Novels were forbidden in Latin America for 300 years by the Spanish inquisition as these were considered bad for indians and society. The first novel, The Itching Parrot, was published in Mexico 1816 after independence. According to Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, "We are still victims in Latin America of what we could call the revenge of the novel. We still have great difficulty in our countries in differentiating between fact and fiction".