Famous Ecuadorians, Celebrities, Artists and Musicians

Ecuador is not only a country that is known for its beauty and fascinating culture but it is one that has also produced many famous writers, journalists, painters, photographers and other famous Ecuadorians.

Alejandro Carrión Aguirre is one of these well-known Ecuadorians famous for his journalism, poetry and the short stories that he had written. In 1981 he was recognized for his works when he received the Maria Moors Cabot prize and the Ecuadorian National Prize. Alejandro Aguirre was born in 1915 in the city of Loja and died seventy-seven years later in 1992 in the capital city Quito.

Two well received novels that he published were the ‘La Espina’ and the ‘La Manzana Dañada’. He also wrote many articles as a journalist under the pseudonym “Juan Sin Cielo”. He was the founder and director of two different genres of magazines: the ‘La Calle’, a political magazine, and the ‘Letras Del Ecuador’, a literary magazine made up of written compositions.

Hugo Cifuentes was a famous Latin American photographer born in 1923 in Otavalo. At the age of seventeen he was keenly interested in painting and drawing but later developed a love for photography. While being recognized for his photographic talents he was equally recognized for his artwork, which had taken on an interesting form in the 1960s.

At this stage Cifuentes was associated with VAN, a group of Informalist artists who continued to break away from traditional artwork. Hugo Cifuentes is known for creative and lively pieces of art that portray the hard lives of most Ecuadorians in a humorous manner. He passed away in 2000.

Michael Craig Judge is a famous animator who was born in Guayaquil in 1962 but now resides in America where he produces most of his work. As a university student he was interested in physics and engineering, which was the degree he finally obtained.

However it was cartoon drawings, voice acting, animation, producing and writing that finally made him famous. Many will recognize some of his television works like ‘King of the Hill’ and ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ as well as his films like ‘Office Space’. Today Judge lives with his family in Texas where he continues to produce well known animation.

Oswaldo Guayasamin – Born in Quito on July 6, 1919, Oswaldo Guayasamin showed a love of art from a young age. As the oldest of ten children, born to parents of Quechua descent, he followed his desire to be an artist, graduating from Quito’s School of Fine Arts where he had studied art and architecture and holding his first exhibition in 1942 at the age of 23 years. Guayasamin had an intense interest in people and the society in which he lived, reflecting this in his works of art, such as his painting “Los Niños Muertos” honoring his best friend who had died during a demonstration in Quito.

The achievements of this talented Ecuadorian artist included first prize at both the Ecuadorian Salón Nacional de Acuarelistas y Dibujantes (1948), and the Hispano-American Biennial of Art in Barcelona (1955). He was also named as the best South American painter in 1957 at the Fourth Biennial of Sao Paulo. Travelling extensively through South American countries, his impressions of the poverty experienced by the indigenous people was captured in his work, and later in his career he received an award from UNESCO for in recognition of his commitment to peace. His death on March 10, 1999, was considered to be a great loss for the people of Ecuador. Visitors can view many of his works at his former home located in the hills overlooking the city of Quito.

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