Nobel Prize in Peru: Mario Vargas-Llosa!

Last week in Stockholm, Sweden the ceremony of the Nobel Prizes took place, and every Peruvian, whether inside Peru, or anywhere in the world was following it because for the first time a Peruvian received a Nobel Prize: The Nobel Prize in Literature.

Mario Vargas Llosa is by far the most successful writer in Peruvian history, but is not the only one that has been praised globally; we have a history of great writers, among them for example Cesar Vallejo, Ricardo Palma and Julio Ramon Ribeyro, just to name a few!!

During the ceremony last week this great writer gave a speech that was so full of emotion and of culture, especially in the part where he talked about his love for Peru, the country where he was born and grew, before traveling the world and finally establishing in Spain with his family. Vargas Llosa was born in Arequipa, the great city in the mountains in the South of Peru which is home of the great Condor, an amazing animal. When the writer was still a boy his family moved to Piura, in the coast of Peru very near to Ecuador, and when he was a teenager he moved to Lima, the capital of the country, where he first started studying journalism and got his first job at a very popular newspaper.

Because he has lived in many parts of Peru, and loves to travel and visit new places, Peru is very present in almost all his books, for example in “Conversation in the Cathedral”, one of my favorite books, he describes in a particular way the society and the lifestyle in Lima 50 years ago, or in “The time of the Hero” he describes the experience of attending a military high school, from a teenager’s point of view. Definitely, reading Vargas Llosa really makes you learn and get close to Peru, its landscapes, its people and its mix of cultures.

There is a lot to write about this great man that know finally has received the major recognition that a man in his profession desire, the Nobel Price, and every Peruvian in the world is proud of having him as a fellow citizen…….especially for those of us that enjoy every book he has ever written and continues to do so…..I just hope for many more years we can enjoy of this genius and its writing.