Jorge Enrique Adoum
| Jorge Enrique Adoum | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Jorge Enrique Adoum Aud June 29, 1926 Ambato, Ecuador |
| Died |
July 3, 2009 (aged 83) Quito, Ecuador |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | Ecuadorian |
| Notable works | Entre Marx y Una Mujer Desnuda (1976) |
| Notable awards | Premio Eugenio Espejo (1989), Xavier Villaurrutia Prize (1976), Casa de las Américas (1960) |
| Spouse | Magdalena Jaramillo Cabezas (years married: (1948-Unknown), Nicole Rouan (years married: 1977-2009) |
Jorge Enrique Adoum (Ambato, June 29, 1926 – Quito, July 3, 2009) was an Ecuadorian writer, poet, politician, and diplomat. He was one of the major exponents of Latin American poetry. His work received such prestigious awards as the first Casa de las Américas Prize in Cuba, the most important honor in Latin American letters. Though hailed by Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda as the best poet of his generation in Latin America, Adoum’s work is unknown in the English-speaking world.
Jorge Enrique Adoum was born in Ambato, Ecuador in 1926 of Lebanese ancestry. He wrote close to 30 books and 3 novels.
Adoum's father was Jorge Elías Francisco Adoum (1897-1958), and his mother was Juana Auad Barciona (died 1953). His father Francisco Adoum was Lebanese and migrated to Ecuador where he made Arabic-to-Spanish translations, painted, sculpted, composed music, practiced natural medicine, and wrote more than 40 volumes on occult sciences and masonry which he published under the pseudonym "Mago Jefa". He also had a private practice for hypnotism, magnetism and suggestion, and made numerous healings considered miraculous in his time. Since 1945 he traveled to Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. He died in Rio de Jainero in 1958 at 61 years old.
In 1948 Adoum married Magdalena Jaramillo Cabezas with whom he had 2 daughters. He later divorced Magdalena.
Adoum is best known for his novel Entre Marx y una Mujer Desnuda (Between Marx and a Naked Woman), which received Mexico's Xavier Villaurrutia Prize. This was the first time the award was given to a foreigner. The fictional character José Gálves is loosely based on the 1930s Ecuadorian novelist Joaquín Gallegos Lara.
Adoum was Pablo Neruda's personal secretary for nearly two years in Chile. In 1963 he traveled to Egypt, India, Japan and Israel, with a grant from UNESCO's Major Project on the Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values. Unable to return to Ecuador because of the military dictatorship of 1964-1966, he worked in the Popular Republic of China. From 1964-1986 he worked in Beijing (China) and then in Geneva and Paris. In 1987 he returned to his homeland.
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