilera Malta spent much of his childhood on his family's farm on an island in the Gulf of Guayaquil. He was home-schooled by his mother and tutors. He went to high school at Vicente Rocafuerte School, from which he graduated in 1929.
José de la Cuadra was his literature teacher. At the beginning of his college education, he studied law in Guayaquil, but he quit these studies in 1931. Later, he studied literature on a Ministry of Education scholarship in Ecuador and in Madrid, just before the start of the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
.
Among other posts, Aguilera Malta was Undersecretary of Education and ''
charge d'affaires
Charge or charged may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* '' Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary
Music
* ''Charge'' (David Ford album)
* ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album)
* ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...
'' in the Ecuadorian Embassy in Chile in 1947 under the government of
Carlos Julio Arosemena Tola
Carlos Julio Arosemena Tola (12 April 1888 in Guayaquil – 20 February 1952) was President of Ecuador 16 September 1947 to 1 September 1948. He was also the father of future president Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy.
Early life
Carlos Jul ...
. Later, he was Cultural Attache in Brazil in 1949 and Ambassador of Ecuador to Mexico from August 1979 until his death in 1981.
He held conferences and courses at several universities in North and South America, including
Claremont Colleges
The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)— Pomona College, Sc ...
and the
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...
.
He was a war correspondent during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
. He worked for the journals ''La Prensa'' and ''El Telégrafo'' in Guayaquil. He also worked for the
Panamanian
Panamanians (Spanish: ''Panameños'') are people identified with Panama, a transcontinental country in Central America (a region within North America) and South America, whose connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For m ...
journals ''El Diario de Panamá'', ''El Gráfico'', and ''La Estrella de Panamá''.
Aguilera Malta is considered one of the most important Ecuadorian writers. He was a founding member of the Casa de la Cultura (
House of Ecuadorian Culture) and of the
Guayaquil Group
The Guayaquil Group (''Grupo de Guayaquil'', "Cinco como un puño") was a literary group from the 1930s - mid 1940s, that emerged as a response to a chaotic social and political climate where the Ecuadorian "montubio" and mestizo were oppressed by ...
(together with his best friend
Joaquín Gallegos Lara), of the Iberoamerican Community of Writers, and of the Latin American House of Culture. His books have been published around the world and translated into several languages.
Aguilera Malta moved to Mexico in 1958. He had one son, Ciro, with his first love. With his wife, the Panamanian Adda Rosa Endara he had two daughters, Adda Teresa and Marlene. He was with Velia Marqués since 1950, but they had no children.
Aguilera Malta suffered from diabetes and blindness since the early eighties. He died on December 29, 1981, in Mexico City, due to a cerebral hemorrhage after a fall.
Awards
In the 1930 Art Salon, he won two awards. In 1971, he received a gold medal from the Municipality of Guayaquil during the Latin American Writers Meeting. He was awarded the
Eugenio Espejo Prize in 1981 in recognition of his outstanding literary career.
Filmography
Feature films
* La Cadena Infinita" (Chile, 1948)
* Entre dos Carnavales (Brazil, 1949) first movie in color in Brazil
Documentaries
In 1954, Aguilera Malta filmed four documentaries commissioned by the Ministry of Public Works to promote Ecuador.
* El transporte de banano
* Los Salasacas
* Los Colorados
* Las Iglesias de Quito
Bibliography
Novels
* ''Don Goyo'' (Madrid, 1933); English translation: ''Don Goyo'' (1980) by John and Carolyn Brushwood
* ''Canal Zone'' (Santiago de Chile, 1935, ed. Ercilla)
* ''La isla virgen'' (Guayaquil, 1942)
* ''Una cruz en la sierra Maestra'' (Buenos Aires, 1960)
* ''La caballeresa del sol'' (Madrid, 1964); English translation: ''Manuela. A Novel About Simon Bolivar'' (1967) by
Willis Knapp Jones
* ''El Quijote de El Dorado'' (Madrid, 1964)
* ''Un nuevo mar para el Rey'' (Madrid, 1965)
* ''Siete lunas y siete serpientes'' (México, 1970); English translation: ''Seven Serpents and Seven Moons'' (1979) by
Gregory Rabassa
Gregory Rabassa, ComM (March 9, 1922 – June 13, 2016), was an American literary translator from Spanish and Portuguese to English. He taught for many years at Columbia University and Queens College.
Life and career
Rabassa was born in Yonkers, ...
* ''El secuestro del general'' (Mexico, 1973); English translation: ''Babelandia'' (1985) by Peter Earle
* ''Requimen para el diablo'' (1978)
Stories
* Los que se van (Guayaquil, 1930) Co-author
* El cholo que se vengó (Mexico, 1992)
* Tu mama la tiene mas grande que tu papa (Mexico 2012)
Plays
* España leal (Quito, 1938)
* Campeonatomanía (1939)
* Carbón (1939)
* El sátiro encadenado (1939)
* Lázaro (Guayaquil, 1941)
* Sangre azul (Washington,1946)
* Dos comedias fáciles (1950)
* No bastan los átomos, Dientes blancos (Guayaquil, 1955)
* El tigre (1955)
* Honorarios (Quito, 1957)
* Infierno negro (México, 1967)
* Fantoche (1970)
* Muerte S. A. -La muerte es un gran negocio- (1970)
* Una mujer para cada acto (1970)
* Teatro completo (México, 1970)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aguilera Malta, Demetrio
1909 births
1981 deaths
Ecuadorian novelists
Ecuadorian male short story writers
Ecuadorian short story writers
Ecuadorian male writers
Ecuadorian film directors
Ecuadorian diplomats
Ambassadors of Ecuador to Mexico
People from Guayaquil
20th-century novelists
20th-century Ecuadorian painters
Ecuadorian dramatists and playwrights
20th-century dramatists and playwrights
Male novelists
Male dramatists and playwrights
20th-century short story writers
20th-century male writers
Accidental deaths from falls