Vargas Llosa Wins Nobel Prize

The Nobel organizing committee awarded the coveted literature prize to Mario Vargas Llosa “for his cartography of the structures of power, and his acute reflection of the individual’s resistance, his revolt, his failures.”

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The Nobel organizing committee awarded the coveted literature prize to Mario Vargas Llosa “for his cartography of the structures of power, and his acute reflection of the individual’s resistance, his revolt, his failures.”

The 74 year old has been a landmark of the literary world through his ability to perceive and put on paper the complexities of the Peruvian society.  Next to huge names in literature such as García Márquez, Julio Cortázar and Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa was one of the protagonists of the literary movement known as the “Latin American boom”

“Us Latin Americans are dreamers by nature, and have problems to differentiate the real world from fiction.  This is why we have such great musicians, poets, painters and writers, as well as horrible and mediocre governing,” said the new Nobel.

His entire work has been translated to 30 languages and has been presented with several prestigious awards like the Cervantes award, Principe de Asturias award, Rómulo Gallegos award, National Novel Prize of Perú and many others.

He once had a beautiful friendship with Colombian writer and 1982 Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, but it ended abruptly under confusing circumstances that both men prefer not to discuss. “Let the biographer’s deal with that,” said Vargas Llosa.

“I’m in New York, because I am a guest professor at Princeton University. I was reading, and the committee called me on the phone (…) to give me the news (…) but I’m still bedazzled with the news” Vargas Llosa said to Colombian Radio interviewers. “I’m glad to see how many friends are happy with and for me, for this decoration”

“Writing is a job that requires perseverance and a developed ability to obey and respect a certain self imposed discipline, and I think that’s the key. The reason why I submit with such ease to this self-imposed discipline, is because I don’t feel it is a job, but a pleasure” Vargas llosa says about a “hobby” he’ll keep indulging in “for as long as I live”.