On Friday, 12 December, at 12 noon, the exhibition “Varguitas, la verdad de las mentiras” (Varguitas, the truth behind the lies) will open at the Inca Garcilaso Cultural Centre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It features images from Mario Vargas Llosa’s family album, along with others taken by his daughter Morgana during the trips she accompanied him on to document his novels, essays and newspaper articles.  The exhibition, which is a moving tribute to the great and multifaceted writer and intellectual, was first presented at the recent Hay Festival in Arequipa. It has been curated by Alejandro Castellote and produced by Carlos Caamaño.

Morgana Vargas Llosa points out that the exhibition “is a testimony to our shared work, to the times when we ceased to be just father and daughter and became companions on the road and in our craft.”   “For my father, writing was not always a solitary act. Behind each novel there was a quest, a vital impulse to understand a place, a character, a story. And often, that quest led us to travel together. We went to French Polynesia, Brittany, Bordeaux and Arequipa in the footsteps of Paul Gauguin and Flora Tristán. We travelled by road to northern Peru to locate the origin of a central character in Le dedico mi silencio (I Give You My Silence) (…). We also went together to Israel, Palestine and Iraq (…). I always remember him with his notebook in his hand, writing tirelessly. I followed him with my camera, trying to capture what he would later turn into words.”

For Castellote, “the mosaic that opens this exhibition, necessarily incomplete, is intended to be Mario Vargas Llosa’s family album brought to the wall, bringing us closer to the context that surrounded the intense life of a writer of universal stature. His transition from child to young man and from young man to adult, his travels, the awards he received, his fleeting political career, his countless friends and, above all, his family”.

Castellote adds that “just as art transforms the particular into the universal, photographs in family albums allow us to unconsciously replace “the other” with “us” and briefly recognise ourselves in unfamiliar characters and settings. They activate one of the most beautiful qualities of human beings: empathy.”

The curator also explains that the second part of the exhibition shows the meticulous documentation process that Mario Vargas Llosa always uses to construct these narratives where fiction intersects with truth; but it also illustrates one of the passions that has always coexisted with his literature, his plays and his essays: journalism.

“There are four reports illustrated with photographs by his daughter Morgana. They reveal his insatiable curiosity to experience first-hand the settings and everyday epics of the people who inhabit them. The last one is a visit through Puerto Eten, Chiclayo, where he was accompanied by his three children – Álvaro, Gonzalo and Morgana – to visit some of the settings from his latest novel, Le dedico mi silencio (I Give You My Silence).

The exhibition, which concludes the programme of activities celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the Inca Garcilaso Cultural Centre, can be visited at Jirón Ucayali 391, Lima, until 12 April 2026, Tuesday to Friday, from 10 am to 8 pm; Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, from 10 am to 6 pm. Admission is free.