Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza (1932 – 2026)

Their Story

Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza was a Colombian writer and journalist who co-authored "El olor de la guayaba" and became a fierce critic of the Latin American left. A journalist, writer, and diplomat, Mendoza was named in honor of the Roman authors Pliny the Younger and Apuleius. He studied political science at the Sorbonne in Paris, and served as First Secretary of the Colombian Embassy in France, writing newspaper articles for several international publications. One of Gabriel García Márquez's closest friends for decades, they traveled together and worked on the political magazine Acción Liberal. Their friendship produced "El olor de la guayaba" (The Fragrance of Guava) in 1982, a book-length conversation widely regarded as the essential roadmap to the Nobel laureate's creative universe, where Mendoza coaxed García Márquez into revealing his origins, writing rituals, and political convictions. Throughout his career, Mendoza occupied the embassies of Colombia in Portugal and Italy, and developed an extensive literary and journalistic output that marked several generations. He directed the magazine Semana between 1982 and 1983. Mendoza co-authored the essay "Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot" (Manual del perfecto idiota latinoamericano) with Carlos Alberto Montaner and Álvaro Vargas Llosa, published in 1996.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plinio_Apuleyo_Mendoza