María Auxiliadora Balladares

María Auxiliadora Balladares
In 2020
Born
María Auxiliadora Balladares Uquillas

1980 (age 44–45)
Guayaquil, Ecuador
Education
Occupation(s)Writer, professor
AwardsJorge Carrera Andrade Award (2023)

María Auxiliadora Balladares Uquillas (born 1980) is an Ecuadorian writer and professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito.

Biography

María Auxiliadora Balladares was born in Guayaquil in 1980. She received bachelor of arts degrees in sociology and liberal arts at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, followed by a master's at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador.[1] She earned a PhD in Latin American literature at the University of Pittsburgh in 2018 with the dissertation Una rara inocencia: el debilitamiento de la metáfora en Dalton, Alegría, Ledesma Vázquez y Watanabe (A Rare Innocence: The Weakening of the Metaphor in Dalton, Alegría, Ledesma Vázquez [es], and Watanabe).[2]

She began her literary career by publishing stories that appeared in various local anthologies.[3] With the story "Jamón serrano", she won second place at the tenth Pablo Palacio Short Story Biennial.[4]

Her first book was the short story collection Las vergüenzas (The Shames), published in 2013. It is made up of ten stories, and was well received by Ecuadorian critics.[4][5] The story "En el sótano" (In the Cellar), originally written in 1999, tells the story of two children who discover their father's homosexual relationship with the man he had passed off as his brother for years.[6][7]

In 2017, Balladares published the poetry collection Animal, which was inspired by her affinity for wildlife and her relationship with the wilderness.[8][9] The work took second place at the seventh Cuenca Festival de la Lira.[10]

Her poetry collection Guayaquil won first prize at the 2017 Pichincha Poetry Awards. The work, published in 2019 by the Provincial Council of Pichincha, brings together 22 poems that present the author's experiences during a trip to Guayaquil as a poetic journal.[11] The writer and literary critic Daniela Alcívar Bellolio highlighted the book's exploration of themes such as the female body, loss, and lesbian love. She also pointed out the poem "A mí también me gusta Marosa di Giorgio" (I Also Like Marosa di Giorgio) as one of the most powerful in the work.[12]

At the end of 2022, Balladares published the poetry collection Acantile duerme piloto, which included twelve love poems. With it, she won the 2023 Jorge Carrera Andrade Award, given by the municipality of Quito to the best poetry book of the year.[1][13]

Works

  • Las vergüenzas (2013), short stories
  • Todos creados en un abrir y cerrar de ojos (2015), essay[14]

Poetry

  • Animal (2017)
  • Guayaquil (2019)
  • Caballo y arveja (2021)[15]
  • Acantile duerme piloto (2022)

References

  1. ^ a b Ramírez, Katherine (14 December 2023). "Comunidad PUCE fue premiada por el Municipio de Quito" [PUCE Community Awarded by the Municipality of Quito] (in Spanish). Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  2. ^ Balladares, María Auxiliadora (31 January 2018). Una rara inocencia: el debilitamiento de la metáfora en Dalton, Alegría, Ledesma Vázquez y Watanabe [A Rare Innocence: The Weakening of the Metaphor in Dalton, Alegría, Ledesma Vázquez, and Watanabe] (Thesis). University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  3. ^ "Varios escritores guayaquileños, en una antología" [Various Guayaquil Writers in an Anthology]. El Universo (in Spanish). Guayaquil, Ecuador. 14 November 2011. Archived from the original on 17 September 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  4. ^ a b Medina, Clara (6 October 2013). "Nuevas letras" [New Letters]. El Universo La Revista (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  5. ^ Piedra, Cartón. "Juegos forenses" [Forensic Games]. Archived from the original on 17 September 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Balladares trae cuentos nada vergonzosos" [Balladares Brings Shameless Stories]. La Hora Sílabas (in Spanish). 10 November 2013. Archived from the original on 15 April 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  7. ^ Artieda Santacruz, Pedro (29 December 2014). "La narrativa gay ecuatoriana dialoga a través de la culpa y la muerte" [Ecuadorian Gay Narrative Dialogues Through Guilt and Death]. Mundo Diners (in Spanish). Quito, Ecuador. Archived from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  8. ^ Toranzos, Mariella (11 June 2017). "Un clavado hacia la poesía" [A Dive Into Poetry]. Expreso (in Spanish). Guayaquil, Ecuador. Archived from the original on 11 June 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  9. ^ "Mariuxi Balladares encarna la potencia de lo animal" [Mariuxi Balladares Embodies the Power of the Animal]. El Telégrafo (in Spanish). Guayaquil, Ecuador. 18 May 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  10. ^ "La Poesía está de fiesta en Cuenca" [Poetry is Partying in Cuenca]. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Cuenca, Ecuador. 14 November 2019. Archived from the original on 17 September 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  11. ^ Varas, Eduardo (15 May 2019). "María Auxiliadora Balladares lanza hoy su poemario 'Guayaquil', en Quito" [María Auxiliadora Balladares Launches Her Poetry Collection 'Guayaquil' in Quito Today]. Primicias. Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  12. ^ Alcívar Bellolio, Daniela (7 December 2018). "'Son tantas las formas del amor': políticas y poéticas del cuerpo afectado en Guayaquil, de María Auxiliadora Balladares" ["There are so many forms of love": Politics and Poetics of the Affected Body in Guayaquil, by María Auxiliadora Balladares]. Sycorax (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  13. ^ Villacrees, Jazmina (29 November 2023). "Ganadores de los Premios Municipales para las Artes y las Ciencias 2023" [Winners of the 2023 Municipal Awards for Arts and Sciences]. Quito Cultura (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 30 November 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  14. ^ "Distintas propuestas literarias en escena" [Different Literary Proposals on Stage]. El Telégrafo (in Spanish). Guayaquil, Ecuador. 4 March 2016. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  15. ^ Ansaldo Briones, Cecilia (14 November 2011). "'Caballo y arveja'". El Universo (in Spanish). Guayaquil, Ecuador. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2024.