Mario Vargas Llosa


The Marquess of Vargas Llosa

Mario Vargas Llosa in 2016
Born
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa

(1936-03-28) 28 March 1936 (age 88)
Citizenship
  • Peru (1936–present)[1]
  • Spain (1993–present)[2][3]
  • Dominican Republic (2023–present)[2]
Alma mater
TitleMarqués
Political partyPeople's Liberty (2023–present)
Other political
affiliations
Liberty Movement (1987–1993)
Democratic Front (1988–1990)
Spouses
  • (m. 1955; div. 1964)
  • Patricia Llosa
    (m. 1965; sep. 2015)
Children3, including Álvaro Vargas Llosa
AwardsMiguel de Cervantes Prize
1994
Nobel Prize in Literature
2010
Seat L of the Real Academia Española
Assumed office
15 January 1996[a]
Preceded byJuan Rof Carballo
Seat 18 of the Académie française
Assumed office
9 February 2023[b]
Preceded byMichel Serres
Websitewww.mvargasllosa.com
Signature

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (/ˌvɑːrɡəs ˈjsə/,[4] Spanish: [ˈmaɾjo ˈβaɾɣas ˈʎosa]), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists and one of the leading writers of his generation. Some critics consider him to have had a larger international impact and worldwide audience than any other writer of the Latin American Boom.[5] In 2010, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat."[6] He also won the 1967 Rómulo Gallegos Prize, the 1986 Prince of Asturias Award, the 1994 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1995 Jerusalem Prize, the 2012 Carlos Fuentes International Prize, and the 2018 Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit. In 2021, he was elected to the Académie française.[7]

Vargas Llosa rose to international fame in the 1960s with novels such as The Time of the Hero (La ciudad y los perros, literally The City and the Dogs, 1963/1966),[8] The Green House (La casa verde, 1965/1968), and the monumental Conversation in the Cathedral (Conversación en la catedral, 1969/1975). He writes, prolifically, across an array of literary genres, including literary criticism and journalism. His novels include comedies, murder mysteries, historical novels, and political thrillers. Several, such as Captain Pantoja and the Special Service (1973/1978) and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977/1982), have been adapted as feature films.

Many of Vargas Llosa's works are influenced by the writer's perception of Peruvian society and his own experiences as a native Peruvian. Increasingly, he has expanded his range, and tackled themes that arise from other parts of the world. In his essays, Vargas Llosa has made many criticisms of nationalism in different parts of the world.[9] Another change, over the course of his career, has been a shift from a style and approach associated with literary modernism to a sometimes playful postmodernism.

Like many Latin American writers, Vargas Llosa has been politically active throughout his career. While he initially supported the Cuban revolutionary government of Fidel Castro, Vargas Llosa later became disenchanted with its policies, particularly after the imprisonment of Cuban poet Heberto Padilla in 1971, and now, he identifies as a liberal and holds anti-left wing ideas. He ran for the Peruvian presidency in 1990 with the center-right Frente Democrático coalition, advocating for neoliberal reforms but lost the election to Alberto Fujimori. Since his exit from directly participating in politics in Peru, Vargas Llosa has advocated right-wing activists and candidates internationally.

Vargas Llosa is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.[10]

  1. ^ "¿Por qué Mario Vargas Llosa estuvo a punto de perder la nacionalidad peruana?" (in Spanish). La República. 17 February 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Mario Vargas Llosa aceptó la nacionalidad dominicana: "Es un ejemplo para América Latina"" (in Spanish). Infobae. 1 June 2023.
  3. ^ "The Elder Statesman of Latin American Literature — and a Writer of Our Moment". The New York Times. 20 February 2018. But when Fujimori shut down Congress, Vargas Llosa became his enemy. He asked the international community to cut off aid to Fujimori and noted (correctly) that Latin American militaries often favor coups d'état. In response, Fujimori's head of the armed forces, Nicolás de Bari Hermoza, suggested that Vargas Llosa was deliberately harming Peruvians. Álvaro Vargas Llosa told me that they learned of a plan to strip the entire Vargas Llosa family of its Peruvian citizenship. Mario appealed to Spain, and in 1993 it granted him citizenship. In Peru, this event was widely perceived as the petulant betrayal of a sore loser.
  4. ^ "Vargas Llosa" Archived 31 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  5. ^ Boland & Harvey 1988, p. 7 and Cevallos 1991, p. 272
  6. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010". Nobelprize. 7 October 2010. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  7. ^ "Mario VARGAS LLOSA | Académie française".
  8. ^ The first year given is the original publication date; the second is the year of English publication.
  9. ^ Kordić 2005, pp. 265–268.
  10. ^ "Mario Vargas Llosa | Reporters without borders". RSF. 9 September 2018.


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