Nelson Estupiñán Bass (1912–2002) was an Ecuadorian writer. He was born in Súa, a city in the predominantly

Afro-Ecuadorian Afro-Ecuadorians (), also known as Black Ecuadorians (), are Ecuadorians of predominantly Sub-Saharan African descent. History and background Most Afro-Ecuadorians are the descendants of enslaved Africans who were transported by predominantly B ...

province of Esmeraldas in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. He was first homeschooled by his mother before traveling to the capital city of

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

where he graduated from Escuela Superior Juan Montalvo with a degree in public accounting in 1932. Bass identified with the Communist Party during this time and in 1934 had the opportunity to publish two of his poems ( and ) in the socialist diary .

Career

In 1943, Bass completed the novel, When the Guayacanes Were in Bloom (Cuando Los Guayacanes Florecían), one of his most famous and widely read literary projects throughout Ecuador and Latin America. It was published in 1950 by the

Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana 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 a ...

. The novel expresses the fraught situation of Afro-Ecuadorians used as pawns to fight for the Conservative Party and Liberal Party during the Liberal Revolution in Ecuador of 1895. Bass was influenced by global Pan-Africanism and invoked an identifiably black aesthetic and political project in his writings and lectures during the 1940s and 50s. In 1962, Bass married Luz Argentina Chiriboga, who later became known for writing on Afro-Ecuadorian and feminist themes. In 1966 Bass was the first president of a regional museum of the national

in Esmeraldas called Archaeological Museum "Carlos Mercado Ortiz". Bass was nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

in 1998. While giving a series of lectures in 2002 at

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

Bass became ill with pneumonia and succumbed to the deadly illness at the Hershey Medical Center. Bass is remembered as one of Ecuador's most prolific Afro-Latin American writers and represents a South American expression of the

African Diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from List of ethnic groups of Africa, people from Africa. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the native West Africa, West and Central Africans who were ...

Works

Novels

* * * * * * * * *

Poetry

* * * * *

Essays and criticism

* Luces que titilan: guía de la vieja Esmeraldas (Esmeraldas, 1977) * Viaje alrededor de la poesía negra (Quito, 1982) * Desde un balcón volado (Quito, 1992) * El Crepúsculo (1983)

References

1912 births 2002 deaths 20th-century Ecuadorian poets Ecuadorian male poets Ecuadorian male novelists 20th-century Ecuadorian novelists People from Esmeraldas Province Deaths from pneumonia in Pennsylvania 20th-century Ecuadorian male writers {{Ecuador-writer-stub