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

. 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

(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

* ''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