Facts about the writer - Mario Vargas Llosa

1) A very important review

Vargas Llosa put Fonchito and the moon to a definitive test: before publishing it, he read the book to his granddaughter, Aitana, and asked her to retell it. The girl repeated it almost word for word, and so Grandpa considered that the book passed the test.

2) Almost president

The writer was a candidate for president of Peru in 1990. Despite appearing as the favorite in the polls, he was defeated in the second round by Alberto Fujimori. This experience was told in the book The fish in the water.

3) Bibliophile

The Vargas Llosa library, in Arequipa, has already received more than 30,000 books donated by the writer, from its own collection.

4) Immersion in the universe of Canudos

The book A Guerra do Fim do Mundo was inspired by Os sertões, by Euclides da Cunha, and involved in-depth research, in which the writer traveled to the sertão of Bahia and Sergipe: "I wandered through all the villages where, according to the legend, , the Counselor preached," he writes, "and in them I heard the villagers fervently arguing about Canudos, as if the cannons were still thundering in the rebel stronghold and the Apocalypse could happen at any moment in those deserts dotted with leafless trees, full of thorns."

5) About reading

“As a child, I was a voracious reader. I immediately discovered that literature could make a person live great adventures. These readings whet my appetite and it never stopped, I still see reading as the pleasure of pleasures.”

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Short biography of the writer

Mario Vargas Llosa (1936) is a Peruvian writer, journalist, essayist, novelist and literary critic. With the publication of the novel Baptism of Fire (1963), he established himself as one of the most important figures in Spanish-American literature in the 1960s. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010.

Childhood and Training

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa was born in Arequipa, Peru, on March 28, 1936. He spent his childhood in the city of Cochabamba in Bolivia, and in the Peruvian cities of Piura and Lima.

The divorce and subsequent reconciliation of his parents, led him to frequent changes of domicile and school. Between the ages of 14 and 16 he was an intern at the Military Academy of Lima. Shortly after, he entered the University of San Marco in Lima, where he studied Literature. In order to maintain his studies, Vargas Llosa worked as a news editor for a radio station.

Literary career

Between 1956 and 1957, together with Luis Loayza and Abelardo Oquedo, he published the periodical “Cadernos de Compósitos”, and between 1958 and 1959, the “Revista de Literatura”.

With the launch of the periodicals and the publication of the short story collection “Os Chiefs”, Vargas Llosa became known in literary circles.

In 1959, Vargas Llosa moved to Paris, where he began working as a writer for the Frances Press news agency, where he remained until 1966.

Vargas Llosa's consecration took place with the publication of the novel “Batismo de Fogo” (1963), in which he describes the oppressive environment of the military college in Lima, based on his own experience. It was a denunciation of the political reality of Peru, a country that lived under a dictatorship.

Similar themes appear in “A Casa Verde” (1966), which receives the Rómulo Gallegos Prize, and “Conversa de Catedral” (1969), works that contributed to giving the author international recognition. In 1967, Vargas Llosa moved to London where he lived for three years. During this period, he taught at Queen Mary College.

Literary Critic

Among the works of Mario Vargas Llosa as a literary critic, the essays: “Garcia Márquez: historia de un deicídio” (1971) and “La orgia perpétua: Flaubert y Madame Bovary” (1975) stand out.

Liberalism

Mario Vargas Llosa's political ideas underwent profound changes. In his youth, he rejected any dictatorship. In the 1960s, he gave full support to the Cuban Revolution of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, but his stance changed, reaching the definitive break with the government of Fidel Castro.

Over time, Mario Vargas Llosa ended up becoming a firm supporter of liberalism, even without renouncing the social advances achieved by the progressivism of the 1980s, even actively participating in his country's politics.

Driven by the Democratic Front party, whose program combined neoliberalism with the interests of the traditional Peruvian oligarchy, in 1990 Vargas Llosa ran for the presidency of Peru, reached the second round, but lost the election to Alberto Fujimori.

Spanish nationality

Mario Vargas Llosa decides to leave the country, goes to Spain and dedicates himself completely to literature. At that time, he published articles in periodicals such as El País, La Nación, Le Monde, The New York Times and El Nacional. In 1993 he obtained Spanish nationality, and in 1994 he was appointed a member of the Royal Spanish Academy.

In 1993, Mario Vargas Llosa publishes “Peixe na Água”, a memoir in which he brings a double account: his experiences in the 1990 presidential campaign and his childhood until the moment he decided to leave for Europe, to consecrate himself in literature. .

Mario Vargas Llosa Awards

Prince of Asturias of Literature (1986)

Miguel de Cervantes Award (1994)

Nobel Prize in Literature (2010)

Works by Mario Vargas Llosa

The Bosses (1959)

Baptism of Fire (1963)

Conversation in the Cathedral (1969)

Aunt Julia and the Writer (1977)

The Talker (1988)

The Green House (1996)

The Language of Passion (2000)

Heaven on the Other Corner (2003)

Bad Girl Mischief (2006)

Sabers and Utopia (2009)

The Bosses and the Pups (2010)

The Celt's Dream (2010)

Conversation at the Cathedral (2013)

The Discreet Hero (2013)

The Civilization of the Spectacle (2013)

Five Corners (2016)

The Children's Boat (2016)

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Good Reading, Sidney Matias

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