Almost all the loves of Mario Vargas Llosa began or ended with scandal. That seems to be his fate. The most novel of them was the one he had with Julia Urquidi, whom he married in Grocio Prado, Chincha, while still a minor, in 1955. For this reason, his exalted father sought him out for all of Lima armed with a revolver.
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This fact is recounted by the same writer in his autobiographical novel Aunt Julia and the Writer, where he recounts how he met the Bolivian woman, who months before had arrived from La Paz recently divorced and, according to a gossipy aunt: “to look for a new husband”.
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After some timid kisses in cinemas and streets of a peaceful Miraflores of the 50s, the forbidden love between the law student and the 29-year-old woman turned into a torrid idyll. Varguitas or ‘Marito’, as she called him, worked as the head of news for Radio Panamericana, whose manager was the mythical Genaro Delgado Parker.
A SCANDAL
He lived with his grandparents while his parents were in the United States. Aunt Julia was, at the time, Olga’s sister, his uncle Lucho’s wife, and for that reason his love affairs were a scandal.
The Bolivian was his aunt by marriage. They met because she was the sister of Olga, the wife of her uncle Lucho, who was also the brother of her mother.
Soon, the entire family found out about the news until it reached their parents, who decided to travel immediately to Lima. Thus, Mario and Julia they decided to marry to consummate their union. Accomplices were the best friend of the writer, the future Minister of Economy Javier Silva Ruete, and a colleague from Panamericana radio: Pascual.
The latter suggested they marry in Chincha, where his compadre was mayor. The trip was programmed as if it were a war. varguitas left her grandfather’s house saying that she was going to work and she, under the pretext of doing the last shopping before returning to La Paz, via the Bolivian Air Lloyd.
DRUNKEN MAYOR
In Chincha an unforeseen event occurred: the mayor, a drunkard, refused to marry them because Vargas Llosa was a minority. So they went through all the towns of Chincha, such as Tambo de Mora, Grocio Prado, Chincha Baja, El Carmen, Sunampe, San Pedro, Alto Larán and San Juan de Yanac looking for a corrupt or benevolent mayor for the wedding. Nothing. Nobody agreed to marry them giving infinite reasons.
Ernesto Vargas Maldonado and his only son, the Peruvian Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa. A difficult relationship that the novelist reflected in novels and memoirs.
Discouraged they returned to Chincha. But when they planned to return defeated to Lima, the one from Grocio Prado agreed to do so after falsifying the birth certificate of the novelist.
Mario sent his friend Javier Silva Ruete back to Lima to let him know how the situation was going. When he called him, Silva Ruete told him that his father had gone to his pension armed with a revolver to tell him where they were. Javier implored him not to do anything because he didn’t know. So, Don Ernesto Vargas Maldonado left a letter addressed to Mario.
THREAT WITH REVOLVER
“What I don’t like at all is the revolver,” Aunt Julia told him. “I suppose the one you want to shoot will be me, right? Hey, Varguitas, I hope my father-in-law doesn’t kill me in the middle of our honeymoon.”I add.
Therefore, to avoid don Ernesto do something to his brand new daughter-in-law, she traveled urgently to Chile, to Valparaíso, where her maternal grandmother lived. There she would wait for news.
It wasn’t a game thing. In a letter, Mario’s violent father wrote: “Mario, I give forty-eight hours for that woman to leave the country. If she doesn’t, I’ll take care of it, using whatever influence is necessary, to make her pay dearly for her audacity. As for you, I want you to know that I’m armed and I won’t let you make fun of me. If you do not obey to the letter and that woman does not leave the country within the indicated period, I will kill you with five bullets like a dog, in the middle of the street”.
He had signed with his two surnames and initials and added a postscript: “You can go ask for police protection, if you want. And so that it is very clear, here I sign again my decision to kill you where I find you like a dog.
‘YOU ARE AMNESTIED’
A month and a half later, her anger subsided, she went to talk to her father.
“Feeling that my voice was getting so thin that it was barely audible, I told her, I have come to ask your permission to call Julia. We have married and she cannot continue living alone ”, said a scared Mario.
The man looked at him, told him that he was going to lead a bad life, but finally forgave him and only asked him to continue with his studies.
“Amnestied. I will send the ticket as soon as possible. Kisses”, he sent him in a telegram to Chile. End of story.
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