Mario Vargas Llosa

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa born 28 March 1936 more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer journalist essayist college professor and a former politician who also holds Spanish citizenship Vargas Llosa is one of Latin Americas 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 In 2010 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individuals resistance revolt and defeat 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 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 19631966 The Green House La casa verde 19651968 and the monumental Conversation in the Cathedral Conversación en la catedral 19691975 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 19731978 and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter 19771982 have been adapted as feature films Many of Vargas Llosas works are influenced by the writers 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 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 identifies as a liberal He ran for the Peruvian presidency in 1990 with the centerright Frente Democrático coalition advocating classical liberal reforms but lost the election to Alberto Fujimori He is the person who in 1990 coined the phrase that circled the globe declaring on Mexican television Mexico is the perfect dictatorship a statement which became an adage during the following decade Vargas Llosa is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders