Mario Vargas Llosa

Who is Mario Vargas Llosa?

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa was born in Arequipa, Peru, in 1936 and became one of the most influential Latin American writers of the twentieth century, a leading figure of the literary movement known as the Latin American Boom. He rose to prominence with his debut novel 'La ciudad y los perros' (The Time of the Hero, 1963), drawn from his experience at the Leoncio Prado Military Academy in Lima. His major works include 'La casa verde' (The Green House, 1966), 'Conversación en La Catedral' (Conversation in the Cathedral, 1969), 'La tía Julia y el escribidor' (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, 1977) and 'La fiesta del Chivo' (The Feast of the Goat, 2000). Beyond fiction he was a prominent essayist and public intellectual who ran unsuccessfully for the Peruvian presidency in 1990. In 2010 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in Lima in 2025.

Sources: Mario Vargas Llosa, 'La ciudad y los perros' (1963) · Mario Vargas Llosa, 'Conversación en La Catedral' (1969) · The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 (nobelprize.org)