El cinismo idealista de Alejandro Carrión

Abstract

This essay analyzes aspects of the multiple tasks of the journalist, literary critic, fiction narrator and, above all, the poetic production of the Ecuadorian Alejandro Carrión. It points out that his narrative, from a very early stage, demonstrates the satirical tone that would always play a part, as much as his «festive vocation of sedition»; it stresses his work as a journalist, mainly under the pseudonym of Juan sin cielo. It mentions some of Carrion’s contributions as a literary critic, compiled principally in the magazine Letras del Ecuador. The main thread of the essay –at times a nostalgic portrait– is nourished from an inevitable perspective: certain characteristics of his personality (his experience in «romances and snakes», the incisive and sharp humorist vocation, his «confrontational nature» and sharp intelligence), in addition to his gifts as a satirical narrator and poet.