Paulo Rangel, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, reacted on Monday to the passing of Mario Vargas Llosa, describing it as a “sad day for literature.”
“It was with him that I delved into the magical euphoria of Hispanic-American letters, alongside Paz and Márquez. Later, the dazzling lucid irony of his civic engagement. Mario—a name that could only be Roman,” the minister wrote on the social network X.
The Peruvian-Spanish novelist at the age of 89 at his home in Lima, where he had been residing since 2022.
The news was announced by his children, also through social media.
“With deep sorrow, we announce that our father, Mario Vargas Llosa, passed away today in Lima, surrounded by his family and in peace,” wrote his son, Álvaro Vargas Llosa.
Sad day for literature, the day Mario Vargas Llosa dies. It was with him that I delved into the magical euphoria of Hispanic-American letters, alongside Paz and Márquez. Later, the dazzling lucid irony of his civic engagement. Mario—a name that could only be Roman.
— Paulo Rangel (@PauloRangel_pt) April 14, 2025
Born in Arequipa on March 28, 1936, Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa was also a politician, journalist, essayist, and university professor.
Vargas Llosa was one of the leading writers of his generation, with some critics suggesting that he had an international impact and audience like no other from the Latin American ‘boom’.
He began his political involvement early, initially supporting Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution, later advocating for more conservative, capitalist, liberal democracy. He even ran for the presidency of Peru in 1990 for a center-right coalition, against Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000).
The jury of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature justified the choice of Vargas Llosa for his writing, which maps the “structures of power,” and for his work that reveals “telling images of individual resistance, revolt, and failure.”
