The death of Mario Vargas Llosa brings an end to a movement that put Latin American authors on the map

Last weekend, we lost a writer that the New York times called “the world’s savviest and most accomplished political novelist.” It’s hard to believe that a writer so associated with a time and place–20th Century Peru–would have made it so deep into the 21st. But the man was nothing, if not contrarian.

That was one of the ‘suspected’ reasons for a long delay in awarding him the Nobel prize in literature–in his 74th year. Vargas Llosa migrated in the 1960s from Latin American to Spain and became part of the “Boom”–young Spanish language writers like Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel Garcia Marquez who were writing about their home countries for a world-wide audience.

But Vargas Llosa took more risks than many of his peers, and that got him into a bit of trouble.

Reason Magazine had this to say: “Across his long career, Vargas Llosa would attempt to put fiction back in its place by chronicling dreamers and dictators, revolutionaries and reactionaries, and their disastrous attempts to rule the real world according to their fantasies.“

It’s hard to even explain how ‘present’ Vargas Llosa was in discussions of popular culture over the decades. Unlike some other authors, who publish a work, and then obscure and deflect about their opinions on current events and the world, Vargas Llosa maintained a regular column in Spanish newspaper El Pais starting in 1990 and lasting until 2023. Not only that, those columns were often collected into books, and translated into English. This meant you could walk into a bookstore and walk out with the opinions of the man tucked under your arm.

And he had some interesting observations.

Mostly though, he continued his his rejection of the ‘communist’ leanings of many of his peers, seeing the value in capitalism. This put him on the naughty list with many. Yet, his clear, analytical prose dissected many of the regions problems. And he was eager to influence the direction of public discourse.

That was the another important aspect of Vargas Llosa’s writings. He not only understood the context of his work in his own country, but could accurately do the same for great writers all over the region. This allowed access to many novels and stories of Latin American to the world audience. Not stopping there, Vargas Llosa even set one of his most challenging books, The World at the End of the World, in neighboring Brazil. Based on the true story of the War of Canudos, it’s something we’ll come back to here on the blog, shortly.

Which is the final thing I’ll say. This blog is about to make a pivot into a more methodical format. I’ll be addressing storytelling and the worldbuilding of authors, with some important questions in mind. Check back here soon for my take latest take on a great novel.