English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The Peruvian writer contributed like few others to the universal expansion of Latin America. 14ymedio, Federico Hernández Aguilar, San Salvador, 20 April 2025 — With Mario Vargas Llosa’s passing (1936-2025) the last great exponent of the so-called Latin American boom died, an extraordinary creative and editorial phenomenon that, strictly speaking, should be called the boom … Continue reading “Mario Vargas Llosa, an Essential and Vital Writer”
The scene of a toast and libertarian laughter on the Havana coast will no longer be able to materialize. 14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 14 April 2025 — The last time we spoke was in his native Peru. After sharing the stage and reflecting on literature, authoritarianism in Latin America, and the paths of journalism, Mario … Continue reading “Mario Vargas Llosa and Cuba”
14ymedio, Maite Rico, Madrid, 5 February 2023 — At age 86, Mario Vargas Llosa (b. Arequipa, 1936) faces a new stage in his life. He has returned to his apartment in the center of Madrid, after ending his relationship with Isabel Preysler. Also, surrounded by his collection of hippos, he has finished his novel about … Continue reading “Mario Vargas Llosa: ‘Socialism is Dead. No One Can Believe in it After Cuba’”
14ymedio, Havana | 2 Septiembre 2021 — The writer Mario Vargas Llosa on Wednesday added his signature to a petition on Charge.org for the freedom of Cubans, particularly those detained after the massive protests on July 11. The initiative, published by the writer Enrique del Risco as “SOS Cuba,” is a letter addressed to Miguel Díaz-Canel in … Continue reading “Mario Vargas Llosa Signs a Petition for the Release of the July 11th Detainees in Cuba”
14ymedio, Mauricio Rojas, 17 April 2016 — On 28 March Mario Vargas Llosa turned 80 and wanted to celebrate with a brief reflection on his political thinking and, in particular, his form of being a liberal. For this I want to start from two great French thinkers who played a key role in his intellectual development: … Continue reading “Mario Vargas Llosa: The Liberal Rebel / 14ymedio, Mauricio Rojas”
The literature of Mario Vargas Llosa has prompted several key turning points in my life. The first was 17 years ago, in a summer of blackouts and economic crisis. Under the pretext of borrowing “The War of the End of the World,” I approached a journalist expelled from his profession for ideological problems, with whom … Continue reading “Mario Vargas Llosa: A Nobel Long Overdue / Yoani Sanchez”
The literature of Mario Vargas Llosa has been the source of several key turning points in my life. The first was 17 years ago, during a summer marked by blackouts and the economic crisis. With the intention of borrowing The War of the End of the World, I approached a journalist expelled from his profession … Continue reading “Mario Vargas Llosa: A Nobel Long Delayed / Yoani Sánchez”
The writer’s wake is being held at the family home, where Peruvian President Dina Boluarte traveled. EFE (via 14ymedi0), Paris/Lima/Montevideo/Santiago de Chile/ 14 April 2025 — French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute this Monday to Mario Vargas Llosa, who died in Lima this Sunday, and highlighted both the Nobel Prize winner’s membership in the French … Continue reading “French President Macron on Varga Llosa: ‘His Work Stood for Freedom Over Fanatacism’”
When Haydée Santamaría signs her last letter to Vargas Llosa, she addresses a man who has already written some of the greatest novels in the language 14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 9 February 2025 — How little we know of Haydée Santamaría. An odd woman who suffered from depression, someone consumed by incurable resentment. She committed … Continue reading “Dear Mario”
EFE/14ymedio, Miami, 15 December 2021 — The Cuban journalist Carla Colomé, exiled in the United States, who works for the independent digital El Estornudo and People magazine in Spanish, is the first winner of the International Prize for Young Journalism in the Vargas Llosa-Atlas Network Chair. She received the prize for her reporting on the July 11 protests in Cuba. … Continue reading “Cuban Carla Colome Wins the Prize for Young Journalism in the Vargas Llosa-Atlas Network Chair”
14ymedio, Maite Rico, Madrid, February 26, 2018 — Mario Vargas Llosa, who was born in 1936 in Areuquipa, Peru, is in full form. Combative, ebullient, brimming with laughter, the Nobel laureate travels widely and operates on a variety of intellectual fronts, crafting fiction and scrutinizing facts. In a recently published essay, “The Call of the … Continue reading “Vargas Llosa: ‘No Moderately Sane Person Would Want a System Like Cuba’s for Their Country’”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Madrid, 29 March 2016 — Literature, politics and love were the three main protagonists on Monday evening for the 80th birthday of Mario Vargas Llosa. The winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature attended a dinner in his honor with politicians, journalists, presidents and activists, in a central Madrid hotel. Before 400 guests, … Continue reading “Vargas Llosa: “Cuba will become a capitalist dictatorship and then a democracy” / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
The writer Mario Vargas Llosa discusses literature, democracy and Latin America in the second part of an interview with 14ymedio. First part of the interview: “The myth of Cuba has been cut to shreds” Yoani Sánchez, Madrid, 15 July 2014 – During my conversation with the writer and Nobel Prize Winner in Literature Mario Vargas … Continue reading ““I owe to my father the hatred of authoritarianism that he embodied” / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Mario Varga Llosa”
The writer and Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa, talks about Cuba in the first part of an interview with 14ymedio Yoani Sánchez, Madrid, 14 July 2014 — Mario Vargas Llosa, writer, politician, excellent analyst and even better conversationalist, received me at his home in Madrid for this interview. The minutes flew by … Continue reading ““The myth of Cuba has been cut to shreds for the most part” / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Mario Varga Llosa”
In the Havana of the ’80s, many of us young people were living without a future. Between guitar chords and conversations, at the foot of the bust of Jose Marti, at the entrance to the La Vibora Institute, we gathered at night to drink alcohol diluted with water, which cost 5 pesos a bottle from … Continue reading “Chronicle for Mario / Iván García”
