Oswaldo José de los Ángeles Castro Intriago (29 July 1902 – 26 June 1992) was an Ecuadorian journalist, teacher, poet, statistician, translator/reviser, and novelist. He was instrumental in founding Chone's first newspaper, the cultural weekly El Iris; in organizing the first census of the city of Quito, Ecuador as president of its technical commission; and in promoting the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization as its liaison officer for Southern Latin America. While in retirement in Madrid, Spain, he published La Mula Ciega (1970),La Mula Ciega, Oswaldo Castro, First Edition, November 1970; printed by Gráficas Gardal, Boix y Morer, 17, Madrid. a loosely autobiographical novel about two teenagers coming of age in the early 1900s with Chone, Bahía de Caráquez, Quito, Guayaquil, and the Galápagos as backdrops.
Youth and journalism Castro was the son of Carlos María Castro Araus (1873–1945) from Portoviejo, Ecuador; and Olimpia Edeltrudis Intriago Minaya (1881–1963) from Riochico, Ecuador. Both of his parents died in Bahìa de Caráquez, Ecuador. He was born in Chone, Manabí, Ecuador on July 29, 1902.
From 1907 to 1914 Castro attended El Vergel, a private school founded and directed by Raymundo Aveiga Moreira (1876–1959),"Biografia de don Raymundo Aveiga Moreira" in Chone, Ecuador. At fourteen, under the tutelage and guidance of his teacher and with several of his schoolmates, most notably Enrique Amadeo Bolaños Moreira (1898–1929), he edited and wrote articles for Chone's first cultural weekly, El Iris. The only newspaper available in Chone at the time was El Horizonte, a weekly published in Portoviejo, the capital of Manabí province. El Iris was launched on April 23, 1916, its few copies painstakingly handwritten for lack of a printing press.Chone Cultural, AFYC Agrupación Fraterna y Cultural, July 21, 1985, Chone, Ecuador, p. 15, among other sources. Good penmanship was a highly desirable and respected skill at the time and was part of El Vergel's eight-year curriculum along with the more traditional subjects. El Iris''' readership consisted of a few families arbitrarily selected by the young publishers. There arose an aura of suspense every week among these families to see if they would be the ones to receive the prized manuscript. Many years later during a visit by cultural historiographer, Horacio Hidrovo Peñaherrera, Columba Coppiano Delgado was able to produce a pristine copy of El Iris destined specifically to her by the young journalists.Horacio Hidrovo Peñaherrera, Periódico de Puño y Letra, Suplemento "El Mundo" Portoviejo, Ecuador, January 31, 1982. Items of interest were gathered from the private library of Guadalupe Martínez de Santos, a wealthy Mexican actress and neighbor; from illustrated magazines arriving from Europe which the boys were allowed to read at the post office before their patrons picked them up; and from news-about-town submitted by collaborating young itinerant reporters. Examples of these diverse topics were: the tercentenary of Miguel de Cervantes (most probably written by Bolaños); La Galerna, an account of the gales besetting the Cantabrian Sea (written by Castro),Horacio Hidrovo Peñaherrera, Rodolfo Pérez Pimentel Vidas ejemplares de Manabí Universidad Laica de Manabí, Talleres de Imprenta y Gráficas "Ramirez," Portoviejo, Manabí, Ecuador, August 1997. Pages 25 and 30. social, literary, humor, and daily life columns, as well as updates on World War I. The students took sides: some for the Triple Alliance, some for the Triple Entente; that is to say, Germanophiles versus Francophiles. After perhaps seven issues and the acquisition of a printing press generously donated by Colonel Juan Crecencio Álvarez Loor, El Iris was taken over by the Centro Social Juventud Chonense."Chone: Creciente forja cultural"."Chone: iris, periodismo percursor (i)" "Chone: iris, periodismo precursor (ii)""El Iris: Precursor de la comunicación chonense", page 12. "El Iris Órgano del Centro Social Juventud Chonense-Chone 1917"Dr. Jacinto Alejandro González Vintimilla Historia de Chone 1894–1994 UTM Universidad Técnica de Manabí, July 1994, Pages 19 and 21. A picture of Columba Coppiano's copy of El Iris appears in the back cover of this publication. By 1921, it was a well-established popular semanario chonense under the directorship of Ramón Verduga Cornejo.Iniciación, Year 1, Number 5, April 1922, page 2 Due to the exodus of many of its writers, El Iris folded in 1935.
Castro's interest in journalism would surface again in Portoviejo when, in 1934, he joined the editorial board of the nascent Diario Manabita, today known as El Diario. Macario Gutiérrez Solórzano wrote, "He was always restless, impulsive, exuberant, and even anarchic."Macario Gutiérrez Solórzano, "Un capítulo de interés periodístico que hace época en anales manabitas. Quienes hacían Diario Manabita en Portoviejo en 1.934." El Diario Manabita, March 13, 1959. His journalistic output would continue with articles such as La Mística de Pasternak, written for the newspaper's twentieth anniversary edition.Oswaldo Castro, "La Mística de Pasternak, Especial para Diario Manabita en el vigésimo aniversario de su fundación." Diario Manabita, Portoviejo, March 13, 1959. He also wrote articles under the anagrammed pseudonym Oscar Waldoosty for Guayaquil's El Universo newspaper.Oscar Waldoosty, "Panoramas de Europa DICKENS EN MADRID." El Universo, Guayaquil, June 2, 1952; Oscar Waldoosty, "Matita Molina: ritmo ecuatoriano en los tablados de Madrid." Instantáneas de Europa por Oscar Waldoosty, Madrid, August 1971, El Universo, Guayaquil; Oscar Waldoosty, "Marcos Uscocovich: un hombre símbolo." Instantáneas de Washington, El Universo, Guayaquil, August 7, 1977.
Romantic poems as well as those appealing for social justice were written for the newspaper El Comercio, in Quito, as well as for Argos and Iniciación, illustrated monthly magazines dedicated mainly to poetry and socio-political critique published in the 1920s, Portoviejo's "golden age" of vibrant poetic activity. Contributions to these magazines came mainly from a group of young Manabitan poets.Mariana Petroni Andrade, Segunda edición en homenaje al primer centenario del nacimiento del poeta, novelista, y maestro, Horacio Hidrovo Velásquez, Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Portoviejo, Manabí, Ecuador, 2002, pp. 28–34; and Jaime Alcívar Intriago, ReHuSo: Revista de Ciencias Humanísticas y Sociales, Year 2019, Vol. 4, No. 1. p. 33, among other sources. Castro sent his poems to Portoviejo while he was still a student in Quito. In 1972, Spain's La Tijera Literaria also published his poetry.La Tijera Literaria, Enciclopedia historico-antológica de las más famosas obras en lengua castellana, Fascículo 82, p.2595, published by Siglo Ilustrado, Madrid (1972) (See "list of poems".) His technical papers were published in professional magazines and journals, most notably Trimestre Estadístico,"Economia Dirigida," Trimestre Estadístico, Quito, 1944. Eslabón,Magazine started in Quito for Mejía graduates under the directorship of Olmedo del Pozo, "Órgano de la sociedad graduados del "Mejía." The Pan American Bookshelf, Vol. IV, #7, July 1941, p. 265."Abaratamiento de las subsistencias," Revista Eslabòn, Quito, 1945. in Quito; Instituto Iberoamericano de Cooperación Económica in Madrid;"Uniformación de la nomenclatura aduanera y de las estadísticas de comercio exterior," working paper, Primer Congreso de Cooperación Económica, Instituto de Cultura Hispànica, published by the Instituto Iberoamericano de Cooperación Económica, Madrid, 1953. His attendance and presentation at the meeting is reported in "Del congreso iberoamericano de cooperación económica", El Diario, Barcelona, June 3, 1953, and in "Trabajo del Dr. Oswaldo Castro será publicado," El Comercio, Quito, Thursday, July 30, 1953. Moneda y Crédito also in Madrid;"La dinámica del crédito agropecuario," Revista Moneda y Crédito, Oswaldo Castro, Madrid, December 1956. An article in English entitled Two men and a flower about Hernando de Soto and Simon Bolivar could not be found although the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Mississippi, wrote of its genesis.Ecuador Envoy Finds Familiar Word Here, Tells of Origin of DeSoto, Bolivar; The Clarion-Ledger November 7, 1946. The two men, Bolivar and DeSoto, the flower, the magnolia. Also noted in Resumen biográfico de don Oswaldo Castro Intriago, el Diario, Portoviejo, Thursday July 2, 1992 – 9B; "Dr. Oswaldo Castro Intriago" Alfredo Vera Vera, El Nuevo Globo, Bahía de Caráquez, July 2, 1992, among other sources. One of his last journalistic articles on literature, ¿Crísis de la novela en Ecuador? (published in El Universo), was written in Madrid during his retirement.Oswaldo Castro ¿Crisis de la novela en el Ecuador? p. 6, Los Angeles, Calif. – La Opinión, 8 November 1971; Oswaldo Castro ¿Crísis de la novela en Ecuador? El Universo – Sunday, Nov. 14, 1971.
High school, higher education, and teaching