More than half a century after the publication of his great masterpiece, Mario Vargas Llosa returned to Bar 55, in Lima, the place that inspired ‘Conversation in the Cathedral’ and in which Zavalita, while talking with her driver Ambrosio, uttered her famous phrase, «At what moment did Peru get screwed?».
His son, Álvaro Vargas Llosa, has immortalized the moment through a post along with two snapshots that reflect yesterday and today of the aforementioned enclave. «55 years later, I return to the (former) La Catedral bar, in search of the ghosts of Zavalita and the zambo Ambrosio», he wrote in reference to the current state of the establishment, with clear signs of abandoned for sale.
The phrase encapsulates the hopelessness and disappointment of Zavalita with respect to Peru, questioning when the nation lost its direction, becoming a place marked by corruption, injustice and inequality. Although it is Zavalita who says it in fiction, the phrase has transcended the novel and is seen as a symbolic question which expresses the frustration of many Peruvians.
Bar 55, which during the 50s and 60s was a place frequented by journalists, intellectuals and bohemians, has changed its name and appearance, but its symbolic weight remains intact. This space was the basis for the creation of the fictional Cathedral, where the protagonists of the novel analyze the state of Peru during the dictatorship of Manuel A. Odría.
The decline of the space is linked to the country’s current complicated moment, when the president’s management Dina Boluarte It only has 7% approval and is in the middle of a state of emergency in Lima and Callao to combat organized crime.
The return of Vargas Llosa to the stage that inspired the phrase, which has become a timeless question about the country’s challenges, revives its relevance today. Although decades have passed, the legacy of the bar – and the Peru it represents – remains an open conversation.
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