Mario Vargas Llosa is an outstanding writer in that stretch of his that goes from ‘The puppies‘ until ‘The War of the End of the World‘. I recognize the marvelous intelligence of a novel as ‘Conversation in the cathedral’. And it’s ingenious in ‘The city and the Dogs’ Y ‘The green House’. In this period, which partly corresponds to the triumph of the Latin American boom, the way in which he managed to reflect in his stories, and through melodrama and the use of certain literary techniques, the permanent social crisis in Peru is impressive.
Then comes a decline in the quality of your writing. Your last phase – perhaps this begins with ‘Don Rigoberto’s notebooks’– is obviously literary oversight. And it is worth wondering how, during this stage of his work, he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Let us justify the award, in any case, for his first books and his active participation in the great debates of the ideas of the second half of the 20th century. But it is in his last political positions where the decline that Mario Vargas Llosa has reached can be noted.
Lea más de Pablo Montoya: Nadaístas
His role as an intellectual, committed to the freedom and autonomy of peoples, is controversial. I share, without a doubt, your rejection of Latin American militarist socialisms for their dose of abuse of freedom of expression and their drift towards totalitarianism; but I distance myself from his praise for the neoliberalism that struts, like a scourge, on these sides of the planet.
His sympathy for the Latin American extreme right is simply indecent. His support for the Fujimori, a family involved in the violation of human rights and the mafia; his admiration for Álvaro Uribe, whose government has left an abominable trail in what has to do with false positives, the disappeared and his link with drug paramilitaries; his insane defense of the openly repressive regime of Iván Duque; his charm by Mauricio Macri, incompetent ruler; his approval to José Antonio Kast, nostalgic candidate for Nazism and the dictator Pinochet.
In short, your support for the most outdated and aggressive political castes generates a resounding rejection. And to add to this list of mistakes, there is the link of his fortune with tax havens.
Mario Vargas Llosa is the defender of an economic and social order that needs to be changed. And even more so when we are immersed in a world crisis caused by the modus operandi of capitalism, its insane consumerism and the enormous social inequality that it has left behind. What is paradoxical in his defense of respectable principles of democracy is that, in turn, he upholds the most retarded politicians with his word.
Now that Monterroso’s ephemeris is being celebrated, I recall his wonderful story “When he woke up the dinosaur was still there “, and among other things, many dinosaurs that are still in power come to mind and, above all, this one that Vargas Llosa represents for today’s literature.
Lea más: El descrédito de la inesperada alianza del Pacto Histórico con Luis Pérez
The latest news says the French Academy has accepted him into its ranks so that, wearing a cape, sword and bicorn, he watches over good speech, good writing and good thinking in that language. This entry, they proclaim, is another enhancement for Latin American letters in Europe. How far can the moral rigging of an academy go? Not only have they overlooked the conditions of entry to this niche of culture, but the deplorable behaviors of Vargas Llosa.
It is considered by many that it is a beacon for today’s letters. It is, perhaps, because of the invoice of some of his books. But since in this part of the world the writer is also valued for his social and political role, Vargas Llosa disappoints those of us who write from Latin America and continue to fight against domination and brutality, lies, corruption and submission.
Lea más en Opinión: Gustavo Verbel y poder contar el cuento
Foto: AFP
We would like to thank the writer of this post for this incredible content
Mario Vargas Llosa: the discredit | Opinion of Pablo Montoya