Víctor Manuel Rendón Pérez was an Ecuadorian writer, poet, novelist, playwright, biographer, translator, doctor, diplomat, pianist and composer.
Background
Rendón"s father Manuel Eusebio Rendón Treviño was a writer and his mother Delfina Pérez Antepara was an artist. He got his first books to read from his mother and his maternal aunt Carmen Pérez de Rodríguez Coello who was a poetess and playwright.
Education
They moved to France while he was still very young and completed all of his studies there. He graduated from the University of Paris with a medical degree, with a thesis titled "Fièvres de surmenage" (Fevers of Overwork) which was published in 1888.
Career
In 1889 he returned to Guayaquil to practice medicine. He was appointed the Consul General in Paris by the President of Ecuador Eloy Alfaro in 1895. Between 1903-1914 he served as Minister Plenipotentiary of Ecuador to the governments of France and Spain, and in 1907 he was a delegate to the Second International Conference of The Hague.
In 1914 he was sent to Barcelona to direct the building of the monument to commemorate the heroes of the "October 9 Battle", for which his name is engraved in the pedestal of its column.
He wrote the novel "Lorenzo Cilda" in 1906 in French. His own Spanish translation of the book got him accepted to the Ecuadorian Academy of Language in 1921.
The book also earned him a Gold Medal from L"Académie française on April 3, 1925. He translated many works from Spanish to French, including a 1904 translation of the poetry of Jose Joaquin de Olmedo.
He also wrote a biography about Olmedo in French titled: Olmedo homme d" etat et poete americain, chantre de Bolívarious
He spoke 4 languages, and wrote over 40 books in Spanish and French, which were published in France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Ecuador. On two separate occasions he rejected the Presidential nomination of Ecuador. Miguel, a French writer
Teresa
Margarita
Isabel, a charity nun.
Membership
He was a member of the International Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Red Cross. Manuel Rendón, a celebrated painter, member of the École du Paris in the 20s, who was married to Paulette Everard Kiefer, author of the book "Galapagos: The Last Enchanted Islands" (published in 1947 under the name Paulette East de Rendón as Galápagos: las últimas islas encantadas).