While there are all styles of writing in Latin America, the region is famous for its development of the magical realism genre. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a Colombian author who is best-known for writing in the magical realism genre. His works "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" are considered classics. He did much of his writing while in exile for his left-leaning politics. Another master of the magical realism genre, Isabel Allende is considered a romantic writer with an eye to social justice. Born in Peru, she was raised in Chile where her uncle was president until he was assassinated. A bilingual speaker, she writes exclusively in Spanish. Her best-known works include "The House of Spirits" and "Of Love and Shadows." Carlos Fuentes specialized in novels about the Mexican revolution. That war formed the subject of "Where the Air is Clear" and "The Death of Artemio Cruz." He's also written novels about King Philip II of Spain and American author Ambrose Bierce in Mexico.
Latin American poetic focus ranges from political to cultural to aesthetics. Gabriela Mistral was the first female Latin American poet to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature, a prize she earned in 1945. Born in 1889 in Chile, she started writing at an early age after experiencing a number of tragedies and personal losses. She frequently wrote about love, faith and the delicacy of nature. Octavio Paz is a Mexican who began his poetry career as a teenager. He founded an avant-garde literary magazine and specialized in the long form poem. Influenced by the surrealism movement, he wrote prose poems that were a visionary mapping of Mexico. He also used the Aztec calendar as inspiration for another long-form poem. Jose Marti was a Cuban revolutionary who fought for Cuban independence. Also a novelist and essayist, his poems inspired songs and explore what it means to be American.
Most Latin American playwrights wrote novels and essays in addition to dramatic literature. Enrique Buenaventura was a Colombian playwright who used theater as a way to address the social problems facing South America. He founded the Teatro Experimental de Cali in 1962, which he directed until a few years before his death in 2003. Mario Vargas Llosa is the Latin American playwright who has received the most acclaim both in and outside of South America. A Peruvian-Spanish writer, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010. In addition to his plays, Llosa is an essayist, novelist, journalist and politician. Nilo Cruz is a Cuban-American playwright who won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2003 for his work "Anna in the Tropics." In addition to his plays, he has also collaborated on several operas.
Essayists and journalists, Latin American non-fiction writers tend to be highly political writers whose work influences society around them. Miguel Angel Asturias, the winner of the 1967 Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in Guatemala in 1899. He worked as a correspondent for Latin American newspapers and exposed the exploitation of Latin America by the United Fruit Company. His satirical work is also credited with helping to depose his country's dictatorship. He died in 1974. José Enrique Rodó was a Uruguayan essayist born in 1879. His writings focused on the culture of Latin America with his most famous work, "Ariel," being published in 1900. In that essay, he compared figures from William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" to his modern society. He drew the parallel that Latin America was Ariel and North America was Caliban.