Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges, b. 24 August 1899, Buenos Aires, Argentina, d.14 June 1986, Geneva Most influential Latin American author of the 20th century, though, ironically, blind. If you are unfamiliar with his work, start with the anthology "Labyrinths", and the short story collections "Ficciones" and "El Aleph", all well-translated into English by Norman Thomas di Giovanni.
http://www.borges.pitt.edu/english.php

Columbian, b. 1927 Nobel Prize (Lit) 1982 Notable as the foremost exponent of the Magical Realism movement, which brought a wave of attention to Latin American Lit in the 1970's. Most important works: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) Love in the Time of Cholera (1985)