Ledesma was born into a wealthy family on December 17, 1934, in
Guayaquil, in the
Guayas province. He completed his secondary studies at the
Vicente Rocafuerte National High School. or that he was different from his older brother, who had died years earlier as a hero during the
Ecuadorian-Peruvian War. Ledesma's father tried to enroll him in
military service, but he was rejected for suffering from
flat feet and
asthma. According to playwright , who worked with Ledesma in the theater, Ledesma's father interned him for six months in a
Lima clinic that subjected him to
conversion therapy. He was married for less than a year to actress
Mercedes Cajamarca, with whom he had a daughter and maintained a friendly relationship until his death. Donoso and Abadíe left the group after learning that Ledesma and Benavides were gay. In 1953 he published his first poetry book,
Cristal. This was followed by
Club 7 (1954), written with the remaining four members of the group, Gris (1958), which won an honorable mention from the Caracas newspaper
Lírica Hispánica, and the section "Los días sucios" of the collaborative work
Triángulo (1960).
Suicide and legacy On March 30, 1961, Ledesma was found
hanging in his parents' house, located in the Centenario neighborhood of Guayaquil. At the Radio CRE facility where he worked at the time, a letter was found in which he apologized to his partner from the program "Aquí Cuba" and asked him to take care of his ex-wife. At the time of his death, he left several poetry books unpublished, including one with the tentative name of
La risa del ahorcado. == Works ==