Lima, Peru - The 2010 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa, joined his former classmate Architect Luis Huarcaya, former President of the Universal Peace Federation of Peru (2008-09), and other distinguished colleagues at a special ceremony held in the Leoncio Prado Military Academy in Lima on March 17.
In the Rafael Hoyos Rubio military barracks, currently the temporary headquarters of the Leoncio Prado Military Academy (made famous by the celebrated novel La ciudad y los perros), the distinguished Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas received a Peruvian military decoration in recognition of his distinguished career. There were two meetings and two speeches by the laureate, one in the Academy's Courtyard of Honor and the other in the Hall of Fame of the military barracks.
The first, in front of the cadets and military top brass of Peru, was attended by former students of the seventh graduating class, including the former government minister General Marciano Rengifo and Architect Luis Huarcaya together with representatives from other graduating classes of the academy.
The following article appeared in the leading Peruvian newspaper El Comercio on March 18:
ALMA MATER. Mario Vargas Llosa was given a distinction by the Leoncio Prado Academy (immortalized in the book La ciudad y los perros).
Tribute to the cadet of world literature.
"We are all jaguars." Victor Flores and Luis Huarcaya reminded everyone of this phrase [referring to a cadet who was a protagonist in the novel] and, despite the elegant suits, the advanced years and the gray hairs, they once again became the cadets who in 1950 lived in the classrooms of the Leoncio Prado Military Academy.
Flores and Huarcaya were classmates and Cadet Corps colleagues of Vargas Llosa; the three are part of the seventh graduating class of the military academy, and met again yesterday in the institution which saw them start to develop as young men, during the ceremony honoring the Nobel prize-winner.
HONOR AND GLORY
"Mario Vargas Llosa wore the same blue uniform as you cadets." As he spoke, the head of the school, Col. E.P. David Ojeda, talked without any hesitation during his speech of homage. It seemed that with the strength of his words he wanted the cadets to share a little of the greatness of Vargas Llosa.
The author listened happily as the ceremony started with Carlos Tufino, cadet of the fifth year, reciting a poem created in his honor. "Here is a cadet at the start of his life, before launching his pen to the world," he said. And Vargas Llosa did not cease to applaud as he listened to Tufino speak of the Jaguar, the Poet [nicknames of two cadets in the novel], la ciudad, and los perros—the novel and the academy that the writer made eternally famous.
Consigned to the past was the story of when the military dictatorship gave the order to burn La ciudad y los perros, claiming that it denigrated the glorious Leoncio Prado Military Academy. Now, today, the academy is grateful for the writer's existence.
The Nobel prize-winner for Literature also gave an emotional speech in which he made great efforts not to break down.
"Follow your dreams, cadets. Choose your future calling from any vocation …. that can benefit Peru….and then fight for the future; to make this Peru greater you must give of yourselves," he counseled them.
So, Mario Vargas Llosa was reunited with his friends from the graduating class and shared with them a few minutes of nostalgia before melting into a fraternal embrace. Yesterday, they became once again 14-year-olds. Yesterday, Victor, Luis, and Mario became again “los perros” [a close-knit group of third-year cadets in the novel] of the 1950s.
NOTE: La ciudad y los perros, menaing "the city and the dogs," was published in English under the title The Time of the Hero.