Vargas Llosa and Latin American political modernity: fredoom’s Quixote or statu quo’s gesticulista?

Abstract

This text proposes a reading of Vargas Llosa’s political-cultural essays on Latin America. First, his notions of Democracy, Legality, and Modernity are identified, classified, and thus defined to understand which are the conditions of a real democracy according to Vargas Llosa. Then, his evaluations about Latin American societies are summarized, contraposing these evaluations with his notions of those keywords. Then, three critical categories are set to understand the obstacles to reach Latin American modernity. These categories allow to understand and, at the same time, make the point against Vargas Llosa’s defense of the current modern–“neoliberal”–regimes in Latin America. These categories are: patriarchalist capitalism, patriarchalist habitus, and casuistry as prestidigitation of social order.