Huasipungo

Huasipungo (hispanicized spelling from Kichwa wasipunku or wasi punku, wasi house, punku door,[1] "house door") is a 1934 novel by Jorge Icaza (1906-1978) of Ecuador.

Huasipungo became a well-known "Indigenist" novel, a movement in Latin American literature that preceded Magical Realism and emphasized brutal realism.

Huasipungo is often compared to John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath from 1939, as both are works of social protest. Besides the first edition of 1934, Huasipungo went through two more editions or complete rewritings in Spanish, 1934, 1953, 1960, the first of which was difficult for even natives of other Hispanic countries to read and the last the definitive version. This makes it difficult for the readers to ascertain which version they are reading.

Besides being an 'indigenous' novel, Huasipungo has also been considered a proletarian novel, and that is because Latin America had to substitute the Indians for the European working class as a model or character of proletarian literature.

Huasipungo has been translated into over 40 languages, including English, Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Swiss, Czech, Polish, and Russian.

English translation

Fragments of the book first appeared in English translation in Russia, where it was welcomed enthusiastically by Russia's peasant socialist class.

The first complete edition of Huasipungo was first translated into the English language in 1962 by Mervyn Savill and published in England by Dennis Dobson Ltd. An "authorized" translation appeared in 1964 by Bernard H. Dulsey, and was published in 1964 by Southern Illinois University Press in Carbondale, IL as The Villagers.

Etymology

A wasipunku was a parcel of land of an hacienda given to the indigenous people in exchange for their labor on the hacienda rather than monetary remuneration. In a typical wasipunku the people built huts and used the surrounding land to cultivate food.

Characters

References

  1. Fabián Potosí C. et al., Ministerio de Educación del Ecuador: Kichwa Yachakukkunapa Shimiyuk Kamu, Runa Shimi - Mishu Shimi, Mishu Shimi - Runa Shimi. Quito (DINEIB, Ecuador) 2009. (Kichwa-Spanish dictionary)
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