Carrión, Alejandro (1915–1991)
Carrión, Alejandro (1915–1991)
Alejandro Carrión (b. 11 March 1915; d. 1991), Ecuadorian writer. Born in Loja, Alejandro Carrión is known in Ecuador principally as a political journalist. Many of his writings were signed with the pseudonym "Juan sin Cielo." Carrión also wrote poetry and narrative fiction. Among his most cited works are La manzana dañada (1948), a collection of short stories that depicts the sordid aspects of a school system controlled by the Catholic Church in southern Ecuador, and La espina (1959), a novel of solitude in which the protagonist tries to reconstruct the image of his mother, who had died during his birth. Because of his political views, which ran the gamut from socialism in his early life to conservatism in his later years, Carrión was a controversial figure in Ecuador. During the government of León Febres Cordero (1984–1988), many accused Carrión of being the president's principal apologist; in his journalism, Carrión defended the government's neoliberal economic policies and its conservative political agenda. In 1985, President Febres awarded Carrión the Eugenio Espejo Prize for Literature.
See alsoLiterature: Spanish America .
Michael Handelsman