{"status":"success","siteTitle":"Assisted Lab\nLiving Archive of Assisted Dying","title":"\u2018Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia\u2019 by Adolfo Mac\u00edas Huerta","slug":"pension-babilonia","url":"https:\/\/assistedlab.ch\/textual\/pension-babilonia","body":"<p>The novel <em>Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia <\/em>(Babilonia Guesthouse), by Ecuadorian writer and psychotherapist Adolfo Mac\u00edas Huerta, features a secret assisted-suicide society. The book opens with a tragedy: Frida, the young daughter of Laura and Dante Ospina, accidentally falls from the terrace overlooking their building\u2019s swimming pool. Laura, a photographer pregnant with her second child, is vacuuming a sofa at home when she hears screaming and rushes to the window to find, in shock, her daughter\u2019s unconscious body (Dante, an advertising agent presumably at work, is not in this scene). In the aftermath of Frida\u2019s death, we follow the downward spiral of a grieving Laura, who feels she has no love left to give her new son. Laura loses her grasp of reality and starts listening to the voice of a pistol (which she either found or hallucinated), until she is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. We don\u2019t get to witness Laura\u2019s hospitalization, but her story continues in the last third of the novel: 17 years after Frida\u2019s death, Laura is back at home, still figuring out how to relate to her son. The central part of the novel is narrated by Dante, who also journeys into an abyss \u2013 but one of his own making. Frustrated with narrow-minded clients, he\u2019s eager to accept a creative challenge and perhaps win advertising awards: the association tentatively named <em>Muertes Esc\u00e9nicas<\/em> (Scenic Deaths) needs a new brand, because \u2013 the consultant who approaches Dante explains \u2013 \u2018the word death doesn\u2019t poll well\u2019 and, \u2018in psychological terms, we Ecuadorians are immortal\u2019 (translated from the Spanish, as all other quotes). Arguing that accompanying a suicide is not a crime, the group helps those who want to die stage \u2018a beautiful death, in the company of loved ones, [in] an unforgettable ceremony\u2019. Dante wins over the client by pitching their rebranding as <em>La Sociedad Ecuatoriana del Rito Terminal<\/em> (The Ecuadorian Society of the Terminal Rite) and creating an astonishing media campaign with the help of photographs taken by Laura, who ignores their purpose (this entry\u2019s illustration comes from one such ad). Making publicity for a secret society is one of the novel\u2019s paradoxes. Even though the disturbing suicide rituals fall short of their idealization, Dante keeps investing in the enterprise. When he is accused of sexually assaulting an employee and tries to get his investment back to use as hush money, the Society dissolves, leaving him to face scandal and his complete unravelling.<\/p><p><em>Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia<\/em> is divided into three uneven parts (approximately 20%, 50%, and 30% of the page count) respectively titled: \u2018The hidden pistol\u2019, \u2018An unexpected job\u2019, and \u2018The torso and the hand\u2019. Laura\u2019s story (parts 1 plus 3) adds up to the same length as Dante\u2019s (part 2), but with a different narrative strategy: Laura\u2019s tale is told in third person, whereas Dante tells his own story in first person \u2013 so his narrative is only as reliable as his character. Those shifting perspectives complement and contradict each other, much like the two protagonists, whom Mac\u00edas Huerta describes to <em>Sue\u00f1os de Papel<\/em> as polar opposites: Dante is a dominant, ambitious, proud man, seeking prestige and money; and Laura is an introverted and sensitive woman, somewhat lost, searching for her identity in art but clinging to Dante because of an emotional void. This psychological depth has been hailed as a hallmark of Mac\u00edas Huerta\u2019s work by journalist Gabriel Flores, who calls <em>Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia<\/em> \u2018a very personal novel in which [the author] puts into practice his knowledge of psychotherapy\u2019. Besides being a psychotherapist, Mac\u00edas Huerta has worked in the advertising world, which helped give realism to \u2018a plot that goes from dark to dreamlike\u2026 on the edge of credibility\u2019, as he explains to <em>Elipsis<\/em>. It\u2019s difficult to pin down the novel as either for or against euthanasia. Like Marinou-Blanco\u2019s film <em>Sonhar com Le\u00f5es <\/em>and Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s novel <em>Cien Cuyes<\/em> (see related <em>Assisted Lab<\/em> entries), <em>Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia<\/em> is uncanny and ambiguous. On one hand, the secret Society\u2019s commitment to not let people die alone seems noble and legally sound, as a lawyer verifies the willingness of a group member called Betty before her terminal rite: \u2018Do you solemnly confirm your desire to leave this life of your own free will\u2026?\u2019 Yet, after giving verbal confirmation, Betty has doubts and leaves the stage, only to be followed by the society\u2019s president, who \u2013 we implicitly understand \u2013 goes on to pressure her. Thus, if the novel promotes empathy, it also portrays manipulation. The titular \u2018Babylon Guesthouse\u2019, which materializes towards the end, further suggests this is a parable of misunderstanding, corruption, and hellish descent. When the media gets word of the secret Society, a sensationalist reporter considers the many ways he could frame the story \u2013 adding a meta dimension to the novel and leaving us with the question Mac\u00edas Huerta raises in the <em>Elipsis<\/em> interview: \u2018at what point does the spectacle pervert?\u2019<\/p><p>Though published in 2015, <em>Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia<\/em> had already been completed by 2013, when Mac\u00edas Huerta submitted it as a manuscript to the <em>Concurso Nacional de Proyectos para el Fomento y Circulaci\u00f3n de las Artes<\/em> (National Competition of Projects for the Promotion and Circulation of the Arts). Organized by Ecuador\u2019s Ministry of Culture, the contest boasted an international jury, including the Colombian writer Santiago Gamboa. In November 2013, during Quito\u2019s <em>VI International Bookfair<\/em>, the Ministry announced that <em>Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia<\/em> had won the \u2018novel\u2019 category; according to a press release, Gamboa \u2018highlighted the quality of the winning work\u2019 as one of the best novels he had read that year. The jury minutes, eventually printed as a foreword to the book, informed that the decision was unanimous and underscored \u2018the extraordinary architecture of the novel, the character development, and the handling of the plot, always original and surprising\u2019. While the award is an undeniable achievement \u2013 even more so considering the novel\u2019s controversial topic \u2013 it came with the double-edged benefit of publication by the Ministry rather than by a commercial publishing house. Not only did the publication take two years to materialize, but this also rendered reprints impractical; so while Mac\u00edas Huerta\u2019s fame grew as one of Ecuador\u2019s great novelists, with more acclaimed novels widely available since 2013, <em>Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia<\/em> quickly disappeared, becoming \u2013 as <em>El Universo<\/em> columnist Leonardo Valencia deems it \u2013 \u2018the author\u2019s least known work\u2019. For those lucky enough to access it, the book comes across as both self-aware and ahead of its time. When, in the novel, Dante decides \u2018to create a media scandal\u2026 to attract all those suffering from depression\u2019, his resolution comes right after hearing about the 2011 real-world death of Jack Kevorkian, aka \u2018Dr Death\u2019 (see related entry on Barry Levinson\u2019s film). Regardless of its poor distribution, the novel was praised by <em>La Barra Espaciadora<\/em> as one of the books of the year in 2016 (even then, \u2018you had to be resourceful to get it\u2019). In 2023, when Paola Rold\u00e1n\u2019s constitutional appeal to decriminalize euthanasia became a public discussion in Ecuador (see related entry on Rold\u00e1n\u2019s memoir), a <em>Mundo Diners<\/em> article by Gabriel Flores remembered that the theme of \u2018dignified death also resonates in novels\u2019, recommending <em>Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia<\/em> as one of five titles that \u2018explore the concept of a <em>good death<\/em>, offering diverse perspectives and delving into the emotional and ethical decisions involved\u2019.<\/p>","cover":{"ratio":1.3900316455696202,"url":"https:\/\/assistedlab.ch\/media\/pages\/textual\/pension-babilonia\/94156fe817-1785806961\/macias_huerta-2015-pension_babilonia-ad1-2410x-q90.jpg","caption":"Mac\u00edas Huerta, fictional ad from *Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia*, 2015 (courtesy of the author)"},"data":[{"title":"Title","value":"\u2018Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia\u2019 by Adolfo Mac\u00edas Huerta"},{"title":"Author","value":"Adolfo Mac\u00edas Huerta"},{"title":"Year","value":"2015"},{"title":"Language","value":"Spanish"},{"title":"Tags","value":"Death Outside the Law \u2022 Existential Suffering \u2022 Mental Health \u2022 fiction"},{"title":"Legislative context","value":"Penal Code article 144 (on homicide), affected by the 2024 sentence decriminalizing euthanasia, 10 February 2014, p. 64 (Ecuador)"},{"title":"Author of entry","value":"Carlos A. Pittella"},{"title":"First published","value":"25.08.2026"},{"title":"Last updated","value":"25.08.2026"}],"toggles":[{"title":"Reviews","list":[{"text":"Luis Espinosa Goded, \u2018Rese\u00f1a de Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia de Adolfo Mac\u00edas y Lectoriz\u2019, TikTok, 2025","link":"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@luisespinosagoded\/video\/7464995681338543366","pathname":"tiktok.com"},{"text":"Sandra Araya, \u2018Los libros del 2016\u2019, La Barra Espaciadora, 2016","link":"https:\/\/labarraespaciadora.com\/libros-2016\/","pathname":"labarraespaciadora.com"},{"text":"\u2018Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia, un recorrido trascendente\u2019 La Hora, 2015","link":"https:\/\/www.lahora.com.ec\/sociedad\/Pension-Babilonia--un-recorrido-trascendente-20151119-0025.html","pathname":"lahora.com.ec"},{"text":"Gabriel Flores, \u2018El Suicidio Como Espet\u00e1culo, El Nuevo Tema de Mac\u00edas\u2019, El Comercio (reproduced in Facebook), 2015","link":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/InstitutoCRESER\/photos\/nuestro-docente-y-terap%C3%A9uta-graduado-de-cre-ser-adolfo-mac%C3%ADas-lanza-su-novela-pe\/953383941374103\/","pathname":"facebook.com"}]},{"title":"Media citations","list":[{"text":"Leonardo Valencia, \u2018La breve vida \u00bffeliz? del Ministerio de Cultura\u2019, El Universo, 2025","link":"https:\/\/www.eluniverso.com\/opinion\/columnistas\/la-breve-vida-feliz-del-ministerio-de-cultura-nota\/","pathname":"eluniverso.com"},{"text":"Gabriel Flores Flores, \u2018Eutanasia: la muerte digna tambi\u00e9n resuena en la novela\u2019, Mundo Diners, 2023","link":"https:\/\/revistamundodiners.com\/mundo-diners-plus\/eutanasia\/","pathname":"revistamundodiners.com"},{"text":"\u2018Las dimensiones humanas \u2013 Di\u00e1logo con Adolfo Mac\u00edas Huerta, por Juan Carlos Arteaga\u2019, Elipsis no. 9, 2022","link":"https:\/\/www.elipsis.ec\/dialogos-entrevistas\/las-dimensiones-humanas","pathname":"elipsis.ec"},{"text":"D. De La Torre, \u2018Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia, Ca\u00edda Infernal\u2019, La Hora Artes Cultura \u2013 Issuu, 2015","link":"https:\/\/issuu.com\/la_hora\/docs\/r.artesweb6dic_2eb7054a76b702","pathname":"issuu.com"},{"text":"\u2018Adolfo Mac\u00edas Huerta escritor ecuatoriano\u2019, Sue\u00f1os de Papel Podcast \u2013 iVoox, 2015","link":"https:\/\/www.ivoox.com\/en\/adolfo-macias-huerta-escritor-ecuatoriano-17-noviembre-2015-audios-mp3_rf_9421840_1.html","pathname":"ivoox.com"},{"text":"\u2018Escritores ecuatorianos presentes en la FIL 2015\u2019, El Comercio, 2015","link":"https:\/\/www.elcomercio.com\/tendencias\/fil-escritores-ecuatorianos-literatura-cultura\/","pathname":"elcomercio.com"},{"text":"\u2018Notas desde La FIL UIO 2013\u2019, Ministerio de Cultura y Patrimonio, 2013","link":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150318230309\/http:\/\/www.culturaypatrimonio.gob.ec\/notas-desde-la-fil-uio-2013\/","pathname":"web.archive.org"}]},{"title":"Interest Group citations","list":[{"text":"\u2018Nuestro docente y terap\u00e9uta graduado de CRE-SER, Adolfo Mac\u00edas lanza su novela Pensi\u00f3n Babilonia ma\u00f1ana a las 18h00\u2026\u2019, Instituto CRE-SER \u2013 Facebook, 2015","link":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=953383941374103&set=a.1741911855854637","pathname":"facebook.com"}]}]}