Vargas Llosa visits HSG

1 September 2011. Vargas Llosa will deliver his talk in English so audience members who do not speak Spanish can follow. He is coming to HSG at the invitation of the university’s Centro Latinoamericano-Suizo and the Department of Hispanic Culture and Literature.

Active in politics and culture
Vargas Llosa, who was born in 1936 in Arequipa, Peru, is one of the greatest Latin American authors of the 20th century and an exceptional witness to the profound changes that have shaped the Continent in the last few decades. As a prominent public figure, he is very actively involved in current political and cultural events. His literary breakthrough occurred a half century ago with his 1963 novel, “The Time of the Hero”.

Associated with HSG since 1988
The German translation of his most recent novel, “The Dream of the Celt”, which is about the brutalities of the colonial rubber industry in the Congo and in the Amazon, will be released by Suhrkamp Press on September 12. Just a few days after that, Vargas Llosa will visit HSG, which he has been associated with for many years. As long ago as 1988, the Peruvian was awarded the Freedom Award of the Max Schmidheiny Foundation at the University of St.Gallen.

Vargas Llosa’s visit is reason enough to dedicate a series of lectures to his work as part of HSG’s Public Lectures Program in the coming fall term.

Photo: ky/dpa