Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco

@Novelists, Family and Childhood

Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco was an Ecuadorian writer, best known for his work as a novelist, essayist and journalist

Oct 12, 1908

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Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: October 12, 1908
  • Died on: May 1, 1993
  • Nationality: Ecuadorian
  • Famous: Intellectuals & Academics, Historians, Novelists, Non-Fiction Writers, Essayists, Diplomats
  • Known as: Alfredo Pareja-Diezcanseco, Alfredo Pareja y Diez Canseco, Alfredo Pareja Diez-Canseco
  • Birth Place: Guayaquil, Ecuador
  • Gender: Male

Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco born at

Guayaquil, Ecuador

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Birth Place

Pareja married his cousin, Mercedes Cucalón Concha in 1934. His wife was the niece of Carlos Concha Torres, a famous Equadorian colonel.

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Personal Life

Together with his wife, Mercedes, he fathered three children: Cecilia, Jorge and Francisco.

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Personal Life

During the dictatorship of Federico Paez, Pareja was incarcerated and eventually exiled (1935-1937). Upon his exile, Pareja fled to Chile.

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Personal Life

Alfredo Pareja was born on 12 October 1908 in Guayaquil, Equador, to Fernando Pareja y Pareja and Amalia Diez-Canseco y Coloma, grandchild of the former Peruvian President Francisco Diez Canseco y Corbacho.

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Childhood & Early Life

From the age of 14, Pareja helped support his family by working at the Colegio Vicente Rocafuerte, a local high school.

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Childhood & Early Life

His education began in his hometown at the Colegio San Luis Gonzaga, a religious school of the Congregation of Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic order.

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Childhood & Early Life

At the age of 22, he left his home for the United States. There, he took an assortment of jobs, including a stint on the New York docks.

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Career

On returning to Ecuador, he entered the field of academics with a position at the Universidad Laica Vicente Rocafuerte de Guayaquil as a professor of history, Spanish and American literature.

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Career

During the same period, he also took a post as superintendent in Guayas Province, where he was responsible for Secondary Education across the entire province.

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Career

Between 1935 and 1937, during a temporary exile in Chile, he briefly worked in the publishing industry at the Ercilla Publishing House.

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Career

In 1937, as the dictator Paez was replaced by President Aurelio Mosquera Narvaez, Pareja was able to return to Ecuador and to serve as a member of the Assembly.

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Career

In 1933, he wrote ‘El muelle’ (‘The Pier’), a novel based on his experiences working on the docks of New York during the Great Depression.

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Major Works

In 1944, his novel-biography ‘The Barbaric Bonfire’ depicted the life and death of General Eloy Alfaro. The work extended Pareja’s fame within Ecuador to a worldwide level.

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Major Works

In 1944, he published the novel ‘Las tres ratas’ (‘The three rats’), a novel noted for its realism and its depiction of contemporary Ecuador. The novel would be made into an Argentine film just two years later.

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Major Works