Remembering Peruvian Writer Mario Vargas Llosa

Americas Society is saddened to learn of the passing of Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa.

"Nearly 40 years ago, Americas Society awarded Vargas Llosa with the Gold Medal and, over the decades, we had the honor of hosting him on numerous occasions," said President and CEO Susan Segal. "We will always remember him, not only as a prominent and influential writer, but as a great collaborator and an esteemed friend."

The writer's extraordinary career involved a long history with our institution, specifically with Americas Society's Department of Literature, which closed in 2015, and Americas Society's literary magazine, Review. Vargas Llosa was also a distinguished member of the Americas Society Literature Advisory Board. In 1969, Vargas Llosa participated in a series at Americas Society on the role of the artist. 

Five years later, he was awarded Americas Society's Gold Medal. In 1999 at Americas Society, Vargas Llosa discussed one of his best-known novels, La Fiesta del Chivo (2000), before its publication, as part of an symposium entitled, "The Boom and Beyond."

Three years later, he gave a lecture at Americas Society titled "Literature and Life" to inaugurate the David Rockefeller New Initiatives Endowment. In March 2010, the year he won the Nobel Prize of Literature, he participated in an event at Americas Society to conclude a CUNY symposium entitled "Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and his Royal Commentaries: A Reading for the 21 Century." On that occasion, he was interviewed by Dr. Raquel Chang-Rodríguez, a distinguished professor of Hispanic literature and culture at the university.

In 2011, Mexican novelist Carmen Boullosa interviewed Vargas Llosa at Americas Society. In November 2012, he came back to our organization to promote his novel The Dream of the Celt, published that summer in English. Edith Grossman, who translated the novel, as well as many of his previous books, led a public conversation with him about the novel, his career, and his literary influences.

A year later, Vargas Llosa was at Americas Society once more for a conversation on his books with scholar John King, professor of Latin American Cultural History at the University of Warwick, UK and translator of Vargas Llosa's book La civilización del espectáculo. The conversation was part of a special event for the launch of Review 87, an issue of the magazine Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas. The issue was dedicated to the analysis of Vargas Llosa’s work and its influence on the newest generation of writers from Peru and other Andean region countries.