Jorgenrique Adoum: (1926–2109), is widely recognized as the most important Ecuadorian intellectual of the twentieth century, was an award–winning poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright. He belonged to a pioneering and yet often overlooked group of Spanish American poets known as “conversacionalistas,” who emphasize the orality of language, made use of the languages of the social sciences and mass media, and innovated by challenging poetic limits and by requiring an active reader. He spent much of the sixties, seventies, and eighties in exile, mainly in Paris, returning to Ecuador in 1987, where he continued to write.

Ernesto Cardenal: (1925–2020), was one of the great poetic voices of his generation. He was a Catholic priest, a poet, and a revolutionary. He joined the Sandinistas in their struggle against Somoza and, following its victory in 1979, became his country’s first Minister of Culture. He promoted poetry workshops through which hundreds of men and women learned to write. Because of his political involvement, Pope John Paul II prohibited him from administering the sacraments in 1984. Pope Francis rescinded the prohibition in 2019 shortly before the poet’s death. Cardenal’s conversational voice continues to influence poets throughout the world.

Magda Portal: (1900–1989), was an acclaimed poet and free–spirited social radical, key figure in the brilliant “vanguard generation” 1920s, group that included poet César Vallejo and Marxist theorist José Carlos Mariátegui. She was a pioneering champion of women equality in the context of the larger battle for revolutionary transformation of Latin America. With the rise of the women’s movement in 1970s Peru, her life’s work was embraced by a new generation. Poems appearing in this anthology are used with permission of the late poet and of Rocio Revolledo Pareja, The Estate of Magda Portal.