Jorge Carrera Andrade
Jorge Carrera Andrade (1903-1978) was a prominent Ecuadorian poet, diplomat, and political activist, recognized as one of the country's most significant literary figures. Born in Quito, he grew up in a politically engaged family and developed a deep sensitivity to the struggles of indigenous peoples, which influenced his writing. His literary journey began in his teens, leading to his involvement in founding Ecuador's Socialist Party and his eventual exile due to political opposition. Throughout the late 1920s and 1930s, Carrera Andrade lived in Central America and Europe, where he honed his poetic skills and explored themes related to indigenous culture.
Upon returning to Ecuador in 1933, he gained recognition for his innovative poetic forms, including the "microgram," and his works evolved to encompass more philosophical themes. In addition to his literary endeavors, Carrera Andrade held various diplomatic positions throughout his life, including roles in France, Japan, and the United Nations. He returned to Ecuador towards the end of his life to lead the National Library and received the prestigious Eugenio Espejo Prize for literature. His body of work remains influential, reflecting his commitment to social issues and the cultural identity of Ecuador.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Jorge Carrera Andrade
Ecuadorian poet and diplomat.
- Born: September 18, 1902
- Birthplace: Quito, Ecuador
- Died: November 7, 1978
- Place of death: Quito, Ecuador
Biography
Jorge Carrera Andrade’s long career joined his literary concerns with his political commitments. Although he is regarded as one of Ecuador’s most important writers, he spent much of his adult life outside the country in various types of diplomatic service. Carrera Andrade was born in 1903 in Quito, the son of a liberal lawyer concerned with preserving the rights of Ecuador’s native people, an interest young Carrera Andrade took on as he began to write. As one of eleven children who often spent time at the family’s country estate, he had opportunities to observe the plight of the Indian farmworkers. His understanding of the world was also affected by his country’s political instability; its coups and dictatorships were ongoing matters of concern for the author.
As a student at Mejía National Institute in his teens, Carrera Andrade began writing and editing literary magazines. Later, as a law student at the Central University of Quito, he became committed to socialism and helped found Ecuador’s Socialist Party. His resistance to the government of José Luis Tamayo led to a brief imprisonment and then to the first of his many exiles from the country when he left in 1928, intending to attend the Fifth International Congress of Socialism in Moscow. He had already begun to publish poetry. Finances caused him to miss the congress; instead he spent time first in central America, and later in Europe, living with working people. At last he found himself in Barcelona, where he worked as a translator and attended classes at the university. During the late 1920s, he met a number of Latin American writers and developed the Indian themes of his own poetry. When he returned to Ecuador in 1933, he had a growing literary reputation. His poetry was noted not only for its Indian themes but also for its concrete interest in things, an interest which led him to develop the haiku-like form he called “microgram.” Later his poetry became more philosophical and less interested in word painting.
In his later years, Carrera Andrade held a series of diplomatic posts. The first was in Le Havre, France, where he married his first wife, Paulette Lebas, in 1935. They had a son, Juan Cristóbal. They later divorced. He also held posts in Japan, San Francisco, and Venezuela. After World War II, he served in Paris as Ecuadoran delegate to UNESCO; there he married Jeannine Ruffier des Aimes, with whom he had a daughter, Patricia. In 1960, he served as Ecuador’s ambassador to the United Nations. Later in the decade he held posts in Nicaragua and the Netherlands. In the last year of his life, Carrera Andrade returned to Ecuador to head the National Library. That year too he received the Eugenio Espejo Prize for literature. He died in Quito in 1978.
Author Works
Poetry:
El estanque inefable, 1922
La guirnalda del silencio, 1926
Canto a Rusia, 1926
Lenín ha muerto, 1926
Mademoiselle Satán, 1927
El tiempo manual, 1935
Biografía para uso de los pájaros, 1937
La hora de las ventanas iluminadas, 1937
Microgramas, 1940
To the Oakland Bridge, 1941
Registro del mundo, antología poética, 1922–1939, 1945
Lugar de origen, 1945
Secret Country, 1946
Rostros y climas, 1948
Familia de la noche, 1953
Edades poéticas, 1922–1956, 1958
Floresta de los guacamayos, 1964
The Selected Poems of Jorge Carrera Andrade, 1972
Obra poetica completa, 1972
Nonfiction:
Latitudes, 1934
Retrato culturel del Ecuador, 1965
Interpretaciones hispanoamericanas, 1967
El volcan y el colibri, 1970
Reflections on Latin American Literature, 1973
Bibliography
Aldredge, Michelle. “The Sunday Poem: Jorge Carrera Andrade's Micrograms.” Gwarlingo, 28 July 2012, www.gwarlingo.com/2012/the-sunday-poem-jorge-carrera-andrades-micrograms/. Accessed 30 June 2017. Presents a brief overview of the poet's life and work along with some of his micrograms translated by Joshua Backman and Alejandro de Acosta.
Brown, Steven Ford. “Jorge Carrera Andrade in America.” Jacket, July 2000, jacketmagazine.com/12/andr-intro-brown.html. Accessed 30 June 2017. Discusses Carrera Andrade’s literary career during his two stints in the United States, as Ecuadorean consul general during World War II and while teaching at SUNY Stony Brook from 1968 to 1970.
Carrera Andrade, Jorge. Interview. By William J. Straub. Latin American Literary Review, vol. 1, no. 1, 1972, pp. 71–78, www.jstor.org/stable/20118851. Accessed 30 June 2017. Interview with Carrera Andrade during his time teaching in New York, as his work was becoming better known in the United States.
“Jorge Carrera Andrade Collection.” Stony Brook University Libraries, www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/libspecial/collections/manuscripts/carrera.html. Accessed 30 June 2017. Presents a catalog of Carrera Andrade's correspondence, manuscripts, and scrapbooks held by Stony Brook University, where he taught briefly.