After his 1933 playscript, El Dictador, was censured, Icaza turned his attention to writing novels about the social conditions in Ecuador, particularly the oppression suffered by its indigenous people.

[2] The book became a well-known "Indigenist" novel, a movement in Latin American literature that aspired to realism in its depiction of the mistreatment of the indigenous.

His other books include Sierra (1933), En las calles (1936), Cholos (1938), Media vida deslumbrados (1942), Huayrapamushcas (1948), Seis relatos (1952), El chulla Romero y Flores (1958), and Atrapados (1973).

Jorge Icaza and Huasipungo are often compared to John Steinbeck and his Grapes of Wrath from 1939, as both are works of social protest.

Icaza became internationally popular based upon his publications, and was invited to many colleges in the United States to give lectures on the problems of the indigenous people of Ecuador.