Some of you have asked me for a list of recommendations that I have received for Latin American authors, here goes:
1. Peru -- MarioVargas LLosa , the Time of the Hero, the War of the End of the World (history, hardship)
2. Brazil -- Clarice Lispector, the Hour of the Star (existentialism, feminism)
3. Mexico - Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz, Aura (concept of time, magic realism)
4. Cuba/Haiti - Aleyo Carpentier, Kingdom of this World (history, voodoo, story of the first and only black slave rising and actual take-over of a nation from whites (Haiti)
5. Brazil - Jorge Armado, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, Dona Flor and Her Two Hustbands (Brazilian culture, sex, race relations)
6. Argentina - Jorge Luis Borge, Labarynths Isurrealism, concept of time)
7. Chile - Jose Donoso, the Obscene Bird of Night (surrealism, magic realism)
8. Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Another great author is Isabel Allende; shes from Peru. Some of her books include:

The House of the Spirits
Of Love of Shadows
Daughter of Fortune
Portrait in Sepia

I was fascinated by El Vuelo de La Reina. It made me pay more attention to Latin American literature.

I second all of Meg's recommendations.
I also recommend anything by the Cuban-American author Oscar Hijuelos. He's best-known for The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. I also recommend Our House in the Last World - a meditation on the immigrant experience.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is Colombian in case anyone was wondering.

Dominican- Junot Diaz "The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao"

Another Brazilian is Paulo Coehlo. He has written some amazing books. "The Alchemist" & "Veronika Decides to Die."

Thank you April I totally forgot to add Oscar Wao which I loved. Have you read it?

I loved loved loved The House of Spirits
by Isabel Allende

Another of her books Eva Luna is a must read.