Humberto Salvador

Humberto Salvador Guerra (Guayaquil, 25 December 1909 – ibid., 17 January 1982) was an Ecuadorian writer, lawyer, and psychoanalyst. In his early works, he was—alongside Pablo Palacio—a representative of the avant-garde movement in Ecuador, publishing books such as En la ciudad he perdido una novela.... His writing later shifted toward the trend of social realism.

Biography He was born on 25 December 1909 in Guayaquil, Guayas Province. At a young age he lost both parents and moved to the home of an aunt in Quito. He completed his secondary studies at the Instituto Nacional Mejía, where he was a classmate of writer Jorge Icaza, and pursued higher education at the Central University of Ecuador, studying law while working as a literature teacher at the Instituto Mejía. The following year he published two additional avant-garde works: the novel En la ciudad he perdido una novela…, which after his death came to be regarded as one of his most notable books, and the short story collection Taza de té.

In 1933, he adopted a more realist and naturalist style with the novel Camarada, which received international critical acclaim. He later published two more works in this vein: Trabajadores (1935) and Noviembre (1939). The latter was a commercial success, amplified by rumors that Salvador had received death threats for his depiction of the dictatorship of Federico Páez.

One of the ideas he defends in Esquema sexual is his opposition to the criminalization of homosexuality in Ecuador, which at the time was classified as a crime under Article 364 of the Criminal code and carried a prison sentence of four to eight years. To justify his position, Salvador analyzed the subject from clinical and scientific perspectives, concluding that maintaining homosexuality as a crime was incorrect. He also pointed out the contradiction that only male homosexuality was prohibited, suggesting that perhaps the authors of the Criminal Code felt attraction to their own sex and that “therefore, repression—in Freudian terms—took on in them traits of maximum violence.” He added: “It has been said that those who most harshly attack a sexual deviation are those who practice it or secretly desire it. And this is an evident psychological truth.” La elegía del recuerdo (1966) Viaje a lo desconocido (1967) La extraña fascinación (1970) La ráfaga de angustia (1971)

Short stories

Ajedrez (1929) Taza de té (1930) La lírica resurrección (1967) Sacrificio (1978)

Other

Canciones de rosas (1925), theatre Amor prohibido (1925), theatre Esquema sexual (1933), essay