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Vargas Llosa gets a degree in Spain

18:49 H | Topics: Celebrities - Literature - Peru - Spain

I've never really understood what the whole bestowing honorary degrees on celebrities thing is all about. I mean, does Peruvian literary legend Mario Vargas Llosa really need an honorary doctorate from some university in Spain? Well, he showed up to receive it today:

José María Martínez de Pisón, dean of the institution -- which wished to celebrate with this event its 15 anniversary -- emphasized [Vargas Llosa's] his vast literary knowledge, his original narrative tecnique (...) an abundant body of work in the Spanish language, his cultural universalism and at the same time, his identification with Latin America and Spanish culture, and even political commitment.

I almost fell asleep while translating that, so I'm guessing the event itself has a real blast.

A more interesting tidbit is that since Vargas Llosa was in La Rioja -- one of Spain's most prominent wine regions -- to receive the award, he took a moment to praise el vino as one of the pillars of our culture. Mario broke it down:

"Wine is one of the axises of Western culture, which has accompanied its developmen since the beginning." He stated that "it we got rid of wine-related themes, Western literature would not only become poorer, but would disappear all together."

Though I pretty much agree with him, I wonder how many vinos he had downed before giving that speech. Salud!

Via / AFP and La Rioja.com

Image: AP

Related

• Fox: Vargas Llosa is Colombian (Wednesday, Jan 31 2007)
• The little wine industry that could (Wednesday, Mar 22 2006)