📊 Nobel Laureates

A timeline of some of our region's notable contributions to literature, peace, and the sciences.

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Awards 🎖️

Whether you’re familiar with them or not, a whole lot of superstars have come out of Latin America over the years. From authors to poets to scientists to (yes, even) politicians, there have been a number of Latin Americans – originating from around the region – who have helped the world make real advances in culture, science, and life.

A Timeline of LatAm's Nobel Prize Winners

This week, we’re looking at the 17 Nobel Prizes awarded to our region since the beginning of the annual prize in 1901. The very first one awarded to a Hispanic was for Argentina’s renowned foreign minister during the 1930s, who brokered peace between the country’s neighbors in the Chaco War and eventually presided over the League of Nations General Assembly.

Later, over a third of the region’s Nobel prizes were awarded in literature, which should not surprise longtime Latinometrics readers.

From Colombia’s Gabriel García Márquez to Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa, Latin America’s novelists and storytellers are responsible for the creation of the region’s greatest literary genre, magical realism, through acclaimed books such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Conversation in the Cathedral (1969). Meanwhile, poets such as Chile’s very own Pablo Neruda are famous the world over for their skilled verse and manipulation of the Spanish language.

Argentineans have tended to dominate in hard sciences such as chemistry or medicine. However, most recently, it was a Mexican, Mario Molina, who received the award in 1995 for his role in discovering the threat posed by CFC gases to Earth’s ozone layer.

Finally, there’s the Nobel Peace Prize. Former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is the most recent recipient of this or any Nobel prize, having earned it for his role in negotiating the end of Colombia’s protracted internal conflict with the FARC guerrillas. Other notable laureates include Guatemalan human rights activist Rigoberta Menchú, most known for her advocacy work with indigenous peoples in Central America.

All of Latin America’s biggest countries are represented in the halls of the victors, with one clear exception: Brazil. While we recognize Nobel prizes are not the end-all-be-all of international achievement, we hope to see this change to reflect Brazil’s own unique contribution to the world. We also want to see more awarded for our great region, as our 17 reflect just under 2% of the total awarded since 1901.

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Comment of the Week 🗣️

Are we living in an era where popularity trumps truth? Carlos Dumois seems to think so. From our chart about LatAm’s popularity ratings on LinkedIn.

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