[4] He was co-founder of the Democratic Left Party, being a member of the First National Executive Council, which also comprised Alfredo Buendía, Rodrigo Borja, Fidel Jaramillo Terán, Efrén Cocíos and others.

He joined in with intimate family gatherings by candlelight, presided over by his father telling tales of the past as well as reading out classic novels and short stories.

His childhood was marked by hard events such as the death of loved ones, beatings at school, and the forceful character of his father, who constantly told the boy how he had to make himself a "man", and left him alone on long horserides by night.

Once, passing a nearby church on horseback, he first heard the tolling of a bell, and at his tender age he thought it was a divine manifestation, so he decided to write his first poem.

In 1945 he entered the Central University of Ecuador, in the city of Quito, joining the faculty of International Studies (Diplomacy), in which he was appointed Vice President of the Student Association.

Together with other young rebels of the time, including Abraham Romero Cabrera, he founded the Ecuadorian Nationalist Revolutionary Action movement (ARNE).

Thus in frequenting the "Café Bohemia", a cafeteria located in the heart of the capital city, he had the opportunity to meet and make friends with renowned poets such as Benjamín Carrión and César Dávila Andrade (who was called "The Fakir"), among others.

In 1988 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.

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.