Jorge Icaza "Huasipungo"

Jorge Icaza is one the most famous writers we have. He is known for his fascinating stories, specially Huasipungo where he criticizes the abuses of the capitalism of that time.

He was born in Quito in 1906. When he was just a little boy his father died so, his mother got married again. His stepfather was a militant, follower of Alfaro’s ideas. This situation led Icaza’s stepfather to be persecuted by people with adverse thoughts, and this family had to take refuge in a huge ranch. This property belonged to Jorge Icaza’s uncle. In this place, at a very young age, Icaza lived very close to the indigenous. He was very impressed by how the owner of the land would treat, hit and humiliate the indigenous, who worked very hard for him, starving and struggling every single day. He was witness of these never ending abuses and he also learned a lot about the native’s language which is very used in this story.

After graduating from high school he went to a medicine school but after two years he dropped his studies because he didn’t have enough money to pay for it. He became an actor, situation that gave him the opportunity to travel and discover the real situation of indigeneous in our country.

We can see that everything that Jorge Icaza lived close to the natives is reflected in this story because he gives us a lot of details about indigenous’ customs, language, etc.