List of Latin American Nobel laureates

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. ^[1] As of November 2022, Nobel Prizes had been awarded to 954 individuals, ^[2] of whom 17 were Latin American recipients (1.7% of the 954 individual recipients).

Latin Americans have received awards in four of the six award categories: six in Literature (35.3% of the Latin recipients), six in Peace (35.3%), three in Physiology or Medicine (17.6%), and two in Chemistry (11.8%). 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.

Chemistry

Two Latin Americans have been given the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Year	Image	Laureate	Country	Comment
1970		Luis F. Leloir	Argentina	[3] First Hispanic to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1995		Mario J. Molina	Mexico

Physiology or Medicine

Three Latin Americans have been given the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Year	Image	Laureate	Country	Comment
1947		Bernardo Alberto Houssay	Argentina	First Latin American to win a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1980		Baruj Benacerraf	Venezuela United States
1984		César Milstein	Argentina United Kingdom

Literature

Six Latin Americans have been given the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Year	Image	Laureate	Country	Comment
1945		Gabriela Mistral	Chile	First Latin American to win a Nobel Prize in literature
1967		Miguel Ángel Asturias	Guatemala
1971		Pablo Neruda	Chile
1982		Gabriel García Márquez	Colombia
1990		Octavio Paz	Mexico
2010		Mario Vargas Llosa	Peru

Peace

Six Latin Americans have been given the Nobel Peace Prize.

Year	Image	Laureate	Country	Comment
1936		Carlos Saavedra Lamas	Argentina	First Latin American to win a Nobel Prize, first Hispanic to win a Nobel Peace Prize
1980		Adolfo Pérez Esquivel	Argentina	[4]
1982		Alfonso García Robles	Mexico
1987		Óscar Arias Sánchez	Costa Rica
1992		Rigoberta Menchú	Guatemala
2016		Juan Manuel Santos	Colombia
2025		María Corina Machado	Venezuela	"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." [5]

See also

• List of Argentine Nobel laureates
• List of Spanish Nobel laureates
• List of Asian Nobel laureates
• List of Jewish Nobel laureates

References

1. "Nobel Prize" (2007), in Encyclopædia Britannica , accessed 14 November 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online:

   An additional award, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden and was first awarded in 1969

2. "All Nobel Laureates". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
3. "Biography of Luis Leloir". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
4. "Adofo Pérez Esquivel". Nobel Prize Committee.
5. The Nobel Peace Prize 2025 nobelprize.org}}