The Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who passed away today in Lima at the age of 89, once expressed his desire to be remembered for his writing and work, despite his political and social engagement reflected in his literature.
Born in Arequipa on March 28, 1936, Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, was also a politician, journalist, essayist, and university professor.
Vargas Llosa is a distinguished figure in Latin American literature and established himself as a leading writer of his generation, with some critics suggesting he achieved global impact and audience like no other in the Latin American literary boom.
A Writer Also Known for Politics
Vargas Llosa’s renown was not limited to literature. Early in his life, he ventured into politics, initially supporting Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution, later becoming an advocate for more conservative, capitalist liberal democracy. He even ran for the presidency of Peru in 1990 on a center-right coalition against Alberto Fujimori.
Politics is a recurring theme in his work, serving as a critique of social and racial hierarchies. In his Nobel acceptance speech, Vargas Llosa acknowledged the challenge for a Latin American writer to steer clear of politics, given the broader societal, civic, and moral issues at play, noting that Latin American literature is often imbued with political and moral concerns.
“I am essentially a writer, and I would like to be remembered—if I am remembered—for my writing and my work. When I write literature, I find political ideas to be secondary. Literature encompasses a broader horizon of human experience,” he stated.
The Nobel committee recognized Vargas Llosa for his ability to “map the structures of power,” with his body of work providing “stinging images of individual resistance, rebellion, and failure.”
The main theme of his books revolves around the struggle for individual freedom in the oppressive context of Peru.
A Master Across Literary Genres
Mario Vargas Llosa began his literary journey under the influence of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism and achieved fame with his second novel, ‘The Time of the Hero,’ published in 1963. This was followed by other successes like ‘The Green House’ (1966), the monumental ‘Conversation in the Cathedral’ (1969), ‘Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter’ (1977), and ‘The Feast of the Goat’ (2000).
‘The Green House,’ one of his autobiographical works, reveals influences from William Faulkner, narrating the lives of characters surrounding a brothel, known as The Green House.
‘Conversation in the Cathedral,’ originally published in four volumes, explores phases of Peruvian society under Odría’s dictatorship in 1950, through the interaction between a minister’s son and a driver in a bar named ‘La Catedral.’ This novel is constructed with a sophisticated narrative technique that alternates dialogue with past scenes, almost without transitions.
In 1981, he published ‘The War of the End of the World,’ about the War of Canudos, dedicated to Brazilian writer Euclides da Cunha, author of ‘Rebellion in the Backlands.’
He soon displayed a stylistic versatility that enabled him to write in various literary genres.
Beyond novels, including comedy, mystery, history, and political themes, Vargas Llosa also wrote plays, essays, memoirs, literary criticism, and worked as a journalist, contributing to newspapers like Spain’s El País, Brazil’s O Estadão, and Agence France-Presse.
Several of his literary works have been adapted for the cinema, such as ‘Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter,’ ‘Captain Pantoja and the Special Service,’ and ‘The Feast of the Goat.’
The son of parents who separated after five months, Mario Vargas Llosa spent his early childhood in Bolivia, away from his father, whom he met at the age of 10.
It was only when his grandfather obtained a political position in Piura, northern Peru, that his mother decided to return to live with him in the country.
At 14, he enrolled in a military school in La Perla, an experience that inspired the novel ‘The Time of the Hero.’
At 17, he entered university in Lima, studying Literature and Law, and two years later married Julia Urquidi, the sister of his maternal uncle’s wife.
Thanks to a scholarship, he studied in Spain, obtaining a doctorate in Philosophy and Letters from the Complutense University of Madrid, and subsequently moved to France, where he lived for several years.
In 1964, he divorced and remarried, this time to a cousin, Patricia Llosa, who became the mother of his three children.
Political Criticism, the Panama Papers, and the Confrontation with Márquez
His shift from socialism to the center-right wing attracted some criticism and controversy, but Vargas Llosa consistently advocated against authoritarian currents.
At the time of receiving the Swedish Academy’s prize, he cited as an example of his “democratic credentials” his opposition to both left-wing dictatorships, such as Cuba’s, and right-wing dictatorships, such as Chile’s under Augusto Pinochet.
In 2021, his name surfaced in the Panama Papers, in which journalistic investigations suggested he had created a company in a tax haven.
His rift with writer Gabriel García Márquez, which resulted in a physical altercation in 1976, is also intertwined with his political journey.
Nonetheless, Vargas Llosa never questioned the value of the Colombian Nobel laureate’s work, eventually publishing his doctoral thesis, ‘García Márquez: Story of a Deicide,’ a tribute to ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude,’ its author, and a declaration of love for literature.
“Writing novels is an act of rebellion against reality, against God, against God’s creation, which is reality. It is an attempt to correct, change, or abolish the real reality by substituting it with the fictional reality created by the novelist,” Vargas Llosa states in the work.
Besides the Nobel Prize for Literature, throughout his literary career, Mario Vargas Llosa received numerous other awards, including the Rómulo Gallegos Prize (1967), Princess of Asturias Award (1986), Planeta Prize (1993), Miguel de Cervantes Prize (1994), Jerusalem Prize (1995), National Book Critics Circle Award (1997), PEN/Nabokov Award (2002), and Cino del Duca World Prize (2008).
He was awarded several honorary doctorates from universities in Europe, America, and Asia.
He was also a member of the Peruvian Academy of Language since 1977, the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) since 1994, and joined the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 2014.
In 2023, he entered the French Academy, becoming the first Spanish-language writer to join the institution without having written anything in French.
This was also an exception regarding age, as the centuries-old institution tasked with guarding the French language usually accepts members under 75 years old.
‘I Dedicate My Silence’: The Final Years
After spending many years in Europe, Vargas Llosa settled in Madrid in the early 2000s, where he was in a relationship with Isabel Preysler. In 2011, the King granted him the noble title of marquis for his “extraordinary contribution (…) universally appreciated to literature and the Spanish language.”
Vargas Llosa held Spanish citizenship since 1993 without renouncing his Peruvian citizenship. That year, he published ‘A Fish in the Water,’ combining his experience of the 1990 presidential campaign and his defeat with childhood memories, the choice of residence in Europe, and a return to full-time literature.
In April 2022, he was hospitalized in Madrid with COVID-19, which he contracted again in July 2023.
In 2024, after returning to his homeland, he published his final novel, ‘I Dedicate My Silence.’
The novel uses traditional music as its central theme, acting as a unifying element in society, with the plot set in 1990s Peru, under the threat of the communist-inspired guerrilla movement Sendero Luminoso. Music becomes a bond of unity, with the protagonist traveling the country on a journey of discovery intertwined with the story of Creole music.
“If this novel is Vargas Llosa’s swan song, it is hard to imagine a more fitting one,” wrote the British newspaper Times Literary Supplement.
In Portugal, Vargas Llosa’s work is published by Quetzal, which has released titles such as ‘I Dedicate My Silence,’ ‘García Márquez: Story of a Deicide,’ ‘Conversations at Princeton,’ ‘Hard Times,’ ‘The Call of the Tribe,’ ‘The Civilization of Show,’ ‘Five Corners,’ ‘The Discreet Hero,’ ‘The Dream of the Celt.’
Over the years, Llosa’s books have been published in Portugal by other publishers like Publicações Dom Quixote, part of Grupo Leya, which introduced works such as ‘Conversation in the Cathedral,’ ‘Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter,’ ‘The Bad Girl,’ ‘The Pests’ Tales,’ ‘The Feast of the Goat,’ ‘The War of the End of the World,’ ‘The Storyteller,’ ‘Who Killed Palomino Molero?’ and ‘The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta’—not to forget ‘Two Solitudes,’ documenting the dialogue between García Márquez and Vargas Llosa about Latin American literature, which took place in Lima in 1967, featuring testimonies, interviews, and an essay by the Peruvian writer on the Colombian author.
Vargas Llosa’s presence in the Portuguese literary market also included publishers like Publicações Europa-América (‘The Time of the Hero’) and Quasi (‘Diary of Iraq,’ ‘Israel Palestine’). ‘The Children’s Ship,’ for younger readers, was published by Presença, with translation by poet Vasco Gato.
