Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa Wins 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature

By Naomi Kresge -

Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature. Photographer: Billy Farrell/PatrickMcMullan.com via Bloomberg

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa. Photographer: Jaques Demarthon/AFP/Getty Images

Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian writer whose work explores the political corruption and military dictatorships of Latin America, won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Vargas Llosa, 74, was chosen “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt and defeat,” the Swedish Academy said today in a statement published on its website.

His literary breakthrough came with the 1963 publication of “The Time of the Hero” (La ciudad y los perros), which drew from his experiences at military school and was burned publicly by officers in Peru’s military, the Academy said. Other novels include “The War of the End of the World,” “The Feast of the Goat,” and “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter.”

Vargas Llosa became more than a commentator on Peruvian politics when he ran for the presidency in 1990 and lost to Alberto Fujimori, an experience he chronicled in his 1993 memoir “A Fish in the Water.” On a recent visit to Caracas for a forum on democracy and property, he said he had been warned by the Venezuelan authorities not to make any political comments.

Reached by telephone in New York, Vargas Llosa told the Internet site of Spain’s El Mundo newspaper that he thought the early-morning phone call notifying him of the prize was a prank.

“I still don’t believe it,” the Madrid-based newspaper quoted him as saying. “For many years my name hasn’t even been mentioned. I thought it was some friend making a joke.”

Vargas Llosa will give a press conference later today at the Cervantes Institute of New York.

Reporting on Soccer

Born in Arequipa, Peru, Vargas Llosa grew up with his mother in Bolivia after his parents divorced. The family later reunited in Peru. He graduated from Colegio Nacional San Miguel in Piura. From there he went on to study literature and law in London and Madrid, taught languages in Paris and worked as a journalist for Agence France Presse and for French television.

As a reporter and a soccer fan, he covered the 1982 World Cup for Peru, according to his U.K. publisher Faber & Faber, in a profile on the company’s website.

“Aunt Julia” (1977) drew from his teenage love affair with his first wife, Julia Urquidi, who was his uncle’s sister- in-law and more than a decade older. “The Green House” (1966), his classic early novel, focuses on a brothel built on the outskirts of a Peruvian town, a world that unites the innocent and the corrupt.

End of the World

“The War of the End of the World” (1981) is a fictional account of a real historical occurrence in 19th-century Brazil. A charismatic figure preaching that the end of the world is near garners support from the poor and dispossessed. They build their own city in Canudos, and set up an alternative state, becoming the target of ever more violent attacks by the authorities.

“His deep commitment to free expression is frequently reflected in the politically charged nature of his books, which have aroused the anger of the right and the left wing alike,” Faber & Faber’s profile says.

Peruvian President Alan Garcia said the award was “a huge act of justice” which he had awaited since his youth.

“Vargas Llosa is an extraordinary creator of language and consistent for the last 50 years as a novelist, prose writer, dramatist,” Garcia said in an interview with Lima-based Radio Programas. “This is a great day for Peru.”

Teaching at Princeton

Vargas Llosa is currently teaching creative writing and a seminar on the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges at Princeton University.

The Peruvian novelist is “without a doubt the most important Latin American author,” Ruben Gallo, the director of the Latin American Studies program and a professor of Spanish- American literature, said by telephone from Princeton.

“He has influenced an entire generation, not only of writers,” said Gallo, who had not yet seen Vargas Llosa to congratulate him. “He’s one of the best storytellers I can think of. They’re not only page-turners, but also offer deep insight into politics and culture in Latin America.”

The last Latin American winner was Octavio Paz of Mexico, awarded the prize in 1990. Last year’s Nobel literature prize went to Romanian-born novelist Herta Mueller, who escaped Nicolae Ceausescu’s police state two years before the Berlin Wall fell and has become one of reunified Germany’s best-known writers. Winners in the last decade have included Turkish author Orhan Pamuk in 2006 and John M. Coetzee of South Africa in 2003.

The 10 million-krona ($1.5 million) Nobel literature prize was created in the will of Alfred Nobel and first awarded in 1901. Nobel, a Swede who invented dynamite, also set up awards for achievements in medicine, physics, chemistry and peace.