Mario Vargas Llosa: author of limitless worlds.

• Author: Bach, Caleb

In an interview with Americas, this renowned Peruvian writer talks about his constant curiosity in issues that cross cultural, historical, and political boundaries

Mario Vargas Llosa took the literary world by storm nearly forty years ago with his landmark opus, La ciudad y los perros [The City and the Dogs]. Ever since, he has dazzled a global readership with his powers of imagination and innovative narrative techniques. With dozens of books to his credit--novels, short stories, plays, essays, and journalistic pieces--he has, according to the Boston Globe, "already secured a place as one of the monumental writers of our time."

The Peruvian-born author maintains a spacious home in Lima, has other residences in Madrid and London, but prefers a life constantly on the move. So he is not an easy man to track down. Only through good fortune did he happen to surface late last year in Washington, D.C., as a visiting professor at Georgetown University. In the living room of a guest residence in a quiet part of historic Georgetown he kindly interrupted a full day of teaching and writing to discuss recent projects and aspects of his remarkable career.

Despite the devoted audience he enjoys in many languages, his numerous literary prizes, and all the honorary degrees conferred upon him, Vargas Llosa always has felt a constant need to test and retest his creative powers. Even as a near septuagenarian (he was born in 1936), he continues to drive himself without mercy and retirees to slow down. "Probably it is curiosity," he explains. "I am still very curious as when I was young. I get excited with things. Writing for me is such a pleasure. I don't feel it is work. Real work implies obligation, something you impose on yourself, but writing is not that for me. It's my way of living, the way I feel better, more protected against unhappiness."

Given his enormous stature as a novelist, Vargas Llosa is often overlooked as a journalist. But throughout his professional life he has filed hundreds of articles with major newspapers the world over. "Currently I'm doing two feature pieces each month for El Pais, the Madrid daily. I don't like the idea of the writer completely secluded in his fantasies and imagination. That kind of writer I can admire from a distance, but it's not the sort I want to be. No! Literature is very important to me, but it is something that must be nourished by experience. I need to have at least one foot in the street, the world, history being made, and for me that is journalism. That's why I am constantly writing articles and commenting on current events."

Vargas Llosa does not limit himself to Latin America. The world is his oyster; he thinks nothing of suddenly hopping a flight to some distant place to talk with key individuals or observe at close range important events. Late last June, for example, he spent twelve days in Baghdad.

"I had written two articles opposing the war, criticizing the unilateral intervention, but I didn't feel comfortable with them. I needed to see the situation firsthand in the field to determine whether I was right or wrong, so I went. I was also worried about our daughter, Morgana, who was in Iraq taking pictures while working for a Spanish nongovernmental organization called Fundacion Iberoamerica Europa. It was one of the first relief organizations to provide humanitarian help, but as the number of terrorist attacks mounted its members were unable to function and had to leave. During my visit there was some danger, but at that time the attacks were still small scale. I filed seven stories, mostly regarding the situation of common people. With my daughter's help and that of the Spanish embassy I was able to interview key people. Sadly, four of them are no longer alive, including Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who was assassinated soon after Iris return from exile, also the head of the UN mission in Baghdad, Sergio Vieira de Mello, a great humanitarian and a personal friend of mine for many years."

Vargas Llosa's enduring interest in politics and historical events has fueled many of his best novels, including La fiesta del chivo (2000) [The Feast of the Goat, 2001]. Some readers wire feared he had gone soft during a hiatus from fiction writing when he ran for the presidency of Peru were quickly disabused of the idea: the novel proved to be a fierce indictment of the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic and a brilliant analysis of the perverse nature of tyrannies in general. The author who, upon accepting the 1967 Romulo Gallegos Prize in Caracas, had said, "literature is fire," still had fire in his belly. His sense of moral outrage had not been tempered in the slightest by...