Diccionario del Amante de América Latina

by Mario Vargas Llosa

One of the most famous Peruvian novelists celebrates the history and culture of Latin America, offering an alphabetical listing of people and places he considers noteworthy, from athletes and artists to political figures famous events.

Genres: Nonfiction

421 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa, more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa, was a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist, and politician. Vargas Llosa was one of the Spanish language and 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 more substantial 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".
Vargas Llosa rose to international fame in the 1960s with novels such as The Time of the Hero (La ciudad y los perros, 1963/1966), The Green House (La casa verde, 1965/1968), and the monumental Conversation in The Cathedral (Conversación en La Catedral, 1969/1975). He wrote prolifically across various literary genres, including literary criticism and journalism. His novels include comedies, murder mysteries, historical novels, and political thrillers. He won the 1967 Rómulo Gallegos Prize and the 1986 Prince of Asturias Award. Several of his works have been adopted as feature films, such as Captain Pantoja and the Special Service (1973/1978) and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977/1982). Vargas Llosa's perception of Peruvian society and his experiences as a native Peruvian influenced many of his works. Increasingly, he expanded his range and tackled themes from other parts of the world. In his essays, Vargas Llosa criticized nationalism in different parts of the world.
Like many Latin American writers, Vargas Llosa was politically active. 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 later identified as a liberal and held anti-left-wing ideas. He ran for the presidency of Peru in 1990 with the center-right Frente Democrático coalition, advocating for liberal reforms, but lost the election to Alberto Fujimori in a landslide.
Vargas Llosa continued his literary career while advocating for right-wing activists and candidates internationally following his exit from direct participation in Peruvian politics. He was awarded the 1994 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1995 Jerusalem Prize, the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, the 2012 Carlos Fuentes International Prize, and the 2018 Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit. In 2011, Vargas Llosa was made the Marquess of Vargas Llosa by Spanish king Juan Carlos I. In 2021, he was elected to the Académie française.

Reviews

[Ricardo Munguia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un libro bastante tedioso, pero interesante. El título no engaña, es un diccionario en el que el autor a modo de definiciones, escribe semblanzas de personas (en su mayoría escritores) y lugares de América Latina, incluyendo también sus opiniones de algunos conceptos, como "cuento", "intelectual" o "utopía" así como varios peruanismos como "cholo" y "huachafería".

Este diccionario está escrito a modo del autor, por lo que resulta incompleto ante la vastedad de América Latina (aunque es imposible que un diccionario sobre América Latina abarque todos sus matices, tendría que ser una enciclopedia) y lo que resulta interesante es encontrar algunas anécdotas dentro de algunas de las semblanzas, como cuando albergó en París a la madre el "El Che" Guevara, o cuando le presentó a Cortázar el manuscrito de "La casa verde". Pero fuera de eso no aporta mucho, y el formato lo hace insufrible pues es peor que leer un diccionario, no solo por las definiciones largas de algunos conceptos, si no también por que utiliza los mismos trucos de hacer autorreferencias. Quizá la que me quedo mas grabada, por que realmente me resultó irritante fue la siguiente. Rulfo, Juan: Ver Indigenismo.

Definitivamente no lo recomendaría a menos que por algún motivo académico necesites semblanzas rápidas sobre escritores latinoamericanos (en todo caso, una antología sería mas útil), muchas de las anécdotas o semblanzas dentro de este libro están contenidos en otros con estructuras mucho más amenas. Si aun así decides conseguirlo y darle una hojeada, lo que te recomiendo es que lo leas como si fuera un diccionario, un concepto a la vez y no de corrido.

[Sladjana Savic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Čitajući ovu knjigu imala sam utisak da putujem Latinskom Amerikom. Ovo putešestvije otvorilo je nove zanimljivosti u vezi sa tim delom sveta. Sličnost sa Balkanom je nezanemarljiva.