Latin America gets a Nobel Prize!

Mario Vargos Llosa is a Peruvian writer who over the years has written about political corruption and military dictatorships in Latin America. The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 was awarded to Mr Llosa ‘for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of his individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat’ according to the Swedish Academy on their website.

Vargos Llosa’s rise to fame came after the release of several novels The Time of the Hero (La ciudad y los perros), The Green House (La Case Verde) and the monumental Conversation in the Cathedral (Conversación en la Catedral). Llosa has covered many different literary genres in his novels including: comedies, murder mysteries, historical novels, and political thrillers.

Llosa has also been politically active throughout his career; over the course of his life, he has made a gradual shift from the political left towards the right. While at first he supported the Cuban revolutionary government of Fidel Castro, Vargas Llosa later became embittered. He ran for the Peruvian presidency in 1990 with the center-right Frente Democrático (FREDEMO) coalition.

At a press conference in New York, Vargos Llosa claimed that he thought the early-morning phone call notifying him of his nobel prize was a prank. He carried on by saying ‘I am very grateful to the Swedish Academy’. ‘It is a realy surprise’. Vargos Llosa said he thought the prize was being given not only to him but to the Spanish Language, ‘a very energetic, creative language,’.

We completely agree! Why not study this energetic, creative language here in Buenos Aires. Get to know the continent that Vargos Llosa is so proud of.