Mario Vargas Llosa has left this world today, but many of the places where he wrote are still standing, some with another owner and another name. This is the case of El Jute, an old tavern at number 13 Menéndez Pelayo Street, a few meters from the Retiro, which eventually became the restaurant that today is El Arzábal.
El Jute was a key space for the writer during 1958 and 1959. At that time, the writer was living in Madrid and attending doctoral courses at the Complutense University. We know that La ciudad y los perros, his first novel, was born in the Madrid tavern.
The author even openly acknowledged that he began writing the work there; he recounted on several occasions (including in the prologue to the definitive edition of his book) how he used his afternoons in the capital to revise the first chapters after his classes. The place was simple, cozy and with certain distractions. According to Professor Carlos Aguirre, the writer especially remembered a squint-eyed waiter who occasionally passed by his table to ask him: How’s it going?
During his time in Madrid, Vargas Llosa also shared moments with friends and acquaintances at El Jute. One of those who accompanied him to the tasca was Paúl Escobar, who would later join the MIR guerrilla movement. Escobar, also a Peruvian student, used to visit the tasca to convince the writer to take a break and stroll through the streets of Madrid.