Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco: la literatura es una dificultad adquirida

Abstract

In this interview, done in 1987, the author spoke with Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco about his conceptions regarding literature and history. He speaks of the details of his literary vocation, his first readings and of those that, later, impacted him most. Pareja describes his daily routine as a writer, which he relates with his idea of what Iiterature is: «an acquired problem»; which alludes to the role of schemes in the construction of his novels, as well as the critique of his friends from the Guayaquil group during the 1930's. He reflects on this group's being one of friends much more than writers who got together to work on their texts. Finally, he speaks of his admiration tor historian Arnold Toynbee, and he concludes the interview stating that, tor him, «History is always made 'underground', that is, it is made by daily life».