The Ministry of Culture and Heritage has designated the "Ileana Espinel Cedeño International Festival of Poetry in Guayaquil" as one of the emblematic festivals in 2017. The festival was chosen as one of the best and most representative festivals in the country.

One of the requirements in order to have this designation is to have had seven consecutive editions, international scope and attract people to the event. The Ministry of Culture and Heritage accepted 1,568 nominations which were divided into two categories: "National Competition of Art Festivals 2016-2017" and "Artistic and Cultural Projects".

To be designated as Emblematic Festivals the projects were assessed by two committees, the first is the Technical Committee of Analysis and Evaluation which is in charge of doing research, collecting information, analyzing, evaluating and making a preliminary list of festivals to be analyzed. The second is the Curatorial Resolution Committee which decides whether or not to declare a festival emblematic.

For Augusto Rodirguez, professor, writer and coordinator of the event, this should make all salesians and people from Guayaquil proud. "The event is organized by UPS professors, students and alumni from Guayaquil, in other words, it's a 100% Salesian Festival", he said.

Renowned poets, narrators, editors, artists, translators, film makers, musicians and actors from countries like Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, USA, Japan, Mongolia, Iraq, Mexico,Romania, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Germany,Chile,Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and more have attended the festival during the 9 editions of the International Iliana Espinel Cedeño Festival. "We have had important writers during the festival, such as Jorge Edwards from Chile who won the Cervantes award in 1999", said Augusto Rodriguez.

The festival has always been supported by UPS. "This is the festival's home and it was basically meant for students of this university despite sometimes being held in places like the Casa de la Cultura, Centro Ecuatoriano Norteamericano, Alianza Francesa, high schools and parks in the city of Guayaquil", said Rodriguez.

This year is the tenth edition of the Festival, "This year we invited Spain and there will be a varied list of guests, it will be an unforgettable literary and cultural celebration", said Rodriguez.