Edmundo Paz Soldán
A leading voice of the McOndo generation, he swaps magical realism for digital dystopias, mapping the anxieties of modern Latin America through technology and crime.
Born 1967 (age 59)·Bolivian writer·Birthday: March 29·Generation X
Biography
Edmundo Paz Soldán emerged from the Bolivian city of Cochabamba to become a central figure in a literary rebellion. Reacting against the dominant shadow of magical realism, he co-founded the McOndo movement, which insisted on portraying contemporary Latin American life with all its cyber-cafes, shopping malls, and political tumult. Since 1991, he has lived and taught in the United States, primarily at Cornell University, a distance that sharpens his perspective on his homeland. His novels, such as 'The Matter of Desire' and 'Turing's Delirium,' are sleek, often thriller-like explorations of how technology, corruption, and violence warp society and identity. He writes with a cool, analytical eye, earning a reputation as a savvy cartographer of 21st-century Latin American urban psyche.
Generation X
1965–1980
The latchkey kids. Raised during divorce, recession, and the end of the Cold War. Skeptical, self-reliant, media-literate. They invented indie culture, grunge, and the early internet — then watched the Boomers take credit.
Edmundo was born in 1967, placing them squarely in the Generation X. The events that shaped this generation — economic uncertainty, the end of the Cold War, and the rise of personal computing — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Edmundo Was Born
The biggest hits of 1967
#1 Movie
The Jungle Book
Best Picture
In the Heat of the Night
#1 TV Show
The Andy Griffith Show
Edmundo's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1967Born
Summer of Love in San Francisco; first Super Bowl
Gas: $0.33/galHome: $14,250Min wage: $1.40/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"To Sir, with Love" — LuluBest Picture: In the Heat of the Night
1972Started school
Watergate break-in; last Apollo Moon mission
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $19,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" — Roberta FlackBest Picture: The Godfather
1980Became a teenager
John Lennon shot and killed in New York
Gas: $1.19/galHome: $47,200Min wage: $3.10/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Call Me" — BlondieBest Picture: Ordinary People
1983Could drive
Internet adopts TCP/IP, creating the modern internet
Gas: $1.16/galHome: $57,700Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Every Breath You Take" — The PoliceBest Picture: Terms of Endearment
1985Could vote
Live Aid concerts raise money for Ethiopian famine
Gas: $1.12/galHome: $62,900Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Careless Whisper" — Wham!Best Picture: Out of Africa
1988Turned 21
Pan Am Flight 103 bombed over Lockerbie
Gas: $0.90/galHome: $74,800Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Faith" — George MichaelBest Picture: Rain Man
1997Turned 30
Princess Diana dies in Paris car crash; Harry Potter published
Gas: $1.23/galHome: $104,100Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Candle in the Wind 1997" — Elton JohnBest Picture: Titanic
2007Turned 40
iPhone released; Great Recession begins
Gas: $2.80/galHome: $172,600Min wage: $5.85/hrPresident: George W. Bush"Irreplaceable" — BeyonceBest Picture: No Country for Old Men
2017Turned 50
#MeToo movement; solar eclipse crosses the US
Gas: $2.42/galHome: $195,000Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Donald Trump"Shape of You" — Ed SheeranBest Picture: The Shape of Water
2026Age 59 today
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Awarded the prestigious Bolivian National Book Award for his novel 'El delirio de Turing' (Turing's Delirium).
- Recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006 for his contributions to fiction.
- Co-edited the seminal anthology 'McOndo,' which defined a new literary generation in Latin America.
- Has been a professor of Latin American literature at Cornell University since 1997, influencing a new generation of scholars.
Did You Know?
He is an avid fan of science fiction and comic books, influences that often surface in his work.
Paz Soldán played competitive tennis in his youth and has written essays connecting the sport to literature.
He writes a weekly political column for major Bolivian newspapers.
He initially came to the U.S. on a Fulbright scholarship to study at the University of Alabama.
“McOndo is more an attitude than a movement, a desire to narrate the Latin American city with its internet, its McDonald's, its traffic jams.”
