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 America's 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 individual's 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, 1963/1966), The Green House (La casa verde, 1965/1968), and the monumental Conversation in the Cathedral (Conversación en la catedral, 1969/1975). 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 (1973/1978) and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977/1982), have been adapted as feature films.
Many of Vargas Llosa's works are influenced by the writer's 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 center-right 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.
| Known For | Writing |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 1.5529 |
| Birthday | 1936-03-28 |
| Place of Birth | Arequipa, Peru |
| Also Known As |
2021
The Emma Bovary Trial
6.6/5
On January 31, 1857, the French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821-80) took his place in the dock for contempt of public morality and religion. The accused...
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The Emma Bovary Trial
2023
La última lidia
2/1
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La última lidia
2023
The Padilla Affair
7/2
Havana, spring 1971: The poet Heberto Padilla has just been set free and appears before the Cuban Writers' Union where he pronounces a statement of "h...
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The Padilla Affair
2019
A Philosopher in the Arena
2/1
After his retirement, french philosopher and bullfighting enthusiast Francis Wolff decides to embark on a journey to France, Spain and Mexico joined b...
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A Philosopher in the Arena
2019
El Quijote desde la platea
4.5/2
How Don Quixote de la Mancha, the immortal character created by Miguel de Cervantes in 1605, has been depicted in cinema, television, cartoons, theate...
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El Quijote desde la platea
2019
Mario y los perros
7/1
An account of the childhood and youth of the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010, and how the hard experiences he l...
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Mario y los perros
2020
Letters to Eloisa
0/0
The story of José Lezama Lima and his rise as a literary figure in Cuba and his tragic end, alone and silenced in his Havana home.
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Letters to Eloisa
2018
El corazón del Teatro Real
8/3
Documentary about an emblematic institution of the Spanish Arts, Madrid's Teatro Real, or Royal Theatre, released to celebrate it's 2nd centenary anni...
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El corazón del Teatro Real
1981
Las alturas de Macchu Picchu
8/2
The historical musical made in the Inca citadel in 1981 with texts by Pablo Neruda and music of The Jaivas. Special Guest: Mario Vargas Llosa in the p...
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Las alturas de Macchu Picchu
1986
Sepa: Our Lord of Miracles
6/1
This 1987 documentary is the only window into an experimental open-air penal colony in the Peruvian Amazon, which no camera has ever entered and has b...
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Sepa: Our Lord of Miracles
1999
Che: muerte de la utopia?
7/1
What does Che Guevara"s mythic presence represent to people at the turn of the century, and how do people define their concept of utopia?
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Che: muerte de la utopia?
2025
Mario Vargas Llosa: la vida está hecha para traicionarse
0/0
Metadocumentary by cinesmero
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Mario Vargas Llosa: la vida está hecha para traicionarse
1999
Detrás de las Cámaras - Los Jaivas: Alturas de Macchu Picchu
0/0
A valuable archival document showing how the musical "Las Alturas de Macchu Picchu" was made in 1981.
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Detrás de las Cámaras - Los Jaivas: Alturas de Macchu Picchu
2019
Beruf: Königin! Letitzia von Spanien
0/0
The Spanish public knew the award-winning journalist as the anchor of their main newscast. Her meteoric rise in the media ended with her wedding, afte...
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