Edmundo Paz-Soldán had written an article for the latest Spanish-language edition of Foreign Policy magazine on how the U.S. elections could affect Latin America. This week, while looking through the magazine, he found his name also appeared in quite another context: He was named one of the 50 most influential intellectuals who trace their ancestry to the Iberian peninsula.

"I was quite shocked, because I'm not used to this kind of thing," said Paz-Soldán, associate professor of Romance studies. Yet, at 41, he is well-known in the Spanish-speaking world as a journalist and the author of seven novels. His work has been translated into seven languages, including two novels into English, "Turing's Delirium" and "The Matter of Desire."

He is the author of many scholarly articles and has edited, with Cornell colleague Debra Castillo, "Latin American Literature and Mass Media." He also writes short stories and blogs regularly on political and literary subjects. Paz-Soldán's eighth novel, the first set in the United States, will be published in Spain in February.

The native Bolivian hardly sees himself as having the same public profile as some others on the Foreign Policy list, which includes eminent writers Mario Vargas Llosa (who has described Paz-Soldán as "one of the most important Latin American writers of the new generation") and Gabriel Garcia Márquez, the Spanish filmmaker Pedro Amodóvar and Fidel Castro. "Clearly the word 'intellectual' is loosely used here," said Paz-Soldán. "They are people who have some impact in the public sphere."

Nevertheless, good press is good press. "We are delighted at this latest sign of recognition of Professor Paz-Soldán's standing as a major Latin American intellectual figure," said Jonathan Culler, the Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature and chair of Romance studies. "He is a very popular teacher of Latin American literature and culture, and his fame as a novelist, which continues to grow, both attracts outstanding students to the department to work with him and gives him special authority in his teaching of modern literature. We are extraordinarily fortunate to have a novelist of such eminence at Cornell."

In Paz-Soldán's Bolivia and throughout Latin America, many writers and "public" intellectuals traditionally become deeply engaged in politics -- sometimes running for office. "Susan Sontag was a public intellectual in the way Latin American writers are," said Paz-Soldán. "Here, you don't usually have someone like Philip Roth on CNN. I think because [Latin Americans] have very weak cultural institutions, you can always find writers' opinions in newspapers and on TV."

In the last three years, by virtue of its election of its first indigenous president, Evo Morales (of Aymara descent), and a great deal of political and economic turmoil, Bolivia has been much in the news. "For such a small country, we have made lots of noise," said Paz-Soldán. "I've been writing a lot about the Bolivian situation for newspapers in Spain, France, Chile, the U.S., Mexico. I think [being named to the list] is related to this."

Paz-Soldán came to the United States to study political science on a soccer scholarship at the University of Alabama-Huntsville in 1988, following a crash course in English. He earned a master's and Ph.D. in Hispanic languages and literatures from the University of California-Berkeley and joined the Cornell faculty in 1999. His awards include a Guggenheim, the Bolivian National Book Award (1992 and 2003) and the Juan Rulfo Short Story Award in 1997.

He began publishing fiction after leaving Bolivia. "I've lived here for more than 20 years already, and I'm happy to have readers who read me in Spanish in the United States," said Paz-Soldán. "This is not a foreign country to me anymore. I have roots here. I have two American sons. I see the U.S. as my own country."