The Latin American Boom Research Guide: The Boom

Julio Florencio Cortázar was an Argentine and naturalized French writer and translator. He taught French literature at Universidad de Cuyo around 1944-1946, until he chose to resign due to brief imprisonment for his involvement in a political agitation against then-Argentine President Juan Perón. In 1946, his first major story "Casa tomada" was published in Los Anales de Buenos Aires by Jorge Luis Borges. He left for Paris in 1951, and his first character to symbolically return to Buenos Aires occurs in Rayuela (1963).

Carlos Fuentes Macías was a Mexican writer and diplomat. His writing pieces are often considered the most important bodies of work in Latin American literature. Fuentes employed fiction as a way to address many issues and events in Mexico and Latin America, particularly the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). He attended schools in multiple countries, including in Washington D.C., USA, and Switzerland, before graduating with a law degree in Mexico. He had a diplomatic career with the United Nations, and he published his first short story collection in 1954. He began working as a writer full-time after the success of La región más transparente (Where the Air Is Clear) in 1958.

Gabriel José García Márquez, affectionately known as Gabo, was a Colombian writer and journalist, most often associated with the literary style of magical realism. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Colombian and fourth Latin American to win the Prize. In 1994, he established the Gabo Foundation, which has carried out workshops, awards, scholarships, and publications for journalists. He is also the most translated novelist from the Spanish language.

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer, journalist, and politician. He studied law and literature at university, and began his literary career in 1957, with the publication of short stories while working for a newspaper. He left for Europe in 1959, and became acquainted with many other Latin American Boom writers also living in Paris. In 1962, his manuscript won a competition, which then was published in 1963 as La ciudad y los perros (The Time of the Hero), soon acclaimed as a masterpiece. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010.