In 1970, with his wife Marina Moncayo, Jorge Icaza wanted to stage the theatrical version of “Huasipungo” but the civil dictatorial government of Velasco Ibarra prohibited it from being performed. Adaption of some of Icaza’s novels for the stage Listen to Jorge Icaza read from selected chapters of his books. Dulsey’s translation of Jorge Icaza’s novel Huasipungo. Dulsey, and was published by Southern Illinois University Press in Carbondale, IL as “The Villagers”. An “authorized” translation appeared in 1964 by Bernard M. The first complete edition of Huasipungo was translated into English in 1962 by Mervyn Savill and published in England by Dennis Dobson Ltd.

Jorge Icaza was later appointed Ecuador’s ambassador to Russia. Fragments of the book first appeared in English translation in Russia, where it was welcomed enthusiastically by Russia’s peasant socialist class. The book is one of the best known Indigenista novels ( Indigenista literature is a literary trend that deals with the indigenous peoples of Latin America and their problems). With the publication of Huasipungo in 1934, Jorge Icaza achieved international fame. After his 1933 playscript, El Dictador, was rejected, Icaza shifted his focus to writing novels about Ecuador’s social conditions, particularly the oppression of its indigenous people. El Intruso was published in 1928, La Comedia sin Nombre in 1929, Cuál es in 1931, Sin Sentido in 1932, and Flagelo in 1936. Jorge Icaza began his literary career as a playwright. Icaza’s legacy continues to influence Latin American literature, and his work remains widely read and studied today. It has also been translated into many languages, including French, German, Russian, Ukrainian, and Czech. His penultimate novel, “ El Chulla Romero y Flores” (1958), is concerned with the cultural identity of Ecuador’s city-dwelling mestizo and is regarded as his best work by many Icazan scholars and critics. Icaza’s novel “Huasipungo” (1934), about the exploitation of his country’s rural indigenous peoples by whites, has been translated into over 15 languages, including English, Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Czech, Polish, Chinese, and Russian. Icaza is Ecuador’s most famous author, as well as one of South America’s most important literary figures of the twentieth century. Jorge Icaza Coronel (Quito, J– Quito, May 26, 1978) was a novelist, playwright, diplomat and bookstore owner.

Huasipungo by Jorge Icaza