The Nobel Prize is an annual, international prize first awarded in 1901 for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace, with an associated prize in Economics awarded since 1969."Nobel Prize" (2007), in Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed 15 May 2026, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: As of October 2025, Nobel Prizes had been awarded to 965 individuals, of whom 21 were Latin American recipients (2.12% of the 990 individual recipients).
Latin Americans have received awards in four of the six award categories: seven in Peace (33.3% of the Latin recipients), seven in Literature (33.3%), four in Physiology or Medicine (19%), and three in Chemistry (14.2%). The first Latin American recipient, Carlos Saavedra Lamas, was awarded the Peace Prize in 1936. The most recent, María Corina Machado, was awarded the Peace Prize in 2025.
Among the Latin American laureates, two served as heads of state or government of their respective countries upon receiving the Nobel Prize. Those include Óscar Arias Sánchez of Costa Rica and Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, who were presidents; both of them were awarded the Peace Prize.
Since the death of Mario Vargas Llosa on 23 April 2025, there are no other living Latin American laureates in the other categories except for five Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
Laureates + Number of Latin American Nobel laureates by country Category Medicine 2 1 1 4 Physics Chemistry 2 1 3 Literature 2 1 1 1 1 1 7 Peace 2 1 1 1 1 1 7 Economics Total 6 1 2 2 1 2 3 1 1 2 21
Year Image Laureate Born Died Citation Physiology or Medicine1947Bernardo Houssay10 April 1887 Buenos Aires, Argentina21 September 1971 Buenos Aires, Argentina"for his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugar"(awarded jointly with Carl Ferdinand Cori and Gerty Radnitz-Cori)1960Peter Medawar28 February 1915 Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil2 October 1987 London, United Kingdom"for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance."(awarded jointly with Frank Macfarlane Burnet)1980Baruj Benacerraf29 October 1920 Caracas, Venezuela2 August 2011 Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, United States"for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions"(awarded jointly with Jean Dausset and George Davis Snell)1984César Milstein8 October 1927 Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina24 March 2002 Cambridge, England"for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies"(awarded jointly with Niels Kaj Jerne and Georges J. F. Köhler) Chemistry1931Friedrich Bergius11 October 1884 Wrocław, Poland30 March 1949 Buenos Aires, Argentina"in recognition of their contributions to the invention and development of chemical high pressure methods"(awarded jointly with Carl Bosch)1970Luis Federico Leloir6 September 1906 Paris, France2 December 1987 Buenos Aires, Argentina"for his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates"1995Mario Molina19 March 1943 Mexico City, Mexico7 October 2020 Mexico City, Mexico"for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone"(awarded jointly with Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland) Literature1945Gabriela Mistral7 April 1889 Vicuña, Elqui, Chile10 January 1957 Hempstead, New York, United States"for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world"1967Juan Ramón Jiménez23 December 1881 Moguer, Huelva, Spain29 May 1958 San Juan, Puerto Rico"for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity"1967Miguel Ángel Asturias19 October 1899 Guatemala City, Guatemala9 June 1974 Madrid, Spain"for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America"1971Pablo Neruda12 July 1904 Parral, Linares, Chile23 September 1973 Santiago, Chile"for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams"1982Gabriel García Márquez6 March 1927 Aracataca, Magdalena, Colombia17 April 2014 Mexico City, Mexico"for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts"1990Octavio Paz31 March 1914 Mexico City, Mexico19 April 1998 Mexico City, Mexico"for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity"2010Mario Vargas Llosa28 March 1936 Arequipa, Peru13 April 2025 Lima, Peru"for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat" Peace1936Carlos Saavedra Lamas1 November 1878 Buenos Aires, Argentina5 May 1959 Buenos Aires, Argentina"for his role as father of the Argentine Antiwar Pact of 1933, which he also used as a means to mediate peace between Paraguay and Bolivia in 1935"1980Adolfo Pérez Esquivel26 November 1931 Buenos Aires, Argentina(aged )"for being a source of inspiration to repressed people, especially in Latin America"1982Alfonso García Robles20 March 1911 Zamora, Michoacán, Mexico2 September 1991 Mexico City, Mexico"for their work for disarmament and nuclear and weapon-free zones"(awarded jointly with Alva Myrdal)1987Óscar Arias13 September 1940 Heredia, Costa Rica(aged )"for his work for lasting peace in Central America"1992Rigoberta Menchú9 January 1959 Laj Chimel, Quiché, Guatemala(aged )"for her struggle for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples"2016Juan Manuel Santos10 August 1951 Bogotá, Colombia(aged )"for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end"2025María Corina Machado7 October 1967 Caracas, Venezuela(aged )"for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy"
Nominees Individuals The nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize. All nomination records for a prize are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize. Since its establishment, there have been 156 Latin American nominees from 1901 to 1976.
+ Number of Latin American Nobel nomineesNominees by country Category Medicine 8 5 1 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 24 Physics 3 1 4 Chemistry 3 1 1 4 1 10 Literature 12 1 8 5 2 4 1 1 1 6 5 2 6 6 60 Peace 10 2 13 7 2 2 1 3 2 7 2 2 1 3 1 58 Economics 1 1 Total 34 3 27 16 4 8 2 4 2 1 1 20 1 9 5 1 11 8 157Nominees by sex Men 28 3 27 15 4 7 2 4 2 1 19 1 9 4 1 10 7 144 Women 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 13