In his autobiography, Mario Vargas Llosa tells of his failed presidential campaign of 1990. The poor fellow was desperate to talk about the economy in an indigent country ravaged by terrorism. Instead, he found himself in the midst of a religious war. All of a sudden, the Catholic Church decided to support the openly and proudly agnostic Llosa while the Evangelicals rallied against him.
Bishops were going on TV to praise Llosa and explain how his agnosticism was a sign of being even more Catholic than practicing Catholics. The Pope was trying to lure Llosa to visit him in the Vatican. Llosa’s supporters were plotting ways to make a wooden figure of Jesus during a Catholic procession open its mouth and say Llosa’s name. It was 1990, one could easily make Jesus speak with the help of a tape recorder. In the end, the still-stubbornly- agnostic Llosa was begging his comrades to stop blaspheming.
He lost the election to a fellow who disbanded the parliament, canceled future elections, and became a dictator.
Because the hilarious and endearing magic of Latin American reality invariably rests on blood, corruption, and hopelessness.
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