Latin America is known for their biodiversity, the festivals, the football mania and their writers. The Latin American boom which took place in twentieth century led to a global popularity for many Latin American writers such that writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Pablo Neruda acquired a universal popularity. Today any serious book lover would read Latin American fiction and poetry to unearth a treasure house of stories and myths. Here is a list of Latin American writers whose works should not be missed.
- Mario Vargas Llosa
This Peruvian politician and writer became popular after the Latin American literary boom. His works gives us an idea about the political situation of Peru and other Latin American countries. He uses biting satire to criticise and expose the social scenario which makes us laugh and think. His major novels include as The Time of the Hero, The Green House, Conversation in the Cathedral and The Feast Of the Goat
- Jorge Luis Borges
He is a pioneer among Latin American writers, one of the first writers to raise a typical Latin American style but he was not applauded a lot at his times. Gabo reckoned that he should have been the first Latin American Nobel winning writer. He follows the practise of magical realism embraces literature that creates an ‘unreality’. His major works include Ficciones and En Aleph.
- Haroldo de Campos
Campos is a Brazilian poet who writes in Portuguese. He is one of the founding fathers of the Brazilian concrete poetry movements. His poems have become a part of Brazilian culture. He is prolific writer and a literary scholar who translated many European classics into Portugese and write several seminal essays which brought a new insight to literary criticism.
- Octavio Paz
Paz is a Mexican poet and diplomat whose poetry is regarded the best among Hispanic poetry of all times. Paz is a well read and travelled writer and hence his poetry acquires a relevance in the universal level. His poetry was read and recited as a part of popular cultural traditions and it led to a success in his political career too. He has written poetry as a way of protest against massacres of people in Spain and Mexico.
- Miguel Angel Asturias
Asturias is a Nobel Laureate diplomat and writer from Guatemala. A prolific writer who wrote poems, short stories, novels and plays, Asturias was a writer who inspired the Latin American boom writers. Like Neruda, Asturias lived the last years of his life in exile because he was against the dictatorship in Guatemala. His major works include El Senor Presidente and Men of Maize.
Read those magical tales people. Or it would be like you missed the most happening literary arena of the twentieth century.
