The Latin American Boom

One Hundred Years of Solitude is hailed as the pinnacle of Latin American literature, but it was part of a larger artistic movement called the "Latin American Boom," which occurred in the mid- to late-1900s. The "Boom" marked a explosive period of artistic, especially literary, growth in Latin America. "Boom" novelists were known for incorporating Latin American themes into their works, while also taking inspiration from the techniques of Western writers, such as Kafka, Hemingway, and Faulkner. Western ideas such as stream of consciousness, unreliable narrators, and fragmented plots melded with Latin American history (especially the revolutionary and civil wars of the nineteenth century) and traditional mystical storytelling. Many of the "Boom" writers incorporated taboo sexual themes into their novels, such as incest and homosexuality. The Latin American Boom catapulted Hispanic writers onto the global stage.

Here are some of the major works of the Latin American Boom:

1963 - Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar (Argentina)

1963 - The Time of the Hero by Vargas Llosa (Peru)

1966 - Paradiso by Lezama Lima (Cuba)

1967 - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez (Colombia)!!!!!!!