Eleven is the number of winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature in the Spanish language, whose work rewards them, but also recognizes and praises the Hispanic world united by the same language, spoken by almost 500 million natives; more than 20 are studying it right now.
Among them there are names from Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala and Peru who with their poems, novels, dramas and essays have won the most prestigious award in the world established in 1901 in Sweden. Here we remember the Hispanic American authors awarded with such a high distinction.
List of Hispanic American authors
Gabriela Mistral (Chile) – 1945
The first Hispanic winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was a woman; and to date the only one. Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) was a poet, teacher, and actively collaborated in improving education, for which she traveled a great deal between America and Europe for this task. In 1953 she was appointed consul in New York and a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. His style is located between postmodernism and avant-garde; some of his most important titles are Bleakness (1922) and Tala (1938)
For his lyrical poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made his name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world.
- a recommended book: the commemorative edition of Gabriela Mistral, an anthological work in verse and prose produced by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (ASALE).
Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala) – 1967
Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899-1974) makes a synthesis of surrealism and magical realism of great beauty in his work. His left-wing ideology and pre-Hispanic folklore were two characteristic features in his work. He is the most international Guatemalan poet, although he would die in exile in Madrid. Some of his best stories are Mr. President (1946) and Corn men (1949)
For his living literary achievements, strongly rooted in the national traits and traditions of the indigenous peoples of Latin America.
- a recommended book: Mr. President It also has its own commemorative edition. This is a protest against the usual totalitarian governments in Latin America. The novel is inspired by the Guatemalan dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera.
Pablo Neruda (Chile) – 1971
The poetry of Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) is partly political, partly marked by the cruelty of war and the devastation it leaves in its wake, with people wounded by weapons, oppression and fear. But it is also love, a poetry that overflows with passion and tenderness. He has been linked to the generation of 27 and his work is also a legacy of postmodernism and the avant-garde. His poetic work is many things at the same time, it is not foreign at all, and drinks from personal experiences and contextualized to the time in which the poet lived. of communist ideology, his life was committed to political causes, he was a senator and became a candidate for the Chilean presidency.
Likewise, he led an intense life as a traveler due to his diplomatic activity. His frustration over the assassination of his good friend García Lorca led him to fight on the Republican side in the civil war., thus creating his work Spain in the heart. Other of his most relevant works are Twenty love poems and a desperate song, General singor your memories I confess that I have lived. Pablo Neruda would die in Santiago, with the pain of seeing Pinochet's rise to power through a coup and the assassination of Salvador Allende.
For a poetry that with the action of an elemental force gives life to the destiny and dreams of a continent.
- a recommended book: Twenty love poems and a desperate song is a book that collects the author's subsequent poetic work. He wrote it in his youth, but it is a precursor to what will end up being Neruda's work. Perhaps for this reason it is an example and one of his most recognized collections of poems. It is a passionate and exciting work with postmodernist and avant-garde samples.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia) – 1982
Exalted narrator, Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014) provides a hallmark of Hispanic-American magical realism. His work has an unmistakable character and dealt with the themes of loneliness and violence very specially. In addition to One Hundred Years of Solitude, stand out Litter, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba o A Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
Born in the municipality of Aracataca, he was known by the nickname of Gabo, Gabito for his closest circle. The influence of his maternal grandparents and his people would condition his work and his creative imagination.; there is a lot of Aracataca in Macondo de One Hundred Years of Solitude. He devoted his life to the word through journalism and writing.
On the other hand, his leftist political stance was well known and he befriended Fidel Castro. In Cuba he founded the famous San Antonio de los Baños Film School; in fact, she participated in the writing of the script The golden rooster, together with Carlos Fuentes. He likewise traveled through various European and American countries until he settled in Mexico, where he died.
For his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the real are combined in a world richly composed of imagination, reflecting the life and conflicts of a continent.
- a recommended book: One Hundred Years of Solitude they say it is the perfect narration; It has a circular sense of life that combines pre-Hispanic precepts with Latin American miscegenation. In the Buendía family we witness the birth of the world and its disappearance, how people are remade and how the existence of all humanity is represented in these characters. An essential classic.
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Octavio Paz (Mexico) – 1990
Octavio Paz (1914-1998) is known primarily for his poetry and essay writing. He had a clear literary vocation and collaborated actively in magazines, publishing his first poems at the age of seventeen. The Spanish republic and his intellectuals marked his work, especially because of the trip he made during the years of the Spanish civil war. There he met, among others, the Chilean Pablo Neruda.
He works as a diplomat and in Europe he will also be influenced by poets of Surrealism. His work is quite disparate, however, the idiosyncrasy of the Mexican stands out and a predilection for explaining their characteristics, customs, traditions and way of being, relevant in this regard is The Labyrinth of Solitude. In 1981 she also received the Cervantes Prize. Among his most outstanding works are The Labyrinth of Solitude, Eagle or sun? y The bow and the lyre.
For passionate writing with broad horizons, characterized by sensory intelligence and humanistic integrity.
- a recommended book: The Labyrinth of Solitude, where the author details Mexican society, its origins as a pre-Hispanic people, the Spanish influence, and its mark and consequences in today's Mexico.
Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) – 2010
Born in 1936, Mario Vargas Llosa is considered the last survivor of the tree Latin American. It also has the Cervantes Prize and the PPrince of Asturias, and occupies the letter L in the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) since 1996. He has carved out an important journalistic career, at the same time that he has established himself as a writer. He has developed short stories, novels, essays and plays. His distinguished works are The city and the Dogs, Conversation in the cathedral y The party of the goat.
His childhood was spent between Bolivia and Peru. While still a teenager he wrote a play that was performed in Lima. He studied Letters and Law and then began his journalistic work. In 1958 he arrived in Madrid with a scholarship and became a Doctor of Philosophy and Letters.. He will live in different European countries, including Spain, and in London he will teach as a professor of literature. He also collaborated on translation work with Julio Cortázar for UNESCO. In 1993 he obtained Spanish nationality, but also retains Peruvian.
For his mapping of power structures and his trenchant images of individual resistance, rebellion and defeat.
- a recommended book: The city and the Dogs. It is his first novel, a gritty book about military education in youth and its influence on masculinity. This novel is transcendental because it will mark a beginning and an end of the contemporary Latin American novel.
