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Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mario Vargas Llosa: The novelist who lectured Latin America
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Fact and fiction circled each other in the works of Mario Vargas Llosa. Through realism, erotica, and even crude slang, the Peruvian novelist wove tales of political corruption and moral compromise. As part of the Latin American literary boom of the 1960s—alongside Colombia's Gabriel García Márquez and Argentina's Julio Cortázar—he reached international fame, winning the Nobel Prize in literature in 2010. But unlike most other regional giants, he never embraced leftist politics. While his fictional works appeared to support revolution and speaking truth to power, his expository essays tended toward conservatism. He even unsuccessfully ran for president of Peru in 1990 as a right-winger, proposing to privatize state enterprises and lay off public-sector workers. "If you're a writer in a country like Peru or Mexico, you're a privileged person because you know how to read and write," he said. "It is a moral obligation of a writer in Latin America to be involved in civic activities." Born in Peru, Vargas Llosa grew up in Bolivia, where his mother told him his father was dead. In fact, his parents had divorced before his birth; they reunited when he was 10 and soon packed him off to military school in Lima. He retaliated by writing a novel, 1963's The Time of the Hero, a scathing account of life in a military academy that portrayed officers as abusive and corrupt. Scandalized generals denounced the book, which only turned it into a sensation. At 19, Vargas Llosa eloped with his uncle's 29-year-old sister-in-law, inspiring his novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. "His distaste for the norms of polite society in Peru gave him abundant inspiration," said The New York Times, but he refused to live there. Instead, he spent decades in Europe, feted as an international literary star. "His fame and swelling ambition fueled his run for president," said The Washington Post. But he came across as an elitist and failed to win over Peru's largely impoverished indigenous electorate. Chastened, he returned to Europe and became a columnist for Spain's El País, espousing his love of free markets to a global readership. "His combative defense of this position earned him enemies" among Latin America's left, said The Guardian. Yet he maintained his dedication to his craft. Writing "is a way of living with illusion and joy and a fire throwing out sparks in your head," he said. "This is an experience that continues to bewitch me as it did the first time."
Morocco World
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Morocco World
Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Laureate and Chronicler of Latin America, Dies at 89
Rabat – Mario Vargas Llosa, one of Latin America's most celebrated writers and a Nobel laureate, died on Sunday in Lima at the age of 89. His son, Alvaro Vargas Llosa, shared that his father passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by family. For more than half a century, Vargas Llosa shaped global literature with his sharp intellect and fluid prose. He stood at the forefront of the Latin American literary boom, not just as a novelist but as a public thinker unafraid to take political stands. In 2010, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for a body of work that includes Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter , The War of the End of the World , and Death in the Andes . But long before the international acclaim, he built his career on stories that questioned power and identity, often digging into Latin America's most turbulent moments. His voice rang loud in books, essays, and newspapers. In Peru, where he was born in 1936, he lived through dictatorship, revolution, and economic collapse. In 1990, he stepped into politics, launching a campaign for the presidency during a time of crisis. His run ended in defeat against Alberto Fujimori, a little-known academic who would later face prison for corruption and human rights abuses. After the loss, Vargas Llosa moved to Spain but kept close ties to Latin America. He became a fierce critic of authoritarian governments, especially those led by the new generation of leftist leaders. Despite his political involvement, he insisted that literature remained his true home. Read also: François Ozon Sets His Film Adaptation of Camus's The Stranger in Morocco His fiction often drew on personal history. The Time of the Hero , his first novel, drew from his experience at a Peruvian military academy. In A Fish in the Water, he recounted his childhood and political ambitions with striking honesty. His work earned admiration for its formal boldness. He shifted points of view, jumped across time, and gave voice to characters caught in the machinery of politics, faith, and revolution. Not all his stories came from political history. The Bad Girl , published in 2006, told the story of a long, obsessive romance, and many saw it as a late-career high point. Vargas Llosa never separated literature from life. His relationship with Gabriel García Márquez, once warm, ended in a public falling out in 1976. They never reconciled. Over time, Vargas Llosa's shift away from revolutionary ideals placed him at odds with many of his contemporaries. His break with Fidel Castro in the 1970s marked a turning point, politically and personally. He described himself not as a politician but as a writer who had once stepped into politics out of necessity. Yet his views continued to stir debate long after he left the campaign trail. His personal life also made headlines. At 19, he married Julia Urquidi, a woman ten years older and the former wife of his uncle. Their unusual story inspired Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter . Years later, he married his cousin Patricia, with whom he had three children. That marriage ended in 2015 after he began a relationship with Spanish socialite Isabel Preysler, which later dissolved in 2022. Peru's President Dina Boluarte called him 'the most illustrious Peruvian of all time.' That sentiment echoes far beyond Peru. For many readers across the world, Vargas Llosa's novels served as a mirror to power, violence, and human contradiction. He leaves behind pages filled with struggle, complexity, and beauty, a legacy that belongs not only to Peru, but to literature itself. Tags: BooksLiteratureMario Vargas LlosaNobel LaureatePeruvian literature
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Mario Vargas Llosa obituary
Many Latin American writers have been tempted to take on a public role, but few have pursued this ambition as far as the Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, who in 1990 came close to being elected his country's president. Vargas Llosa, who has died aged 89, owed the possibility of high office almost entirely to his novels, which put him at the forefront of world writers for more than 50 years. His early works, such as The Green House (1966) or Conversation in the Cathedral (1969), firmly established him as one of the leading authors of what came to be known as the 'magical realism' school of writers, although in his case this was often more a question of novelistic technique than of any magical view of his country's history. He also developed a comic vein most evident in Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977) that also set him apart from other writers of the so-called 'boom' in Latin American fiction. Vargas Llosa said that the urge to write came from the unusual circumstances surrounding his childhood. Born in the southern Peruvian city of Arequipa, he was sent by his grandfather, with his mother, Dora Llosa, brothers and sisters, to live in neighbouring Bolivia when his father, Ernesto Vargas, abandoned the family. The young Mario grew up believing his father was dead. When he was 10 his mother presented him to a complete stranger, and told him this was his father. Ernesto rejoined the family, and they lived together in the Peruvian capital, Lima. Recalling this difficult relationship in his autobiography A Fish in the Water (1993), Vargas Llosa spoke of the 'social inferiority' his father felt towards his mother, and calls it 'the national disease … the one that infests every stratum and every family in the country and leaves them all with a bad aftertaste of hatred, poisoning the lives of Peruvians in the form of resentment and social complexes'. The rancorous complexities of Peruvian life were brought home still more forcefully to the adolescent Mario when at the age of 14 he was sent to a military academy. He hated the harsh discipline, but it enabled him to meet people from different backgrounds and regions. The experience formed the subject matter of his first novel, The Time of the Hero (1963), and informed several of his later works. Vargas Llosa was well aware by now that it was literary rather than military glory that he was destined for. By the age of 16, he was working as a crime reporter on a daily newspaper, and at 19 he eloped with his much older aunt by marriage, Julia Urquidi, whom he married in 1955. Once again, he turned this to good literary effect in Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, about a radio soap opera hack who finds it increasingly difficult to separate reality from his fictional creations. This was the only one of Vargas Lllosa's books to attract Hollywood's attention. William Boyd, the writer of the screenplay for the 1990 film (released in the US as Tune in Tomorrow), described the original as 'almost Swiftian, with a quality of fantasy that sees the world as lurid and absurd'. After graduating from the National University of San Marcos, Lima, in 1958, Vargas Llosa was living in Europe, either in Barcelona, London or Paris. At that time, the French capital was thronged with young Latin American writers – including Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar and Carlos Fuentes – and it was the French publishing houses who first created the boom in Latin American literature. The young Peruvian novelist was warmly welcomed as a member of this literary club. Vargas Llosa's novels of this period are closer to the realist tradition of the novel than to 'magical realism', providing as they do incisive descriptions of many levels of Peruvian society. The magic consisted in the novelist's skill of combining different narratives and voices without explicit connections, offering a rich complexity and suggesting a huge literary appetite. These early novels contained a sweeping criticism of the state of Peruvian and, more widely, Latin American society. The younger generation of writers took the political dimension of their work extremely seriously, and it was understood that they shared a leftwing viewpoint. Mario soon came to be seen as the odd man out. As so often, it was Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba that was the flashpoint. When Libre, a pan-Latin American magazine was launched in Paris, it was not long before Vargas Llosa, García Márquez and others quarrelled over whether to support Castro. Vargas Llosa consistently adopted a liberal attitude, and never accepted that any difference should be made between developing countries and Europe, the US or other representative democracies. His combative defence of this position earned him enemies among the left in Peru and the rest of Latin America, where it has often been argued that writers ought to be on the side of the majority of poor and downtrodden, providing them with a voice they are denied. Through the next decades, Vargas Llosa continued to publish novels that won him success and critical attention throughout the world. Some, like The Storyteller (1987) or Death in the Andes (1993), suggest he was attempting a Peruvian version of Balzac's multi-volume collection La Comédie Humaine, trying to encompass the whole of Peruvian society in his works. But, as he made plain in the critical work The Perpetual Orgy (1975), his personal preference was for another French master, Gustave Flaubert, for his modern spirit, his sense of irony and his intense preoccupation with language and style. Vargas Llosa's international reputation led the Peruvian government to involve him directly in political matters in his home country. In 1983 he was asked to help investigate the killing of eight journalists in the remote Andean village of Uchuraccay. This occurred at the height of the struggle between Shining Path guerrillas and the Peruvian armed forces, and Vargas Llosa once again infuriated the left in Peru and elsewhere when he agreed with the official version that the villagers had mistaken the journalists for guerrilla fighters and killed them, rather than insisting that the blame lay with the security forces. His move to rightwing liberalism also came from his voracious reading. It was French historians such as Fernand Braudel who convinced him that the development of markets and the possibility of trading in the Middle Ages was fundamental to human nature. He found further confirmation of his political philosophy in the careers of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, whom he fervently admired. Once more, Vargas Llosa translated these beliefs into action in his native Peru. When in 1986 the leftwing populist government under Alan García declared its intention to default on the country's foreign debt and to nationalise the banks, Vargas Llosa began a protest campaign in the name of individual freedom. It was this campaign that fed his presidential aspirations. In 1989, he presented himself as candidate for a variety of rightwing and centrist parties, campaigning on a conservative free-market ticket. He brought in campaign managers from Britain and set about using his writing and speaking skills to win over the Peruvian electorate. Unfortunately, it was plain from attending his political rallies that, although he might imaginatively understand the situation of hugely different sectors of Peruvian society, he did not have much idea of how to speak to them directly. Despite this uneasiness, he won most votes in the first round of the presidential election and was confident of winning the second round against an unknown Peruvian-Japanese agronomist, Alberto Fujimori. In the weeks between the two rounds of voting, however, Fujimori gained increasing support from poor Peruvians who saw in the light-skinned, cosmopolitan Vargas Llosa exactly the same kind of ruler who had been making unkept promises to them for several hundred years. Eventually, it came as little surprise that it was Fujimori who won. Vargas Llosa quit politics, unable at first to believe that he had been rejected in this way. His bitterness surfaced in Death in the Andes (1993), in which he portrays Peru's Andean society as so backward that it is capable of cannibalism. Around the same period, he withdrew to a more intimate fictional world, exploring the possibilities of eroticism in In Praise of the Stepmother (1988) and The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto (1997). Although no longer directly involved in politics, Vargas Llosa used his journalistic skills to lambast the Fujimori regime, especially following the 'auto-coup' the president engineered in 1992. Vargas Llosa complained that by way of reprisal, the authorities demolished his Lima home. This led him to renounce his Peruvian citizenship, and in 1993 he took Spanish nationality. The Feast of the Goat (2000) is his outstanding contribution to a long tradition of Latin American novels examining the abuses of power by dictators in the region. It deals with the Dominican Republic's dictator Rafael Trujillo, and the moral, sexual and political corruption implied by authoritarian rule. 'I wanted a realist treatment of a human being who became a monster because of the power he accumulated and the lack of resistance and criticism … Converted into a god, you become a devil,' Vargas Llosa commented of what many saw as his finest book. He continued to explore subjects outside Latin America that were nevertheless linked to Peru. The Way to Paradise (2003) concerned not only Paul Gauguin in Tahiti, but also the artist's grandmother, Flora Tristan, an early revolutionary feminist in Peru. His 2010 novel The Dream of the Celt is a fictional account of the life and death of Roger Casement, whose views on slavery and colonialism were radicalised by his experiences during the time he spent living in the Peruvian Amazon. In that same year, Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel prize for literature. His acceptance speech was a passionate defence of fiction and reading, insisting that 'without fiction we would be less conscious of the importance of the freedom that makes life liveable, and the hell it becomes when it is constrained by a tyrant, ideology or religion'. He had previously (in 1994) been the recipient of the Cervantes prize, the highest honour for writers in the Spanish-speaking world. In 2011, his friendship with the Spanish king Juan Carlos resulted in his being given the title of Marquis of Vargas Llosa. He and Urquidi divorced in 1964, and the following year he married his cousin Patricia Llosa. In 2015 he separated from her, and publicly announced his relationship with the socialite Isabel Preysler, much to the delight of the gossip magazines. The Neighbourhood (2018) is a steamy tale of the Peruvian jetset featuring blackmail by such a magazine. Their relationship ended in 2023, Vargas Llosa saying he wanted to devote more time to literature. His novel Tiempos Recios (2019) was his last to be published in English, as Harsh Times (2022). It examines a historical event, in this case the CIA-backed coup against the Guatemalan government in 1954, through a fictional account. In addition to novels, Vargas Llosa wrote extensively for the theatre, and acted in several of his own plays. He once told me in an interview, when asked what he thought would make a suitable epigraph for him: 'He lived life to the full, and loved literature above all else.' He is survived by a daughter, Morgana, and two sons, Álvaro and Gonzalo, from his second marriage. Mario Vargas Llosa, writer, born 28 March 1936; died 13 April 2025
USA Today
14-04-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian novelist and Nobel Prize winner, dies at 89
Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian novelist and Nobel Prize winner, dies at 89 Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who enchanted readers with his intellectual rigor and lyrical prose for five decades and came close to being president of his country, died Sunday at 89. He died in Lima, Peru, surrounded by his family and "at peace," his son Alvaro Vargas Llosa, a well-known political commentator, said on X. "His departure will sadden his relatives, his friends and his readers around the world, but we hope that they will find comfort, as we do, in the fact that he enjoyed a long, adventurous and fruitful life, and leaves behind him a body of work that will outlive him," his son wrote in a statement. A leading light in the 20th-century Latin American literature boom, Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2010 for works like "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter," "Death in the Andes," and "The War of the End of the World." More: Award-winning author becomes a Barbie: How Isabel Allende landed 'in very good company' But early on he abandoned the socialist ideas embraced by many of his peers, and his dabbling in politics and conservative views annoyed much of Latin America's leftist intellectual class. In 1990, he ran for president of Peru, saying he wanted to save his country from economic chaos and a Marxist insurgency. He lost in the run-off to Alberto Fujimori, a then-unknown agronomist and university professor who defeated the insurgents but was later jailed for human rights crimes and corruption. Frustrated by his loss, the writer moved to Spain but remained influential in Latin America, where he harshly criticized a new wave of strident leftist leaders led by then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. INTERVIEW: Maria Shriver on what scares her. It's not son Patrick Schwarzenegger on 'The White Lotus.' In his dozens of novels, plays and essays, Vargas Llosa told stories from various viewpoints and experimented with form, moving back and forth in time and switching narrators. His work crossed genres and established him as a foundational figure in a generation of writers that led a resurgence in Latin American literature in the 1960s. His books often examined the unnerving relationships between leaders and their subjects. "The Feast of the Goat" (2000) details the brutal regime of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo, while "The War of the End of the World" (1981) tells the true story of a fanatical preacher whose flock dies in a deadly war with Brazil's army in the 1890s. Born to middle-class parents in Arequipa, Peru, on March 28, 1936, Vargas Llosa lived in Bolivia and the Peruvian capital Lima. He later made a home in Madrid, but retained influence in Peru, where he wrote for newspapers about current events. Vargas Llosa frequently drew from personal experience and his family, at times inserting characters based on his own life into his tales. Age-concealing makeup, reflective tape: Book reveals 'effort to cover' Biden's health decline His acclaimed debut novel, "The Time of the Hero" (1963), was loosely based on his teenage life as a cadet at a military academy in Lima, while his 1993 memoir, "A Fish in the Water," focused on his 1990 presidential run. Other works expressed deep concern for his country. "The Storyteller" (1987) deals with the clash of Indigenous and European cultures in Peru, while "Death in the Andes" (1993) recounts the haunting years of the Shining Path guerrilla movement. "An author's work is fed by his own experience and, over the years, becomes richer," Vargas Llosa told Reuters in an interview in Madrid in 2001. As his range of experiences grew, so did his writing. Vargas Llosa continuously experimented with perspective and his subjects. "The Bad Girl" (2006) was his first try at a love story and was widely praised as one of his best. More: Tom Hanks' daughter talks mother's alleged abuse, parents' divorce in upcoming memoir In the 1970s, Vargas Llosa, a one-time supporter of the Cuban revolution, denounced Fidel Castro, maddening many of his leftist literary colleagues like Colombian writer and fellow Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. In 1976, the two had a famous argument, throwing punches outside a theater in Mexico City. A friend of Garcia Marquez said Vargas Llosa was upset that the Colombian had consoled his wife during an estrangement but Vargas Llosa refused to discuss it. Vargas Llosa became a staunch supporter of free markets mixed with libertarian ideals. Despite being outspoken on political issues, Vargas Llosa said he was a reluctant politician when he ran for president of Peru. More: Critics slam posthumous Gabriel García Márquez book published by sons against his wishes "In reality, I never had a political career," Vargas Llosa once said. "I took part in politics under very special circumstances... and I always said that whether I won or lost the elections, I was going back to my literary, intellectual job, not politics." His personal life was worthy of a novel itself − and indeed, "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" (1977) was loosely based on the story of his first marriage at the age of 19 to Julia Urquidi, 10 years his senior and the former wife of his mother's brother. His second wife was his first cousin Patricia, but he left her in 2015 after 50 years for the charms of Isabel Preysler, the mother of singer Enrique Iglesias. That relationship ended in 2022. He had three children, including Alvaro, with Patricia. On Sunday, his son concluded a statement on social media, writing: "We will proceed in the coming hours and days in accordance with his instructions. No public ceremony will take place. Our mother, our children and ourselves trust that we will have the space and privacy to bid him farewell in the company of family members and close friends. As was his will, his remains will be cremated." Contributing: Reuters staff; Additional reporting by Diego Ore
