At a 1976 movie premiere in Mexico City, Mario Vargas Llosa famously punched his soon-to-be ex-friend, novelist Gabriel García Márquez, in the face. Some theorize the ruckus was about Vargas Llosa’s wife. Others believe it was a row over politics, as Vargas Llosa would soon refer to García Márquez as “Castro’s courtesan.”

I like to think the latter happened. Because the only thing Vargas Llosa, who died this week at the age of 87 in Spain, seemed to detest more than tedious prose was collectivism. And while the likes of García Márquez, who died in 2014, continued to adulate the dictator in Cuba, Vargas Llosa emerged as not only one of the era’s finest novelists but one of liberty’s most zealous champions.