It is with great sadness that the Department of Spanish and Portuguese announces the passing of Distinguished Professor Efraín Kristal. He died on November 14th, 2025, in Southern California, surrounded by his family.
Efraín Kristal was a distinguished professor of the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and the Department of Comparative Literature at UCLA and one of the world’s foremost scholars of Mario Vargas Llosa and Jorge Luis Borges. Professor Kristal was born in Peru and grew up in California, since he was eleven years old, and was educated in Paris and later obtained his Ph.D. at Stanford. Kristal built an extraordinary academic career marked by erudition, generosity, and international influence, serving as a visiting scholar at leading institutions and earning honors such as the Humboldt Foundation fellowship and an honorary professorship at the Universidad del Pacífico. The author of more than one hundred essays and several seminal books on Latin American literature, philosophy, and translation, he played a central role in shaping global understanding of Vargas Llosa, Borges, and other major writers. As Peruvian writer Alonso Cueto wrote recently Professor Kristal’s book on Mario Vargas Llosa, Tentación de la palabra (FCE), has been regarded as the best academic book ever published on any of the writers of the Latin American Boom. His books on Borges have been the high point of the academic writings on the Argentine writer and forever referenced in any critical study about Borges. Professor Kristal has been for long admired by colleagues, students, and friends for the prowess of his intellect, limitless generosity, and human warmth, immediately manifested to whomever spoke to him or stepped in his classes. Professor Kristal was an extraordinary educator too, who won the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, and left an indelible mark in all his students. Professor Kristal mentored a large number of students as chair of the dissertation committee, and participated as a member in uncountable other M.A. and Ph.D. committees. Professor Kristal leaves behind a profound legacy in literary criticism, the interpretation of arts, and philosophy writings, one that will continue to guide scholars, students, and readers in the future.
For the obituary written by Sean Brenner, please go here: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/in-memoriam-efrain-kristal-comparative-literature-scholar-ucla
Professor Kristal’s death was reported in multiple news media, including Infobae:https://www.infobae.com/peru/2025/11/15/fallece-efrain-kristal-destacado-academico-y-referente-en-los-estudios-sobre-mario-vargas-llosa/