Enrique Gil Gilbert (July 8, 1912 – February 21, 1973) was an
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
ian 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
, motto = Por Guayaquil Independiente en, For Independent Guayaquil
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, and was the youngest 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 ...
, which was one of the most renowned literary and intellectual groups in Ecuador in 1930–40.
Gil Gilbert’s most famous novel is ''Nuestro Pan'' (''Our Daily Bread'') (1942), which was translated into English (1943), German, Japanese, and Czech. The novel won Honourable Mention in the Latin-American Prize Novel Competition.
The Guayaquil Group
Critics and historians agree that the Guayaquil Group emerged with the publication of ''Los que se van, cuentos del cholo y del motuvio'' (The Vanishing Ones. Stories about the Cholo and the Montuvio) (1930), a
social realist
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 ...
book of 34 short stories by Demetrio Aguilera Malta, Joaquín Gallegos Lara, and Enrique Gil Gilbert, that dealt with the lives of the coastal peasant of Ecuador. It marked a whole new type of literature in Ecuador, which until then had been characterized by
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
and
Modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
.
The group's other members include:
*
Demetrio Aguilera Malta
*
Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco
Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco (October 12, 1908 – May 1, 1993) — born Alfredo Pareja y Díez Canseco — was a prominent Ecuadorian novelist, essayist, journalist, historian and diplomat. An innovator of the 20th-century Latin American nove ...
*
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 ...
*
José de la Cuadra
Their writing featured: a socialist-inspired expose of social-economic abuses; a literature rooted in popular culture; Freudianism; a grotesque vision of the world; and a concern with anthropology and indigenous culture. The Guayaquil Group is considered a forerunner of
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 ...
.
Communist life
Gil Gilberto was a registered member of the Communist Party of Ecuador. In 1944 he traveled to Moscow in his capacity as Secretary General of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ecuador. He was persecuted for his socialist and militant ideas, and in 1935, under the dictatorship of Federico Paez, he lost his teaching job at the Rocafuerte School in Guayaquil.
Gil Gilberto spent fifteen months in prison under the government of the
military junta of 1963. While in prison, law enforcement ransacked his home, and his wife had to flee into exile in Chile, while his children went into hiding. They burned many of his papers and books, including a completed but unpublished book, manuscripts of unfinished works, thus many of his writings were lost forever.
When he was released from prison he was without a home, family, or any money.
Personal life
Gil Gilbert was married to
Alba Calderón, a painter, feminist, and revolutionary, who founded the movement for the recognition of women in Ecuador.
Gil Gilbert and Calderon had two sons:
Enrique Gil Calderón, a
choral director, and Antonio Gil Calderon, a doctor and businessman.
Books
;Novels:
* ''Nuestro pan'' (Guayaquil, 1942), (English translation: ''Our Daily Bread'', 1943, by Dudley Poore. New York:
Farrar & Rinehart
Farrar & Rinehart (1929–1946) was a United States book publishing company founded in New York. Farrar & Rinehart enjoyed success with both nonfiction and novels, notably, the landmark Rivers of America Series and the first ten books in the Ner ...
).
;Short Stories
* ''Los que se van'' (Guayaquil, 1930)
* ''Yunga'' (Guayaquil, 1933)
* ''Relatos de Emanuel'' (Guayaquil, 1939)
* ''La cabeza de un niño en un tacho de basura'' (Guayaquil, 1967).
;Anthologies
* ''El nuevo relato ecuatoriano'' (Quito, 1951)
* ''Antología del cuento hispanoamericano contenporáneo'' (1958)
* ''El cuento hispanoamericano'' (México, 1964)
* ''Antología del relato ecuatoriano'' (Quito, 1973)
* ''Cuento de la generación de los 30'' (Guayaquil, s.f)
* ''Así en la tierra como en los sueños'' (Quito, 1991)
* ''Cuento contigo'' (Guayaquil, 1993)
* ''Antología básica del cuento ecuatoriano'' (Quito, 1998).
References
Ecuatorianos en Japon: KANSAI Enrique Gil GilbertEnciclopedia del Ecuador - GIL GILBERT, EnriqueGil Gilbert, Enrique (1912-1972)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Enrique Gil
Ecuadorian male writers
1912 births
1973 deaths