The Modern Novel

Biography

Alfredo Pareja Díez Canseco was born in Guayaquil 1908. His mother’s father had been President of Peru. He had to support his family from the age of fourteen. In 1930 he won a bursary to the United States but, as a result of the Depression, had to work in the docks. His 1933 novel El muelle [The Dockyards] describes this experience. He returned to Ecuador and became professor of history and of Spanish and Spanish American literature at Universidad Laica Vicente Rocafuerte de Guayaquil. He also served as a Superintendent of Secondary Education and as a Deputy of Guayas Province. During the dictatorship of Federico Páez (1935–37) he was sent to prison and then exiled to Chile. On his return to Ecuador, he became a member fo the National Assembly but was again imprisoned. In 1944, he was appointed chargé d’affaires to Mexico and he later became Minister of Foreign Affairs. He wrote many novels, generally of a realist nature and often using Ecuadorian history, He also wrote a biography of Ecuadorian president Eloy Alfaro (who also appears in his novel Las tres ratas [The Three Rats].) He also wrote stories and non-fiction. He died in 1993. None of his work has been translated into English.

Other links

Alfredo Pareja Díez Canseco
Alfredo Pareja Díez Canseco
Alfredo Pareja Díez Canseco (in Spanish)
Alfredo Pareja Díez Canseco (in Spanish)
Alfredo Pareja Díez Canseco: paisajes del narrador (in Spanish)