Peruvian Author Mario Vargas Llosa, Winner of the International Pedro Henríquez Ureña Award 2016

Peruvian Author Mario Vargas Llosa, Winner of the International Pedro Henríquez Ureña Award 2016
Santo Domingo, February 2, 2016

The announcement was made during a press conference at the Ministry of Culture headquarters, headed by Minister José Antonio Rodríguez and the Commissioner of the prize Franco Luis O. Brea.

The Peruvian author Mario Vargas LLosa was awarded with the Premio Internacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña 2016, recognition granted by the Dominican State through the Ministry of Culture. “Vargas LLosa is considered one of the most admired ibero-american novelists and essayists”, said the Minister of Culture, José Antonio Rodríguez, who made the announcement accompanied by Commissioner of the Award Luis O. Brea Franco, and Valentín Amaro, director general of El Libro y la Lectura.

The name of the winner was unveiled in a press conference, held in the Ramón Oviedo Hall of Arts, located at the headquarters of the governmental institution, in which was also present Deputy Minister for Institutional Development, Carlos Santos, among other officials.

The jury that selected unanimously Vargas Llosa for the literary prize was chaired by Minister Rodriguez; Sonia Henríquez Toledano de Hito, President of honor; Dr. Luis O. Brea Franco, Commissioner of the prize and general Advisor to the Minister of culture; and the members, doctors Liliana Weinberg, Néstor E. Rodríguez, Miguel D. Mena, and Ramón. A. Victoriano Martinez. The international prize Pedro Henríquez Ureña is an initiative of the current management of the Ministry of culture, instituted by the Dominican Government by Presidential Decree (477-14), to honour the literary memory of one of the greatest humanist and literary critic in Latin America.

The prestigious award has been previously granted to Puerto Rican humanitarian and writer Luis Rafael Sáchez (2013); the Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal; and the writer and journalist Eduardo Galeano (2014) and Beatriz Sargo (2015). This award aims to recognize the literary productivity, criticism and the creation of thought of the work of a lifetime. The jury considerations The prize is awarded to an Ibero-American author in any of the genres in which creation is manifested, literary criticism and the humanistic thought in its historical or contemporary evolvement and where it articulates a reflection on the Ibero-American expression.

In that sense, the jury considered that Mario Vargas Llosa (Arequipa, 1936), is one of the largest representatives of the literary creation in Latin America, with prodigious narrative, essays and theatrical work, recognized and translated around the world.

The jury valued for his election that Vargas Llosa has defended the great humanistic values, and among them the dignity and freedom of the human vocation, the values of democracy and tolerance, as well as the right of human beings to culture, reading and the enjoyment and development of the imagination.

Similarly, it was considered that the literary nobility of Mario Vargas Llosa has been recognized already with the highest awards to which a writer can aspire at planetary level, from the Prince of Asturias until the Nobel Prize for literature.

“Vargas Llosa has contributed to consolidate and interpret in a rigorous and creative way the cultural heritage of our continent, as well as to expand the presentation of America in the world through a work that is both original and admirable” the jury said. Vargas Llosa is the author of some of the novels more admirable and crucial to our culture, many of them converted into modern classics, to mention a few is The Time of the Hero (1963), The Green House (1966), Conversation in the Cathedral (1969), The War of the End of the World (1981), The Feast of the Goat (2000), and The Discreet Hero (2013).

This author is one of the most renowned explorers and connoisseurs of society, culture, politics, the urban and the rural world, the characters and traditions of our America.

In 2011 he was given the title of Marquis by Juan Carlos I of Spain.