César Dávila Andrade (Cuenca, 1918—Caracas, 1967) was an Ecuadorian poet, short fiction writer, and essayist. He was known as El Fakir for both his physical appearance and the mystical and esoteric concerns of his work. His chronicle of atrocities and forced labor under Spanish rule, “Bulletin and Elegy of the Mitas,” is widely acclaimed, both critically and popularly, as a key text of 20th century Ecuadorian poetry.

Jonathan Simkins is the translator of El Creacionismo by Vicente Huidobro. His translations of César Dávila Andrade have appeared in ballast, Bennington Review, Chicago Review, Interim, The Journal, Los Angeles Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, and others. His fiction has appeared in Bristol Noir, Close To The Bone, and Grim & Gilded.