Top 10 short stories by famous Latin American authors

There are a lot of stories of Latin American authors in Hispanic literature, as many of these have contributed to expand the list. However, there are stories much more prominent than others, so we have collected some works by the writers who have enjoyed the greatest popularity.

List of short and long stories by Latin American authors

Among the chosen authors we can find Juan Rulfo, Rubem Fonseca, Gabriel García Márquez or Jorge Luis Borgues, which are usually known even to people with no interest in literature; since they are a classic and at least some of the names on the list will have heard or read. If you are a lover or interested in literature, we assure you that any of these Latin American stories may be to your liking, or at least most of them.

1. “Telephone calls” by Roberto Bolaño

It is the first book of stories by the great writer Roberto Bolano of Chilean origin, belonging to the infra-realist movement, where he presents us with a story of two lovers, that through a phone they end a relationship and after a long time, another phone finds them again, but phone calls become a problem.

2. "The Hunchback" by Roberto Arlt

The work the Hunchback published in 1933, by the Argentine writer Roberto Arlt. This is one of the stories by Latin American authors that are posed as a social satirical comedy. It is the story of a person who believes that he has freed the world from a monstrous and cruel being, by murdering a hunchbacked man named Rigoletto, the problem is that he in turn becomes doubly monstrous and much more cruel.

3. “Night walk” by Rubem Fonseca

Night Walk is a short tale of the Latin American author Rubem Fonseca, which is totally unpredictable and in addition, the author has the ability to put the reader in unimaginable tension. The main character spends a large part of his day driving around the desolate streets in his car, in search of his daily victim, becoming a madman with mental disorders that only by killing people every night can he cry out and feel pleasure; something you can't tell anyone.

4. “Macario” by Juan Rulfo

With the title of Macario, this narrative text constitutes one of the Latin American stories born from the pen of the famous Mexican writer Juan Rulfo. The story centers on the character "Macario", a child with mental problems who is cared for by his godmother; which forces him to do dreadful tasks such as killing toads, since if he disobeys he will leave him without eating; Furthermore, the child is often rejected by other people due to his condition.

 5. “The feather pillow” by Horacio Quiroga

Uruguayan storyteller of the XNUMXth century, is characterized by his suspense and horror stories. It brings us a short story of a couple who just got married, they begin to live together and after a while the wife gets sick and is diagnosed with anemia, her husband takes care of her and at the same time Alicia begins to have certain hallucinations. Every day he gets worse until he dies. Until they manage to discover that the cause of his death was in the pillow with which he slept.

6. "One of these days" by Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel García Márquez, a great writer of Colombian origin, who in this story we find the story of a dentist named Don Aurelio Escobar that he has as a patient the mayor of the city where he lives, and he seeks revenge through his office for all the robberies he has done to the citizens.

7. "The prodigious milligram" by Juan José Arreola

Born in Mexico, Arreola developed a taste for literature and for memorizing poems. This story "The Prodigious Milligram" shows us the story of a lazy ant  that a strange object is found, which is the prodigious milligram. She picks it up and takes it to the anthill. It puts him before his obligations, perhaps even his own being, causing chaos in her and in the other ants.

8. “Muebles el canario” by Felisberto Hernández

Written by well-known Uruguayan author Felisberto Hernández. It tells the story of an ordinary person who, because he is in the wrong place and at the wrong time, will run into a somewhat irregular situation; since the character gets on the tram as he normally does, only this time a man injects him and from there, madness will invade him.

9. “El Aleph” by Jorge Luis Borges

Within the Latin American narrative, the famous Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges is known, with the story "El Aleph" name that has as meaning: infinite multiplicity of the universe. The Latin American story is based on the unrealistic assumption that there is an "Aleph" in a real context and for this a narrator visits the house of a character named Beatriz; whose object is in Daneri's house in the basement, which is able to see all points of the universe.

10. “On Ballistics” by Juan José Arreola

One of the most entertaining stories by Latin American authors is written by Juan José Arreola, of Mexican origin. This story is about a teacher who tries to explain to a surprised student how weapons are usually intended to scare, rather than protect or actually function, using as an example the student's obsession with the catapults or ballistae of the Roman Empire.

We hope that these some of these short stories by Latin American authors have caught your attention, so that you can enjoy reading great literary works by true Spanish-speaking exponents.