Latin America is indisputably a vital center of the struggle for socialism. In so many places, the working class and oppressed peoples are in motion. In country after country, exciting, even revolutionary developments are under way. Is there a cultural component to this upsurge? Of course there is. Is there a revolutionary Spanish-language literature? You bet.
Naturally, then, this year's Nobel prize in literature went to a committed counter-revolutionary. In fact, yesterday, just before the prize was announced, Mario Vargas Llosa was being heckled and booed in Chile by indigenous people for his alliance with reaction. Vargas Llosa, who himself ran for president of Peru on a right-wing ticket back in the 1990s, is actually supporting and campaigning for the Pinochet-ist party in the current Chilean elections.
In fact, the novelist is all over Latin America doing his ineffectual best to stomp out the fires of working-class struggle. He's quite the cheerleader for the anti-Chavista counterrevolution in Venezuela. I could go on with examples of his awfulness, but it's not as if it's in dispute. He's a spokesperson for capitalism, the system of oppression, exploitation, racism and mass misery. This is the guy's passion. In person and in print. For this, the Nobel.
