Costales was appointed Provincial Director of Region 5 of the Social Security Institute of Ecuador (IESS), a post which brought great responsibility, for a period of three years. In the same year he founded the cultural group Ateneo José María Román of Chimborazo, at the request of his close friend and National President Dr Guillermo Bossano. In 1991, he was elected alternate deputy for the Democratic Left Party in the Province of Chimborazo. However, his most important position was to chair the Chimborazo Patriotic Board, a group that examined the border disputes with Perú. Costales travelled to Tiwintza canton in order to encourage the troops stationed there. Last days In 1993 he won first prize in poetry awarded by the Institute of Modern Arts, Quito. He spent the last years of his life in retirement at his small villa in the city of Guano, a few kilometres from Riobamba. This dwelling he called "Office of Hope". He devoted himself to literary work, to thought, to deep reading and to philosophical knowledge. In mid-2005, Luis Alberto Costales fell seriously ill, a victim of incurable lung cancer. In July of that year, the Benjamin Carrión House of Ecuadorian Culture of Chimborazo published his book Sobre el Pomo de la Tierra, for which he received tributes from several institutions and cultural bodies in the city. He spent the last eight months of his life in this city, under the care of his family and friends. He died on February 1, 2006. After his death, his children salvaged a large part of his work from his old desk, and compiled many of his writings, which they published in the book Exiliado en el verso, volumes 1 and 2. In the Ecuadorian Library of Art and History in Quito there is a section with his name. The city of Riobamba today possesses an imposing monument financed by his children dedicated to Costales and his work. See also César Dávila Andrade Luz Elisa Borja References External links Exiliado en el Verso 1926 births 2006 deaths People from Riobamba Democratic Left (Ecuador) politicians Ecuadorian Radical Liberal Party politicians Ecuadorian male short story writers Ecuadorian short story writers Ecuadorian male writers Ecuadorian poets 20th-century poets Ecuadorian male poets 20th-century short story writers 20th-century male writers