Las cruces sobre el agua by Joaquín Gallegos Lara

Many of his stories were collected in Las Cruces Sobre el Agua, a novel published in 1946, which he wrote in pencil 5 years earlier at the age of 21. Years later his poetry took on a social and political view, such as 'Poemas de Miss Ecuador' (dedicated to Sarita Chacón Zúñiga, the first Miss Ecuador), 'Bandera Roja', 'Film Ferroviario', 'Romance de la rural', and 'Guayas', which were published in newspapers such as La Prensa, El Telégrafo, and Bandera Roja (the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Ecuador). These poems were published in the literary magazines 'Páginas Selectas', 'Variedades', 'Letras y Números', 'Cosmos', and 'Ilustración'.

Lara's early poems include 'Al Potro', 'Vieja Despedida', and 'Mamá-Jijí' (a character in his novel Las Cruces Sobre el Agua), among others. He started writing poems at about 10 years old, when he found out of the suicide death of Medardo Ángel Silva (1898-1919).

He spoke French, German, Italian, and Russian almost perfectly. He never attended school and was completely self-taught. He participated in street battles and blockades, with the help of a friend who carried him on his shoulders and acted as his legs. Besides being a journalist, his father also wrote poems, which his wife Emma published after his death in a book called Mis Recuerdos (1912), which contained two poems dedicated to his son Joaquín Gallegos Lara: 'A mi primogenito' and 'El primer diente'.ĭespite being crippled, Lara fought as a militant communist and intellectual in Ecuador. He never attended school and was completely s Joaquín Gallegos Lara was born in Guayaquil in 1909, the son of Emma Lara Calderon and Joaquín Gallegos Del Campo (1873-1910) who founded a newspaper called 'El Caustico' in 1895, which was satirical in nature and pro-Eloy Alfaro. Despite being crippled, Lara fought as a militant communist and intellectual in Ecuador. Besides being a journalist, his father also wrote poems, which his wife Emma published after his death in a book called Mis Recuerdos (1912), which contained two poems dedicated to his son Joaquín Gallegos Lara: 'A mi primogenito' and 'El primer diente'. Joaquín Gallegos Lara was born in Guayaquil in 1909, the son of Emma Lara Calderon and Joaquín Gallegos Del Campo (1873-1910) who founded a newspaper called 'El Caustico' in 1895, which was satirical in nature and pro-Eloy Alfaro.

Las cruces sobre el agua by Joaquín Gallegos Lara