After Carrera's diplomatic career ended in 1969, he was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor at Stony Brook University on Long Island, where he lectured for two academic years. He spent his last years in his native city of Quito, as Director of the National Library of Ecuador. During his life and after his death he has been recognized with Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz and Cesar Vallejo as one of the most important Latin American poets of the twentieth century.