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Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist,
short-story writer A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, particularly in the
Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the ...
, he was awarded the 1972
Neustadt International Prize for Literature The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, ''World Literature Today''. It is considered one of the more prestigious int ...
and the
1982 Nobel Prize in Literature The 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) "for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflec ...
. He pursued a self-directed education that resulted in leaving law school for a career in journalism. From early on he showed no inhibitions in his criticism of Colombian and foreign politics. In 1958, he married
Mercedes Barcha Pardo Mercedes Raquel Barcha Pardo (November 6, 1932 – August 15, 2020) was the wife of novelist Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014). Life Barcha was born on November 6, 1932, in Magangué, Colombia. Barcha is best known for her financial and ...
; they had two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo. García Márquez started as a journalist and wrote many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best known for his novels, such as '' One Hundred Years of Solitude'' (1967), ''
Chronicle of a Death Foretold ''Chronicle of a Death Foretold'' ( es, Crónica de una muerte anunciada) is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981. It tells, in the form of a pseudo- journalistic reconstruction, the story of the murder of Santiago Nasar by ...
'' (1981), and '' Love in the Time of Cholera'' (1985). His works have achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for popularizing a literary style known as magic realism, which uses magical elements and events in otherwise ordinary and realistic situations. Some of his works are set in the fictional village of
Macondo Macondo is a fictional town described in Gabriel García Márquez's novel '' One Hundred Years of Solitude''. It is the home town of the Buendía family. Aracataca Macondo is often supposed to draw from García Márquez's childhood town, Aracat ...
(mainly inspired by his birthplace, Aracataca), and most of them explore the theme of
solitude Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation, meaning lack of socialisation. Effects can be either positive or negative, depending on the situation. Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one may work, think, or rest without distu ...
. Upon García Márquez's death in April 2014, Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia, called him "the greatest Colombian who ever lived."


Biography


Early life

Gabriel García Márquez was born on 6 March 1927 in Aracataca, Colombia, to Gabriel Eligio García and Luisa Santiaga Márquez Iguarán. Soon after García Márquez was born, his father became a pharmacist and moved, with his wife, to
Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Co ...
, leaving young Gabriel in Aracataca. He was raised by his maternal grandparents, Doña Tranquilina Iguarán and Colonel Nicolás Ricardo Márquez Mejía. In December 1936 his father took him and his brother to
Sincé Sincé is a town and municipality located in the Department of Sucre, northern Colombia. San Luis de Sincé, is a town and municipality located in the Department of Sucre, 28 km (15 mi) southeast of Sincelejo, in northern Colombia. ...
, while in March 1937 his grandfather died; the family then moved first (back) to Barranquilla and then on to
Sucre Sucre () is the capital of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the 6th most populated city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high altitude gives the ...
, where his father started a pharmacy. When his parents fell in love, their relationship met with resistance from Luisa Santiaga Márquez's father, the Colonel. Gabriel Eligio García was not the man the Colonel had envisioned winning the heart of his daughter: Gabriel Eligio was a
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
, and had the reputation of being a womanizer. Gabriel Eligio wooed Luisa with violin serenades, love poems, countless letters, and even telephone messages after her father sent her away with the intention of separating the young couple. Her parents tried everything to get rid of the man, but he kept coming back, and it was obvious their daughter was committed to him. Her family finally capitulated and gave her permission to marry him (The tragicomic story of their courtship would later be adapted and recast as '' Love in the Time of Cholera''.) Since García Márquez's parents were more or less strangers to him for the first few years of his life, his grandparents influenced his early development very strongly. His grandfather, whom he called "Papalelo", was a Liberal veteran of the Thousand Days War. The Colonel was considered a hero by Colombian Liberals and was highly respected. He was well known for his refusal to remain silent about the banana massacres that took place the year after García Márquez was born. The Colonel, whom García Márquez described as his "umbilical cord with history and reality," was also an excellent storyteller. He taught García Márquez lessons from the dictionary, took him to the circus each year, and was the first to introduce his grandson to ice—a "miracle" found at the
United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...
store. He would also occasionally tell his young grandson "You can't imagine how much a dead man weighs", reminding him that there was no greater burden than to have killed a man, a lesson that García Márquez would later integrate into his novels. García Márquez's grandmother, Doña Tranquilina Iguarán Cotes, played an influential role in his upbringing. He was inspired by the way she "treated the extraordinary as something perfectly natural." The house was filled with stories of ghosts and premonitions, omens and portents, all of which were studiously ignored by her husband. According to García Márquez she was "the source of the magical, superstitious and supernatural view of reality". He enjoyed his grandmother's unique way of telling stories. No matter how fantastic or improbable her statements, she always delivered them as if they were the irrefutable truth. It was a deadpan style that, some thirty years later, heavily influenced her grandson's most popular novel, '' One Hundred Years of Solitude''.


Education and adulthood

After arriving at
Sucre Sucre () is the capital of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the 6th most populated city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high altitude gives the ...
, it was decided that García Márquez should start his formal education and he was sent to an internship in
Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Co ...
, a port on the mouth of the
Río Magdalena The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of ...
. There, he gained a reputation of being a timid boy who wrote humorous poems and drew humorous comic strips. Serious and little interested in athletic activities, he was called ''El Viejo'' by his classmates. García Márquez spent his first years of high school, from 1940, in the Colegio jesuita San José (today Instituto San José), where he published his first poems in the school magazine ''Juventud''. Later, thanks to a scholarship given to him by the government, Gabriel was sent to study in
Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
, then was relocated to the Liceo Nacional de Zipaquirá, a town one hour away from the capital, where he would finish his secondary studies. During his time at the Bogotá study house, he excelled in various sports, becoming team captain of the Liceo Nacional Zipaquirá team in three disciplines: soccer, baseball, and track. After his graduation in 1947, García Márquez stayed in Bogotá to study law at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, but spent most of his spare time reading fiction. ''La metamorfosis'' by
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...
, particularly in the false translation of
Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
, was a work that especially inspired him. He was excited by the idea of writing, not traditional literature, but in a style similar to his grandmother's stories, in which she "inserted extraordinary events and anomalies as if they were simply an aspect of everyday life." His desire to be a writer grew. A little later he published his first work, "La tercera resignación," which appeared in the 13 September 1947 edition of the newspaper ''El Espectador''. Though his passion was writing, he continued with law in 1948 to please his father. After the '' Bogotazo'' riots on 9 April following the assassination of popular leader
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala (23 January 1903 – 9 April 1948) was a left-wing Colombian politician and charismatic leader of the Liberal Party. He served as the mayor of Bogotá from 1936–37, the national Education Minister from 194 ...
, the university closed indefinitely and his boarding house was burned. García Márquez transferred to the Universidad de Cartagena and began working as a reporter of '' El Universal''. In 1950 he ended his legal studies to focus on journalism and moved again to Barranquilla to work as a columnist and reporter in the newspaper '' El Heraldo''. Though García Márquez never finished his higher studies, some universities, including
Columbia University in the City of New York Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan ...
, have given him an honorary doctorate in writing.


Journalism

García Márquez began his career as a journalist while studying law at the
National University of Colombia The National University of Colombia () is a national public research university in Colombia, with general campuses in Bogotá, Medellín, Manizales and Palmira, and satellite campuses in Leticia, San Andrés, Arauca, Tumaco, and La Paz ...
. In 1948 and 1949 he wrote for '' El Universal'' in Cartagena. From 1950 until 1952 he wrote a "whimsical" column under the name of "''Septimus''" for the local paper '' El Heraldo'' in
Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Co ...
. García Márquez noted of his time at ''El Heraldo'', "I'd write a piece and they'd pay me three pesos for it, and maybe an editorial for another three." During this time he became an active member of the informal group of writers and journalists known as the Barranquilla Group, an association that provided great motivation and inspiration for his literary career. He worked with inspirational figures such as Ramon Vinyes, whom García Márquez depicted as an Old Catalan who owns a bookstore in ''One Hundred Years of Solitude''. At this time, García Márquez was also introduced to the works of writers such as
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...
and
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
. Faulkner's narrative techniques, historical themes and use of rural locations influenced many Latin American authors. The environment of Barranquilla gave García Márquez a world-class literary education and a unique perspective on Caribbean culture. From 1954 to 1955, García Márquez spent time in Bogotá and regularly wrote for Bogotá's '' El Espectador''. He was a regular film critic. In December 1957 García Márquez accepted a position in
Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in th ...
with the magazine ''Momento'' directed by his friend Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza. He arrived in the Venezuelan capital on 23 December 1957, and began working right away at ''Momento''. García Márquez also witnessed the
1958 Venezuelan coup d'état The 1958 Venezuelan coup d'état took place on 23 January 1958, when the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez was overthrown. A transition government under first Adm. Wolfgang Larrazábal and then Edgar Sanabria was put in place until December 19 ...
, leading to the exile of the president
Marcos Pérez Jiménez Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (25 April 1914 – 20 September 2001) was a Venezuelan military and general officer of the Army of Venezuela and the dictator of Venezuela from 1950 to 1958, ruling as member of the military junta from 1 ...
. Following this event, García Márquez wrote an article, "The participation of the clergy in the struggle", describing the Church of Venezuela's opposition against Jiménez's regime. In March 1958 he made a trip to Colombia, where he married Mercedes Barcha and together they returned to Caracas. In May 1958, disagreeing with the owner of ''Momento'', he resigned and became shortly afterwards editor of the newspaper ''Venezuela Gráfica''.


Politics

García Márquez was a "committed leftist" throughout his life, adhering to socialist beliefs. In 1991 he published ''Changing the History of Africa'', an admiring study of Cuban activities in the
Angolan Civil War The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately began after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was ...
and the larger
South African Border War The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Ango ...
. He maintained a close but "nuanced" friendship with
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...
, praising the achievements of the
Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in co ...
but criticizing aspects of governance and working to "soften heroughest edges" of the country. García Márquez's political and ideological views were shaped by his grandfather's stories. In an interview, García Márquez told his friend Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, "my grandfather the Colonel was a Liberal. My political ideas probably came from him to begin with because, instead of telling me fairy tales when I was young, he would regale me with horrifying accounts of the last civil war that free-thinkers and anti-clerics waged against the Conservative government." This influenced his political views and his literary technique so that "in the same way that his writing career initially took shape in conscious opposition to the Colombian literary status quo, García Márquez's socialist and anti-imperialist views are in principled opposition to the global status quo dominated by the United States."


''The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor''

Ending in controversy, his last domestically written editorial for ''El Espectador'' was a series of 14 news articles in which he revealed the hidden story of how a Colombian Navy vessel's shipwreck "occurred because the boat contained a badly stowed cargo of contraband goods that broke loose on the deck." García Márquez compiled this story through interviews with a young sailor who survived the wreck. The articles resulted in public controversy, as they discredited the official account of the events, which had blamed a storm for the shipwreck and glorified the surviving sailor. In response to this controversy ''El Espectador'' sent García Márquez away to Europe to be a foreign correspondent. He wrote about his experiences for ''El Independiente'', a newspaper that briefly replaced ''El Espectador'' during the military government of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla and was later shut down by Colombian authorities. García Márquez's background in journalism provided a foundational base for his writing career. Literary critic Bell-Villada noted, "Owing to his hands-on experiences in journalism, García Márquez is, of all the great living authors, the one who is closest to everyday reality."


QAP

García Márquez was one of the original founders of QAP, a Colombian newscast that aired between 1992 and 1997. He was attracted to the project by the promise of editorial and journalistic independence.


Marriage and family

García Márquez met Mercedes Barcha while she was at school; he was 12 and she was 9. When he was sent to Europe as a foreign correspondent, Mercedes waited for him to return to Barranquilla. Finally, they married in 1958. The following year, their first son, Rodrigo García, now a television and film director, was born. In 1961, the family traveled by
Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurgenc ...
bus throughout the southern United States and eventually settled in
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
. García Márquez had always wanted to see the Southern United States because it inspired the writings of
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
. Three years later, the couple's second son, Gonzalo García, was born in Mexico. Gonzalo is currently a graphic designer in Mexico City. In January 2022, it was reported that García Márquez had a daughter, Indira Cato, from an extramarital affair with Mexican writer Susana Cato in the early 1990s. Indira is a documentary producer in Mexico City.


''Leaf Storm''

''Leaf Storm'' (''La Hojarasca'') is García Márquez's first novella and took seven years to find a publisher, finally being published in 1955. García Márquez notes that "of all that he had written (as of 1973), ''Leaf Storm'' was his favorite because he felt that it was the most sincere and spontaneous." All the events of the novella take place in one room, during a half-hour period on Wednesday 12 September 1928. It is the story of an old colonel (similar to García Márquez's own grandfather) who tries to give a proper Christian burial to an unpopular French doctor. The colonel is supported only by his daughter and grandson. The novella explores the child's first experience with death by following his stream of consciousness. The book also reveals the perspective of Isabel, the Colonel's daughter, which provides a feminine point of view.


''In Evil Hour''

''In Evil Hour'' (''La mala hora''), García Márquez's second novel, was published in 1962. The novel was originally entitled ''Este pueblo de mierda'' (“This Town of Shit” or “This Shitty Town”). Some of the characters and situations found in ''In Evil Hour'' re-appear in '' One Hundred Years of Solitude''.


''One Hundred Years of Solitude''

From when he was 18, García Márquez had wanted to write a novel based on his grandparents' house where he grew up. However, he struggled with finding an appropriate tone and put off the idea until one day the answer hit him while driving his family to
Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has ...
. He turned the car around and the family returned home so he could begin writing. He sold his car so his family would have money to live on while he wrote. Writing the novel took far longer than he expected; he wrote every day for 18 months. His wife had to ask for food on credit from their butcher and baker as well as nine months of rent on credit from their landlord. During the 18 months of writing, García Márquez met with two couples, Eran Carmen and Álvaro Mutis, and María Luisa Elío and Jomí García Ascot, every night and discussed the progress of the novel, trying out different versions. When the book was published in 1967, it became his most commercially successful novel, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' (''Cien años de soledad''; English translation by Gregory Rabassa, 1970), selling over 50 million copies. The book was dedicated "Para (to) Jomí García Ascot y María Luisa Elío." The story chronicles several generations of the Buendía family from the time they founded the fictional South American village of
Macondo Macondo is a fictional town described in Gabriel García Márquez's novel '' One Hundred Years of Solitude''. It is the home town of the Buendía family. Aracataca Macondo is often supposed to draw from García Márquez's childhood town, Aracat ...
, through their trials and tribulations, and instances of incest, births, and deaths. The history of Macondo is often generalized by critics to represent rural towns throughout Latin America or at least near García Márquez's native Aracataca. The novel was widely popular and led to García Márquez's Nobel Prize as well as the
Rómulo Gallegos Prize The Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize ( es, Premio internacional de novela Rómulo Gallegos) was created on 6 August 1964 by a presidential decree enacted by Venezuelan president Raúl Leoni, in honor of the Venezuelan politician and Pres ...
in 1972. William Kennedy has called it "the first piece of literature since the
Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...
that should be required reading for the entire human race," and hundreds of articles and books of literary critique have been published in response to it. Despite the many accolades the book received, García Márquez tended to downplay its success. He once remarked: "Most critics don't realize that a novel like ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' is a bit of a joke, full of signals to close friends, and so, with some pre-ordained right to pontificate they take on the responsibility of decoding the book and risk making terrible fools of themselves."


Fame

After writing ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' García Márquez returned to Europe, this time bringing along his family, to live in
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, Spain, for seven years. The international recognition García Márquez earned with the publication of the novel led to his ability to act as a facilitator in several negotiations between the
Colombian government The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches. Its legislature has a congress, its judiciary has a supreme court, and its executive branch has a president. The citiz ...
and the guerrillas, including the former
19th of April Movement The 19th of April Movement ( es, Movimiento 19 de Abril), or M-19, was a Colombian guerrilla organisation movement. After its demobilization it became a political party, the M-19 Democratic Alliance (), or AD/M-19. The M-19 traced its or ...
(M-19), and the current
FARC The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
and ELN organizations. The popularity of his writing also led to friendships with powerful leaders, including one with former Cuban president
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...
, which has been analyzed in ''Gabo and Fidel: Portrait of a Friendship.'' It was during this time that he was punched in the face by
Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
in what became one of the largest feuds in modern literature. In an interview with
Claudia Dreifus Claudia Dreifus is an American journalist, educator and lecturer, producer of the weekly feature ''“Conversation with…”'' of the Science Section of ''The New York Times'', and known for her interviews with leading figures in world politics ...
in 1982 García Márquez noted his relationship with Castro was mostly based on literature: "Ours is an intellectual friendship. It may not be widely known that Fidel is a very cultured man. When we’re together, we talk a great deal about literature." This relationship was criticized by Cuban exile writer
Reinaldo Arenas Reinaldo Arenas (July 16, 1943 – December 7, 1990) was a Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright known as a vocal critic of Fidel Castro, the Cuban Revolution, and the Cuban government. His memoir of the Cuban dissident movement and of being a po ...
, in his 1992 memoir ''Antes de que Anochezca'' (''
Before Night Falls ''Before Night Falls'' ( es, Antes que anochezca: autobiografía) is the 1992 autobiography of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, describing his early life in Cuba, his time in prison, and his escape to the United States in the Mariel Boatlift of ...
''). Due to his newfound fame and his outspoken views on US imperialism, García Márquez was labeled as a subversive and for many years was denied visas by US immigration authorities. After
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
was elected US president, he lifted the travel ban and cited ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' as his favorite novel.


''Autumn of the Patriarch''

García Márquez was inspired to write a
dictator novel The dictator novel ( es, novela del dictador) is a genre of Latin American literature that challenges the role of the dictator in Latin American society. The theme of '' caudillismo''—the régime of a charismatic ''caudillo'', a political stron ...
when he witnessed the flight of Venezuelan dictator
Marcos Pérez Jiménez Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (25 April 1914 – 20 September 2001) was a Venezuelan military and general officer of the Army of Venezuela and the dictator of Venezuela from 1950 to 1958, ruling as member of the military junta from 1 ...
. He said, "it was the first time we had seen a dictator fall in Latin America." García Márquez began writing ''Autumn of the Patriarch'' (''El otoño del patriarca'') in 1968 and said it was finished in 1971; however, he continued to embellish the dictator novel until 1975 when it was published in Spain. According to García Márquez, the novel is a "poem on the solitude of power" as it follows the life of an eternal dictator known as the General. The novel is developed through a series of anecdotes related to the life of the General, which do not appear in chronological order. Although the exact location of the story is not pin-pointed in the novel, the imaginary country is situated somewhere in the Caribbean. García Márquez gave his own explanation of the plot:
My intention was always to make a synthesis of all the Latin American dictators, but especially those from the Caribbean. Nevertheless, the personality of Juan Vicente Gomez f Venezuelawas so strong, in addition to the fact that he exercised a special fascination over me, that undoubtedly the Patriarch has much more of him than anyone else.
After ''Autumn of the Patriarch'' was published García Márquez and his family moved from Barcelona to
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
and García Márquez pledged not to publish again until the Chilean Dictator
Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
was deposed. But he ultimately published ''Chronicle of a Death Foretold'' while Pinochet was still in power, as he "could not remain silent in the face of injustice and repression."


''The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother''

''The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother'' ( es, La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y de su abuela desalmada) presents the story of a young mulatto girl who dreams of freedom, but cannot escape the reach of her avaricious grandmother. The plot of the novella describes the life journey of 14-year-old Eréndira, who is living with her grandmother when she accidentally sets fire to their home. The grandmother forces Eréndira to repay the debt by becoming a prostitute as they travel the road as vagrants. Men line up to enjoy Eréndira's services. She eventually escapes with the assistance of her affectionate and somewhat gullible lover, Ulises, but only after he murders her grandmother. After the murder, Eréndira runs off into the night alone, leaving him in the tent with the dead body of her grandmother. Eréndira and her grandmother make an appearance in '' One Hundred Years of Solitude'', an earlier novel by García Márquez. ''The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother'' was published in 1972. The novella was adapted to the 1983 art film '' Eréndira'', directed by Ruy Guerra.


''Chronicle of a Death Foretold''

''Chronicle of a Death Foretold'' (''Crónica de una muerte anunciada''), which literary critic Ruben Pelayo called a combination of journalism, realism and detective story, is inspired by a real-life murder that took place in
Sucre Sucre () is the capital of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the 6th most populated city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high altitude gives the ...
, Colombia, in 1951, but García Márquez maintained that nothing of the actual events remains beyond the point of departure and the structure. The character of Santiago Nasar is based on a good friend from García Márquez's childhood, Cayetano Gentile Chimento. The plot of the novel revolves around Santiago Nasar's murder. The narrator acts as a detective, uncovering the events of the murder as the novel proceeds. Pelayo notes that the story "unfolds in an inverted fashion. Instead of moving forward... the plot moves backward." ''Chronicle of a Death Foretold'' was published in 1981, the year before García Márquez was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. The novel was also adapted into a film by Italian director
Francesco Rosi Francesco Rosi (; 15 November 1922 – 10 January 2015) was an Italian film director. His film ''The Mattei Affair'' won the Palme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. Rosi's films, especially those of the 1960s and 1970s, often appeared to hav ...
in 1987.


''Love in the Time of Cholera''

''Love in the Time of Cholera'' (''El amor en los tiempos del cólera'') was first published in 1985. It is considered a non-traditional love story as "lovers find love in their 'golden years'—in their seventies, when death is all around them". ''Love in the Time of Cholera'' is based on the stories of two couples. The young love of Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza is based on the love affair of García Márquez's parents. But as García Márquez explained in an interview: "The only difference is y parentsmarried. And as soon as they were married, they were no longer interesting as literary figures." The love of old people is based on a newspaper story about the death of two Americans, who were almost 80 years old, who met every year in Acapulco. They were out in a boat one day and were murdered by the boatman with his oars. García Márquez notes, "Through their death, the story of their secret romance became known. I was fascinated by them. They were each married to other people."


''News of a Kidnapping''

''News of a Kidnapping'' (''Noticia de un secuestro'') was first published in 1996. It is a non-fiction book that examines a series of related
kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...
s and narcoterrorist actions committed in the early 1990s in Colombia by the Medellín Cartel, a drug cartel founded and operated by
Pablo Escobar Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed "the king of cocaine", Escobar is the wealthiest criminal i ...
. The text recounts the kidnapping, imprisonment, and eventual release of prominent figures in Colombia, including politicians and members of the press. The original idea of the book was proposed to García Márquez by the former minister for education Maruja Pachón Castro and Colombian diplomat Luis Alberto Villamizar Cárdenas, both of whom were among the many victims of Pablo Escobar's attempt to pressure the government to stop his
extradition Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...
by committing a series of kidnappings, murders and terrorist actions.


''Living to Tell the Tale'' and ''Memories of My Melancholy Whores''

In 2002 García Márquez published the memoir ''Vivir para contarla'', the first of a projected three-volume autobiography. Edith Grossman's English translation, '' Living to Tell the Tale'', was published in November 2003. October 2004 brought the publication of a novel, ''
Memories of My Melancholy Whores ''Memories of My Melancholy Whores'' ( es, link=no, Memoria de mis putas tristes) is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez. The book was originally published in Spanish in 2004, with an English translation by Edith Grossman published in October ...
'' (''Memoria de mis putas tristes''), a love story that follows the romance of a 90-year-old man and a child forced into prostitution. ''Memories of My Melancholy Whores'' caused controversy in Iran, where it was banned after an initial 5,000 copies were printed and sold.


Film and opera

Critics often describe the language that García Márquez's imagination produces as visual or graphic, and he himself explains each of his stories is inspired by "a visual image," so it comes as no surprise that he had a long and involved history with film. He was a film critic, he founded and served as executive director of the Film Institute in Havana, was the head of the Latin American Film Foundation, and wrote several screenplays. For his first script he worked with Carlos Fuentes on Juan Rulfo's ''El gallo de oro''. His other screenplays include the films '' Tiempo de morir'' (1966), (1985) and '' Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes'' (1988), as well as the television series ''Amores difíciles'' (1991). García Márquez also originally wrote his ''Eréndira'' as a third screenplay. However, this version was lost and replaced by the novella. Nonetheless, he worked on rewriting the script in collaboration with Ruy Guerra and the film was released in Mexico in 1983. Several of his stories have inspired other writers and directors. In 1987, the Italian director
Francesco Rosi Francesco Rosi (; 15 November 1922 – 10 January 2015) was an Italian film director. His film ''The Mattei Affair'' won the Palme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. Rosi's films, especially those of the 1960s and 1970s, often appeared to hav ...
directed the movie '' Cronaca di una morte annunciata'' based on ''Chronicle of a Death Foretold''. Several film adaptations have been made in Mexico, including
Miguel Littín Miguel Ernesto Littin Cucumides (born 9 August 1942) is a Chilean film director, screenwriter, film producer and novelist. He was born to a Palestinian people, Palestinian father, Hernán Littin and a Greeks, Greek mother, Cristina Cucumides. C ...
's ''La Viuda de Montiel'' (1979), Jaime Humberto Hermosillo's ''Maria de mi corazón'' (1979), and Arturo Ripstein's ''El coronel no tiene quien le escriba'' (1998). British director Mike Newell ('' Four Weddings and a Funeral'') filmed '' Love in the Time of Cholera'' in Cartagena, Colombia, with the screenplay written by Ronald Harwood ('' The Pianist''). The film was released in the U.S. on 16 November 2007. His novel ''Of Love and Other Demons'' was adapted and directed by a Costa Rican filmmaker, Hilda Hidalgo, who is a graduate of the Film Institute at Havana where García Márquez would frequently impart screenplay workshops. Hidalgo's film was released in April 2010. The same novel was adapted by Hungarian composer
Péter Eötvös Péter Eötvös ( hu, Eötvös Péter, ; born 2 January 1944) is a Hungarian composer, conductor and teacher. Eötvös was born in Székelyudvarhely, Transylvania, then part of Hungary, now Romania. He studied composition in Budapest and C ...
to form the opera '' Love and Other Demons'', premiered in 2008 at Glyndebourne Festival.


Later life and death


Declining health

In 1999 García Márquez was misdiagnosed with pneumonia instead of lymphatic cancer. Chemotherapy at a hospital in Los Angeles proved to be successful, and the illness went into remission. This event prompted García Márquez to begin writing his memoirs: "I reduced relations with my friends to a minimum, disconnected the telephone, canceled the trips and all sorts of current and future plans", he told '' El Tiempo'', the Colombian newspaper, "and locked myself in to write every day without interruption." In 2002, three years later, he published '' Living to Tell the Tale'' (''Vivir para Contarla''), the first volume in a projected trilogy of memoirs. In 2000 his impending death was incorrectly reported by Peruvian daily newspaper ''
La República LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...
''. The next day other newspapers republished his alleged farewell poem, "La Marioneta," but shortly afterward García Márquez denied being the author of the poem, which was determined to be the work of a Mexican ventriloquist. He stated that 2005 "was the first earin my life in which I haven't written even a line. With my experience, I could write a new novel without any problems, but people would realise my heart wasn't in it." In May 2008 it was announced that García Márquez was finishing a new "novel of love" that had yet to be given a title, to be published by the end of the year. However, in April 2009 his agent, Carmen Balcells, told the Chilean newspaper ''
La Tercera ''La Tercera'' ( es, The Third One), formerly known as ''La Tercera de la Hora'' ('the third of the hour'), is a daily newspaper published in Santiago, Chile and owned by Copesa. It is ''El Mercurio''s closest competitor. ''La Tercera'' is part ...
'' that García Márquez was unlikely to write again. This was disputed by Random House Mondadori editor Cristobal Pera, who stated that García Márquez was completing a new novel called ''We'll Meet in August'' (''En agosto nos vemos''). In December 2008 García Márquez told fans at the Guadalajara book fair that writing had worn him out. In 2009, responding to claims by both his literary agent and his biographer that his writing career was over, he told Colombian newspaper ''El Tiempo'': "Not only is it not true, but the only thing I do is write". In 2012 his brother Jaime announced that García Márquez was suffering from
dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
. In April 2014, García Márquez was hospitalized in Mexico. He had infections in his lungs and his urinary tract, and was suffering from
dehydration In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water, with an accompanying disruption of metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds free water intake, usually due to exercise, disease, or high environmental temperature. Mil ...
. He was responding well to antibiotics. Mexican president
Enrique Peña Nieto Enrique Peña Nieto (; born 20 July 1966), commonly referred to by his initials EPN, is a Mexican politician who served as the 64th president of Mexico from 1 December 2012 to 30 November 2018. A member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party ...
wrote on Twitter, "I wish him a speedy recovery". Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos said his country was thinking of the author and said in a tweet: "All of Colombia wishes a speedy recovery to the greatest of all time: Gabriel García Márquez."


Death and funeral

García Márquez died of pneumonia at the age of 87 on 17 April 2014, in Mexico City. His death was confirmed by Fernanda Familiar on Twitter, and by his former editor Cristóbal Pera. The Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos mentioned: "One Hundred Years of Solitude and sadness for the death of the greatest Colombian of all time". The former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez said: "Master García Márquez, thanks forever, millions of people in the planet fell in love with our nation fascinated with your lines." At the time of his death, García Márquez had a wife and two sons. García Márquez was cremated at a private family ceremony in Mexico City. On 22 April the presidents of Colombia and Mexico attended a formal ceremony in Mexico City, where García Márquez had lived for more than three decades. A funeral cortege took the urn containing his ashes from his house to the
Palacio de Bellas Artes The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It has hosted notable events in music, dance, theatre, opera and literature in Mexico and has held important exhibitions of painting, sculpture and p ...
, where the memorial ceremony was held. Earlier, residents in his home town of Aracataca in Colombia's Caribbean region held a symbolic funeral. In February 2015, the heirs of Gabriel García Marquez deposited a legacy of the writer in his Memoriam in the Caja de las Letras of the Instituto Cervantes.


Style

In every book I try to make a different path ... . One doesn't choose the style. You can investigate and try to discover what the best style would be for a theme. But the style is determined by the subject, by the mood of the times. If you try to use something that is not suitable, it just won't work. Then the critics build theories around that and they see things I hadn't seen. I only respond to our way of life, the life of the Caribbean.
García Márquez was noted for leaving out seemingly important details and events so the reader is forced into a more participatory role in the story development. For example, in ''
No One Writes to the Colonel ''No One Writes to the Colonel'' ( es, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba, links=no) is a novella written by the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It also gives its name to a short story collection. García Márquez considered it his b ...
'', the main characters are not given names. This practice is influenced by Greek tragedies, such as ''
Antigone In Greek mythology, Antigone ( ; Ancient Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is the daughter of Oedipus and either his mother Jocasta or, in another variation of the myth, Euryganeia. She is a sister of Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene.Roman, L., ...
'' and ''
Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...
'', in which important events occur off-stage and are left to the audience's imagination.


Realism and magical realism

Reality is an important theme in all of García Márquez's works. He said of his early works (with the exception of ''Leaf Storm''), "'''Nobody Writes to the Colonel''', '''In Evil Hour''', and '''Big Mama's Funeral all reflect the reality of life in Colombia and this theme determines the rational structure of the books. I don't regret having written them, but they belong to a kind of premeditated literature that offers too static and exclusive a vision of reality." In his other works he experimented more with less traditional approaches to reality, so that "the most frightful, the most unusual things are told with the deadpan expression". A commonly cited example is the physical and spiritual ascending into heaven of a character while she is hanging the laundry out to dry in '' One Hundred Years of Solitude.'' The style of these works fits in the "marvellous realm" described by the Cuban writer
Alejo Carpentier Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of Frenc ...
and was labeled as
magical realism Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to: * Magical (horse) (foaled 2015), Irish Thoroughbred racehorse * "Magical" (song), released in 1985 by John Parr * '' Magical: Disney's New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations'', ...
. Literary critic Michael Bell proposes an alternative understanding for García Márquez's style, as the category magic realism is criticized for being dichotomizing and exoticizing, "what is really at stake is a psychological suppleness which is able to inhabit unsentimentally the daytime world while remaining open to the promptings of those domains which modern culture has, by its own inner logic, necessarily marginalised or repressed." García Márquez and his friend Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza discuss his work in a similar way,
The way you treat reality in your books ... has been called magical realism. I have the feeling your European readers are usually aware of the magic of your stories but fail to see the reality behind it .... This is surely because their rationalism prevents them seeing that reality isn't limited to the price of tomatoes and eggs.


Themes


Solitude

The theme of solitude runs through much of García Márquez's works. As Pelayo notes, "''Love in the Time of Cholera'', like all of Gabriel García Márquez's work, explores the solitude of the individual and of humankind...portrayed through the solitude of love and of being in love". In response to Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza's question, "If solitude is the theme of all your books, where should we look for the roots of this over-riding emotion? In your childhood perhaps?" García Márquez replied, "I think it's a problem everybody has. Everyone has his own way and means of expressing it. The feeling pervades the work of so many writers, although some of them may express it unconsciously." In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, '' Solitude of Latin America'', he relates this theme of solitude to the Latin American experience, "The interpretation of our reality through patterns not our own, serves only to make us ever more unknown, ever less free, ever more solitary."


Macondo

Another important theme in many of García Márquez's work is the setting of the village he calls
Macondo Macondo is a fictional town described in Gabriel García Márquez's novel '' One Hundred Years of Solitude''. It is the home town of the Buendía family. Aracataca Macondo is often supposed to draw from García Márquez's childhood town, Aracat ...
. He uses his home town of Aracataca, Colombia as a cultural, historical and geographical reference to create this imaginary town, but the representation of the village is not limited to this specific area. García Márquez shares, "Macondo is not so much a place as a state of mind, which allows you to see what you want, and how you want to see it." Even when his stories do not take place in Macondo, there is often still a consistent lack of specificity to the location. So while they are often set with "a Caribbean coastline and an Andean hinterland... he settings areotherwise unspecified, in accordance with García Márquez's evident attempt to capture a more general regional myth rather than give a specific political analysis." This fictional town has become well known in the literary world. As Stavans notes of Macondo, "its geography and inhabitants constantly invoked by teachers, politicians, and tourist agents..." makes it "...hard to believe it is a sheer fabrication." In ''Leaf Storm'' García Márquez depicts the realities of the ''Banana Boom'' in Macondo, which include a period of great wealth during the presence of the US companies and a period of depression upon the departure of the American banana companies. As well, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' takes place in Macondo and tells the complete history of the fictional town from its founding to its doom. In his autobiography, García Márquez explains his fascination with the word and concept Macondo. He describes a trip he made with his mother back to Aracataca as a young man:
The train stopped at a station that had no town, and a short while later it passed the only banana plantation along the route that had its name written over the gate: ''Macondo''. This word had attracted my attention ever since the first trips I had made with my grandfather, but I discovered only as an adult that I liked its poetic resonance. I never heard anyone say it and did not even ask myself what it meant...I happened to read in an encyclopedia that it is a tropical tree resembling the Ceiba.


La Violencia

In several of García Márquez's works, including ''No One Writes to the Colonel'', ''In Evil Hour'', and ''Leaf Storm'', he referenced '' La Violencia'' (the violence), "a brutal civil war between conservatives and liberals that lasted into the 1960s, causing the deaths of several hundred thousand Colombians". Throughout all of his novels there are subtle references to ''la violencia''. For example, characters live under various unjust situations like curfew, press censorship, and underground newspapers. ''In Evil Hour'', while not one of García Márquez's most famous novels, is notable for its portrayal of ''la violencia'' with its "fragmented portrayal of social disintegration provoked by ''la violencia''". Although García Márquez did portray the corrupt nature and the injustices of times like ''la violencia'', he refused to use his work as a platform for political propaganda. "For him, the duty of the revolutionary writer is to write well, and the ideal novel is one that moves its reader by its political and social content, and, at the same time, by its power to penetrate reality and expose its other side.


Legacy

García Márquez's work is an important part of the Latin American Boom of literature, often defined around his works, and those of
Julio Cortázar Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine, nationalized French novelist, short story writer, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an ...
, Carlos Fuentes, and
Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
. His work has challenged critics of Colombian literature to step out of the conservative criticism that had been dominant before the success of ''One Hundred Years of Solitude''. In a review of literary criticism Robert Sims notes, Following his death, García Márquez's family made the decision to deposit his papers and some of his personal effects at The University of Texas at Austin's
Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...
, a humanities research library and museum.


Nobel Prize

García Márquez received the
Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...
on 10 December 1982 "for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts". His acceptance speech was entitled " The Solitude of Latin America". García Márquez was the first Colombian and fourth Latin American to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. After becoming a Nobel laureate, García Márquez stated to a correspondent: "I have the impression that in giving me the prize, they have taken into account the literature of the sub-continent and have awarded me as a way of awarding all of this literature".


García Márquez in fiction

*A year after his death, García Márquez appears as a notable character in Claudia Amengual's novel '' Cartagena'', set in Uruguay and Colombia. * In
John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author, YouTube content creator, podcaster, and philanthropist. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including '' The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is ...
's novel '' Looking for Alaska'', García Márquez is mentioned several times. * In
Reinaldo Arenas Reinaldo Arenas (July 16, 1943 – December 7, 1990) was a Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright known as a vocal critic of Fidel Castro, the Cuban Revolution, and the Cuban government. His memoir of the Cuban dissident movement and of being a po ...
's novel '' The Color of Summer, or the New Garden of Earthly Delights'', García Marquez is vilified as "Gabriel García Markoff". * In Giannina Braschi's ''Empire of Dreams'', the protagonist Mariquita Samper shoots the narrator of the Latin American Boom, presumed by critics to be the figure of García Marquez; in Braschi's
Spanglish Spanglish (a portmanteau of the words "Spanish" and "English") is any language variety (such as a contact dialect, hybrid language, pidgin, or creole language) that results from conversationally combining Spanish and English. The term is m ...
novel Yo-Yo Boing! characters debate the importance of García Marquez and
Isabel Allende Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born in Lima, 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as ''The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...
during a heated dinner party scene.


List of works


Novels

* '' In Evil Hour'' (1962) * '' One Hundred Years of Solitude'' (1967) * '' The Autumn of the Patriarch'' (1975) * '' Love in the Time of Cholera'' (1985) * '' The General in His Labyrinth'' (1989) * '' Of Love and Other Demons'' (1994)


Novellas

* ''
Leaf Storm ''Leaf Storm'' is the common translation for Gabriel García Márquez's novella ''La Hojarasca''. First published in 1955, it took seven years to find a publisher. Widely celebrated as the first appearance of Macondo, the fictitious village later m ...
'' (1955) * ''
No One Writes to the Colonel ''No One Writes to the Colonel'' ( es, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba, links=no) is a novella written by the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It also gives its name to a short story collection. García Márquez considered it his b ...
'' (1961) * ''
Chronicle of a Death Foretold ''Chronicle of a Death Foretold'' ( es, Crónica de una muerte anunciada) is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981. It tells, in the form of a pseudo- journalistic reconstruction, the story of the murder of Santiago Nasar by ...
'' (1981) * ''
Memories of My Melancholy Whores ''Memories of My Melancholy Whores'' ( es, link=no, Memoria de mis putas tristes) is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez. The book was originally published in Spanish in 2004, with an English translation by Edith Grossman published in October ...
'' (2004)


Short story collections

* ''Eyes of a Blue Dog'' (1947) * ''Big Mama's Funeral'' (1962) * ''The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother'' (1972) * ''Collected Stories'' (1984) * '' Strange Pilgrims'' (1993)


Non-fiction

* '' The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor'' (1970) * '' The Solitude of Latin America'' (1982) * '' The Fragrance of Guava'' (1982, with Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza) * '' Clandestine in Chile'' (1986) * '' Changing the History of Africa: Angola and Namibia'' (1991, with David Deutschmann) * ''
News of a Kidnapping ''News of a Kidnapping'' (original Spanish title: ''Noticia de un secuestro'') is a non-fiction book by Gabriel García Márquez. It was first published in Spanish in 1996, with an English translation released in 1997. Contents The book recoun ...
'' (1996) * '' A Country for Children'' (1998) * '' Living to Tell the Tale'' (2002) * ''The Scandal of the Century: Selected Journalistic Writings, 1950–1984'' (2019)


Films


Adaptations based on his works

* '' There Are No Thieves in This Village'' (1965, Alberto Isaac) * '' Patsy, My Love'' (1969, Manuel Michel, based on a non-published story) * ''
The Widow of Montiel ''The Widow of Montiel'' ( es, La Viuda de Montiel) is a 1979 Mexican-Colombian drama film directed by Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littín. It is based on a short story of the same name by Gabriel García Marquez. It was entered into the 30th Berl ...
'' (1979,
Miguel Littín Miguel Ernesto Littin Cucumides (born 9 August 1942) is a Chilean film director, screenwriter, film producer and novelist. He was born to a Palestinian people, Palestinian father, Hernán Littin and a Greeks, Greek mother, Cristina Cucumides. C ...
) * '' The Sea of Lost Time'' (1980,
Solveig Hoogesteijn Solveig Hoogesteijn, born in Sweden, is a noted Venezuelan motion picture writer, producer and director. Film creations She wrote, produced and directed '' El Mar del tiempo perdido'' (''The Sea of Lost Time, 1981'') ''Manoa'' (1980), Manoa - Fl ...
) * '' One Hundred Years of Solitude'' (1981,
Shūji Terayama was a Japanese avant-garde poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground (''Angura'') theatre, countercultural essays, to Japanese New Wave and "expanded" cinema ...
) * ''
Farewell to the Ark ''Farewell to the Ark'' ( ja, さらば箱舟, translit. Saraba hakobune) is a 1984 Japanese mystery film directed by Shūji Terayama, loosely based on the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was entered into the 1985 Cannes Film Fest ...
'' (1984,
Shūji Terayama was a Japanese avant-garde poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground (''Angura'') theatre, countercultural essays, to Japanese New Wave and "expanded" cinema ...
) * '' Time to Die'' (1984,
Jorge Alí Triana Jorge Ali Triana Varon (born April 4, 1942 in Bogotá, Colombia) is a Colombian theatre director and film director. He studied theater and film in Czechoslovakia and in Berlin. It is one of the founders of the Popular Theater of Bogota in 1967, ...
) * ''
Chronicle of a Death Foretold ''Chronicle of a Death Foretold'' ( es, Crónica de una muerte anunciada) is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981. It tells, in the form of a pseudo- journalistic reconstruction, the story of the murder of Santiago Nasar by ...
'' (1987,
Francesco Rosi Francesco Rosi (; 15 November 1922 – 10 January 2015) was an Italian film director. His film ''The Mattei Affair'' won the Palme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. Rosi's films, especially those of the 1960s and 1970s, often appeared to hav ...
) * '' The Summer of Miss Forbes'' (1989, Jaime Humberto Hermosillo) * '' I'm the One You're Looking For'' (1989,
Jaime Chávarri Jaime Chávarri (born 20 March 1943) is a Spanish film director and screenwriter, best known for his films '' El desencanto'' and '' Las bicicletas son para el verano''. Life and career Chávarri comes from a prominent family. His mother Ma ...
) * '' Only Death Is Bound to Come'' (1992, Marina Tsurtsumia) * '' Bloody Morning'' (1993, Shaohong Li) * ''
No One Writes to the Colonel ''No One Writes to the Colonel'' ( es, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba, links=no) is a novella written by the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It also gives its name to a short story collection. García Márquez considered it his b ...
'' (1999, Arturo Ripstein) * '' In Evil Hour'' (2005, Ruy Guerra) * '' Love in the Time of Cholera'' (2007, Mike Newell) * '' Of Love and Other Demons'' (2009, Hilda Hidalgo) * ''
Memories of My Melancholy Whores ''Memories of My Melancholy Whores'' ( es, link=no, Memoria de mis putas tristes) is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez. The book was originally published in Spanish in 2004, with an English translation by Edith Grossman published in October ...
'' (2011,
Henning Carlsen Henning Carlsen (4 June 1927 – 30 May 2014) was a Danish film director, screenwriter, and producer most noted for his documentaries and his contributions to the style of cinéma vérité. Carlsen's 1966 social-realistic drama ''Hunger'' (''Su ...
) * Encanto (2021,
Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fr ...
)


See also

* The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World * Latin American Boom * Latin American Literature *
McOndo McOndo is a Latin American literary movement that breaks with the magical realism mode of narration, and counters it with languages borrowed from mass media. The literature of McOndo presents urban Latin American life, in opposition to the fictio ...
*
Vallenato Vallenato () or "Szlager" in Wayuu language (from the German "Schlager"), is a popular folk music genre from Colombia. It primarily comes from its Caribbean region. ''Vallenato'' literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing t ...


Notes


References


General bibliography

* * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * Hernández, Consuelo. "''El Amor en los tiempos del cólera'' es una novela popular." Diario la Prensa: New York, 4 October. 1987. * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * .


Further reading

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia Marquez, Gabriel 1927 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Colombian novelists 20th-century Colombian poets 20th-century Colombian writers 20th-century essayists 20th-century journalists 20th-century non-fiction writers 20th-century screenwriters 20th-century short story writers 21st-century Colombian novelists 21st-century Colombian poets 21st-century Colombian writers 21st-century essayists 21st-century journalists 21st-century memoirists 21st-century non-fiction writers 21st-century screenwriters 21st-century short story writers Colombian autobiographers Colombian essayists Colombian expatriates in Mexico Colombian literature Colombian male novelists Colombian male poets Colombian male short story writers Colombian male writers Colombian Nobel laureates Colombian non-fiction writers Colombian political writers Colombian screenwriters Male screenwriters Colombian socialists Cultural critics Deaths from pneumonia in Mexico Fabulists Magic realism writers Memoirists Mestizo writers National University of Colombia alumni Nobel laureates in Literature People from Magdalena Department People with Alzheimer's disease Postmodern writers Recipients of the Legion of Honour Social commentators Social critics Speechwriters Surrealist writers Urban fantasy writers Weird fiction writers Writers about activism and social change Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age