Someone not mentioned yet
The Uruguyan author, Eduardo Galeano, is a terrific vignette writer. He published a really wonderful 3 volume work on the history of Latin America, but all done in quirky, anecdotal, historically-based vignettes. The work is called:
Memory of Fire
vol 1: Genesis
vol II: Faces & Masks
vol III: Century of the Wind
He also published a similar work (although 1 volume) on soccer in Latin America.
Galeano's major academic work is called "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent". Published by Monthly Review Press, it's more of a straight-forward academic text.
I've only read him in translation but I would highly recommend checking him out. It's hard to describe but his works are vibrant, quirky, humorous, and (to use a grand literary cliche) captivating.
