Volcanic Reflections: a Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Ecuadorian Poetry

© Copyright 2011 Ronald Haladyna.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Printed in the United States of America.

isbn: 978-1-4269-8187-6 (sc)

isbn: 978-1-4269-8186-9 (hc)

isbn: 978-1-4269-8188-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011913065

Trafford rev. 08/10/2011

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Contextualizing Ecuadorian Poetry: Ecuador

IVÁN CARVAJAL

MARITZA CINO ALVEAR

MARÍA FERNANDA ESPINOSA

ULISES ESTRELLA

EULER GRANDA

ANA MARÍA IZA

EFRAÍN JARA IDROVO

HUGO JARAMILLO

VIOLETA LUNA

SONIA MANZANO

ALEXIS NARANJO

JULIO PAZOS BARRERA

JAVIER PONCE

ANTONIO PRECIADO

CATALINA SOJOS

SARA VANÉGAS COVEÑA

Carmen VÁSCONES

HUMBERTO VINUEZA

SIMÓN ZAVALA GUZMÁN

THE POETS AND THEIR BIBLIOGRAPHIES

ABOUT THE EDITOR

A

Mónica,

hijita querida

viajera espiritual,

exploradora de sueños

Preface

Poetry is striving to be much more than just alive and well in South America: it is thriving, it is vibrant, it is diverse, it is interesting, and it reflects contemporary thinking and themes of notable poets in countries largely ignored in other continents. Volcanic Reflections: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Ecuadorian Poetry is the third in a series devoted to bringing the poetry of outstanding Latin American poets to English-speaking nations. Ecuador’s contemporary poetry included in this anthology is preceded by anthologies devoted to the poetry of Uruguay and Paraguay, and like them, the objective is to bring long-overdue recognition to outstanding poets who are virtually unknown abroad.

Although contemporary Latin American narrative writers—Vargas Llosa, García Márquez, Allende, Fuentes, Bolaño, to name just a few—have achieved worldwide acclaim and readership, this has not been the case for Latin American poets. Outside of Ecuador, for instance, it’s unlikely anyone in literary circles could identify a current Ecuadorian poet; even most university professors and students with a specialization in Latin American literature would be hard pressed to rattle off the names of current prominent poets of South American countries. The reasons for the anonymity of so many of these poets are varied, and some are familiar: narrative literature is more popular than poetry; narrative literature is more abundantly available; narrative literature is reviewed and advertised much more in national and international media; poetry is more ‘difficult’ to read; so much of poetry in Latin American countries has not been translated; and this poetry has not been translated because scant attention has been devoted to identifying poets in each country who are worthy of translation.

This last reason in fact has been my inspiration for these anthologies. At a time when an ever-increasing stream of contemporary South American poetry is being written and published, a commensurate evaluation and criticism of these works has not kept pace in South America, much less in other continents. This lack of guidance by reputable news media, literary revues, and by academia doesn’t help evaluate and filter more noteworthy poets from lesser ones. My hope with this anthology is that it will help create this filter, and offer, as it were, a guide to outstanding contemporary poetry of Ecuador.

As in the case of the previous anthologies, my Ecuadorian selection has been swayed by mature, dedicated poets who have a sustained and recognized bibliography of published books of poetry, especially during the past twenty-five years; whose poems have been included in numerous national and international Spanish-language anthologies; who have received favorable recognition by their peers and critics, as well as in reviews and interviews published in national news media; who have received national and/or international literary awards; who, for the most part, are still active as poets in the new century; and finally, poets whose poetry has appealed to me.

I have gathered a wide array of poets representing different ‘generations,’ as well as poetry displaying a diverse selection of styles, themes, imagination, ideas, and language. A selection of poets representing an entire country is always controversial; ‘unpardonable’ exclusions are regrettable, but inevitable. In a few cases, some poets declined participation; others were inaccessible; others didn’t quite fulfill the criteria I had established. But the poets selected here are unquestionably worthy representatives of recent (and current) Ecuadorian poetry.

This book has been long in the making: it started with my sabbatical leave in 1998 when I briefly met a handful of Ecuadorian poets and proposed putting together an anthology similar to the ones I had started for Paraguay and Uruguay. Their response was immediate and enthusiastic. It wasn’t until my next sabbatical leave in 2005 when I was able to return for an extended stay. Once in Quito, I was able to access books of poetry not easily accessible in the United States, spending months of intensive reading, narrowing my original selection of poets, making a representative selection of poems for each poet, conducting interviews with each one to acquire permission to publish, and to get help on translation questions and clarifications. Unlike Paraguay and Uruguay, where virtually all of the poets are located in the capital cities, Ecuador has significant poets outside the capital: in Guayaquil, Cuenca, Playas de Villamil, and Esmeraldas, which happily required additional travel to other beautiful areas of the country.

For readers unfamiliar with Ecuador, I have provided an introduction. It briefly covers the country’s unique geography, economy, history/politics, and society. The introduction will not necessarily explain why the poets write the way they do, but much of the poetry does allude to these components of the Ecuadorian reality. Because this anthology is especially intended for academics, I have included a short biographical introduction to each poet, followed by an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources. Although Ecuador does not benefit from sufficient academic researchers and literary critics, most of the bibliographical entries consist of reviews of books, interviews with the poets, and occasionally more serious analysis. The traditional scarcity of research on Ecuadorian poetry is precisely the reason why these bibliographies are important: they are offered as an orientation and an incentive for meaningful study inside and outside of Ecuador. There is no canon of contemporary Ecuadorian poets, but I hope this project will provide a meaningful step toward opening a discussion of such a canon.

This anthology could not have been carried to fruition without the generous support of two sabbatical leaves from Ferris State University. I also wish to thank César Chávez, librarian of the Benjamín Carrión Library in Quito for providing me access to many otherwise inaccessible books. I spent many days in the reading room of that cozy library. Finally, my deepest thanks to poet Alexis Naranjo for his hospitality and his review of materials, and to poet Simón Zavala for his friendship, encouragement, and help in contacting the poets included in this anthology.

Introduction

Contextualizing Ecuadorian Poetry: Ecuador

Geography

One of South America’s smallest countries—109,000 square miles, about the size of Nevada—Ecuador is nestled in the northwest corner of the continent, between two much larger neighbors, Colombia to the north and Peru to the east and south. The Andes cordillera—with many spectacular snow-capped volcanoes, some still active—cuts through the center of the country from north to south, dividing it into three distinct geographical areas: the tropical coastal plain on the Pacific ocean; the cool inter-Andean central highlands, and the tropical, flat to rolling inland jungle in the east. The imposing nature of the cordillera also helps to define distinct cultural, political and linguistic diversity within this relatively small country.

A forth definable zone of the country is the world-famous Galapagos Islands, about 650 miles off the South American coast in the Pacific Ocean. These volcanic islands constitute a province of Ecuador, annexed to the Republic in 1832. Ecuador’s estimated population in 2010 of more than 14,300,000 is roughly 40 percent rural and 60 percent urban. The principle cities, Guayaquil (pop. 2,600,000), Quito (pop. 1,400,000) and Cuenca (pop. 267,000) not surprisingly are home to the majority of Ecuador’s best- known contemporary writers

Economy

Although industry has increased significantly in recent years, petroleum, agricultural, and seafood exports continue to dominate Ecuador’s economic livelihood. Some of Ecuador’s revenues are derived from the export of bananas, shrimp, flowers, cacao, coffee, tuna, tropical fruits, palm oil, rice,and corn. Because a substantial part of Ecuador’s economy has been based on its export of crude oil since the 1970s, a sharp drop in the world price of crude created a severe economic crisis in the country in the late 1990s. This, together with a collapsed banking system, massive governmental fraud, and the devastating effect of El Niño, contributed to Ecuador’s hyperinflation, a 70% depreciation of its currency and a default on its payments of its external debt, together with governmental reforms, all contributing to the government’s decision to convert its official currency to the dollar in the year 2000, in hopes of stabilizing inflation.

Ecuadorians working abroad annually send back a significant amount of hard currency to families back home —$4 billion in 2008—and help keep the Ecuadorian economy afloat. Remittances represent Ecuador’s second-leading source of foreign currency after crude oil exports, which totaled over $10 billion in 2008. Increased earnings from higher crude oil prices in the past nine years have helped Ecuador’s economy.

In 2008, the government announced a moratorium on interest payments due on Ecuador’s outstanding $3.2 billion of global bonds, and later bought back many of these bonds at a fraction of the original value, saving Ecuador billions of dollars on interest payments.

History/Politics

Long before the Spanish exploration and conquest of Ecuador, Quito was the home of generations of little-known indigenous tribes and civilizations, the latest of which was conquered by the Inca empire. Francisco Pizarro commanded the Spanish force that invaded and quickly conquered Ecuador in 1532. Just as in the rest of Spanish America, colonization ensued, viceroyalties were established to control the subsequent exploitation of the land, the flora, the fauna, and the mineral wealth, all for the benefit of the Spanish Crown. But the conversion of the heathen indigenous population was of course its justification for conquest. Nevertheless, the newly acquired manpower provided Spain with its greatest material resource for constructing a European infrastructure in the New World.

The colonists first attempted to gain independence from Spain in 1809, but they weren’t successful until General Antonio José de Sucre led them to victory in 1822. Ecuador first became part of an ill-fated South American confederacy, but it achieved its full identity as an independent country in 1830 with its present name. From that point, till the end of the century, Ecuador was ruled by a series of strongmen, presidents, dictators, and juntas, who ruled over brief periods of peace and prosperity, but much longer periods of political and religious chaos, civil wars, multiple short-lived constitutions, border disputes, and stagnant economic growth.

In 1895, strongman Eloy Alfaro of the Liberal Party led an overthrow of the government, ruled as a dictator until he was elected president in 1897, and then ruled directly or indirectly until 1911, when he in turn was overthrown. His legacy was to effectuate key measures of the Liberal program which would mark Ecuadorian society for the next half century: the elimination of the privileged legal position of the Roman Catholic Church; the formation of a system of public education; and the construction of a railroad between Ecuador’s two principal cities, Guayaquil and Quito. Alfaro was murdered in 1912 by an angry mob following his imprisonment for a failed coup he led against the succeeding government.

Few Latin American countries can outdo Ecuador for unabated instability in governmental and economic leadership. Weakened by so much inner turbulence during so many years, Ecuador was easy prey for neighboring countries—Brazil in 1904, Colombia in 1916, and Peru in 1942—all of which took control of extensive border territories in dispute. Under Liberal rule, political, social and economic crises were frequent and significant. No fewer than 14 presidents ruled the country from 1931 to 1940. During World War 2, President Carlos Arroyo del Río (1940-44) permitted the United States to build bases on the mainland and on a Galapagos island. The United States afterwards reciprocated by financing a resuscitation of Ecuador’s cacao industry, the modernization of the railroads, highways, hydroelectric plants, public works, and other industries.

What followed during the next half century was a predictable pattern of presidents without a clear political platform, whose terms were truncated by military ousters, followed by a suspension of constitutional rights, and an eventual reinstitution of the democratic process when the military leaders were clueless about solving the country’s economic and social dilemmas. Conservative José María Velasco Ibarra, for example, took office in 1944, but was deposed in 1947, and later elected to the presidency in 1952, a post he held until 1956. He won the presidency again in 1960, but was forced to resign in 1961. He was elected to yet a fifth term in 1968, but was deposed by another military junta. In between two of Velasco’s appearances in the presidential palace, Galo Plaza (1948-1952) and Camilo Ponce Enríquez (1956-1960) turned in rare solid presidential performances as able administrators as they promoted policies to increase production in agriculture and industry to complete the construction of the railroad. They both served to the end of their presidential terms and honored the democratic process for succeeding governments.

For almost a decade, there was relative prosperity in the 1970s, prompted by Ecuador’s first exports of petroleum, but it was also a time when the gap widened considerably between the rich and the poor, and an unhealthy trade deficit sprouted. However, this was followed by a decade of economic stagnation, helped along by bad floods in 1983, the collapse of world oil prices in 1985, and a devastating earthquake in 1987, the same year when Ecuador was obliged to announce a moratorium on all foreign debt payments, which by then had reached $9 billion.

Neither Social Christian President, León Febres Cordero (1984-1988), nor Democratic Leftist President, Rodrigo Borja Cevallos (1988-1922), using diverse strategies, were able to solve Ecuador’s grave economic problems. Conservative Sixto Durán Ballén (1992-1996) instituted privatization of government-run industries, notably Petroecuador, as well as radical land-reform policies, but both measures met with strong opposition from the public. Another armed conflict over disputed land between Ecuador and Peru erupted in 1995, and the crisis lasted until 1998, when a peace treaty was signed.

Politics in Ecuador have long been uncompromising, turbulent, and even violent. In 2005 there were no less than thirty-three political parties, forming and breaking apart alliances in an unending and sometimes contradictory shift of power and ideologies. Deception, cronyism, nepotism, graft, corruption and unbridled incompetence have characterized virtually all presidencies and/or their ministries in recent years and have led to a widespread distrust by the public, not only of its elected or named officials, but of democracy itself.

Adding to the mix, the military has usually been a menacing presence, ready to topple presidents when the economic and social well-being of the nation reaches critical mass. Just in the past eight years, four Ecuadorian presidents have been forced out of office by the military, or by massive public demonstrations: Abdalá Bucaram in 1997; Jamil Mahuad in 2000; Gustavo Novoa in 2003; and Lucio Gutiérrez in April, 2005. Upon the ouster of Col. Gutiérrez, vice-president Dr. Alfredo Palacio, took the oath of office, and remained as president until 2006.

Rafael Correa, under the ticket of Alianza PAÍS (Proud and Sovereign Fatherland Alliance), won the presidency in 2006 and was reelected in 2009. Correa has focused on social reform, especially improving the lot of indigenous peoples, reforming the petroleum and banking industries, drafting a new constitution and restructuring bond issues and international loans to help reduce Ecuador’s debt crisis.

In 2007, consistent with his campaign slogan of life before debt, he initiated a renegotiation of Ecuador’s $10.2 billion external debt, and in 2008 announced Ecuador’s default of this debt because much of it was incurred by corrupt practices by previous governments. During Correa’s terms in office, Ecuador also experienced some significant modifications in its foreign policy: a diplomatic and military crisis in 2008 over Colombia’s alleged territorial infringement; closer ties to Venezuela, Bolivia, and Cuba; alliance in 2009 with ALBA (The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America); and a distancing from the United States, further exacerbated by Ecuador’s expulsion of U.S. ambassador Helen Hodges in April, 2011.

On the home front in 2007, a national referendum approved the formation of a constituent assembly, and after Correa’s controversial firing of legislators and the electoral tribunal, a national referendum approved the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador. President Correa has had an ongoing feud with news media, threatening lawsuits against editors of national newspapers, and expropriating two TV stations in 2008.

Although petroleum currently provides the most important source of revenue for Ecuador, the Correa government has placed a premium on environmental concerns and has proposed the Yasuní-ITT project, which would suspend the extraction of crude oil from the Yasuní National Park, a 6,100 square