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Gabriel Garcia Marquez Birth Anniversary: Remembering the legendary author
Born Gabriel Jose de la Concordia Garcia Marquez on March 6, 1927, the novelist, short-story writer and screenwriter, affectionately called Gabo or Gabito, was born in Aracataca, a small Colombian town on March 6, 1927.
“Because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth” - Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Reading the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and comprehending the stories that exist in-between the lines that Gabo wrote, are two completely different entities. Riddled with shades of fatalism, fantasy, cruelty and heroics, the works of Marquez take on a new identity with every fresh read - taking on the hues of the reader’s perception and imagination.
Born Gabriel Jose de la Concordia Garcia Marquez on March 6, 1927, the novelist, short-story writer and screenwriter, affectionately called Gabo or Gabito, was born in Aracataca, a small Colombian town on March 6, 1927.
The eldest of 11 children of Luisa Santiaga Marquez and Gabriel Elijio Garcia, a telegraphist and a wandering homeopathic pharmacist, Gabo won the 1982 Novel Prize in Literature.
The author had one of the most iconic feuds in literary history. The rivalry between the Colombian writer and the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa is well documented.
Onetime best of friends, the feuds had all the elements of a literary classic, accusations of betrayal, jealousy and adultery, and a brutal encounter over 31 years ago when things turned bloody with Vargas Llosa punching him in the face.
Above all, it was Marquez who introduced the masses to magical realism – which is a blend of fantastic elements into portrayals of daily life that made the extraordinary seem both routine and normal.
From the condemned lives in Macondo, to the sense of romance in Of Love and Other Demons or the fiery passion exemplified in Love in the time of Cholera, the works of Gabo are marked for their memorable quotes and thoughts. Here’s looking at a few:
...time was not passing...it was turning in a circle...
It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.
A true friend is the one who holds your hand and touches your heart
He was still too young to know that the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.
He dug so deeply into her sentiments that in search of interest he found love, because by trying to make her love him he ended up falling in love with her.
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The works of Garcia Marquez go beyond boundaries and realms. Yes, they are fantastical, but often embody several truths about the human condition. His works portray the magical in reality, turning them from being something prosaic into a thing that is ephemeral.
One Hundred Years of Solitude: Published in 1967, the novel tells a multi-generational story of the Buendia family, whose patriarch founded Macondo, a fictitious town in Colombia. The novel is known for its elements of magic realism and is considered to be Garcia Marquez’ magnum opus.
Love in the Time of Cholera: The 1985 novel traces the journey of love between Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. The novel is partly based on the love story of Garcia Marquez’ parents. It is considered to be a non-traditional love story in that the protagonists find love in their 70s when their contemporaries are dying around them.
Of Love and Other Demons: The book is based on a legend the author was told by his mum when he was a teenager. The 1994 novel deals with the life of a Sierva Maria de Todos Los Angeles, the daughter of a Marquis. In the novel, her hair is never cut and is promised to the saints. She contracts rabies but was believed to be a ‘miracle-worker’, with long flowing copper hair that continues to grow after death.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold: The novella by Garcia Marquez, published in 1981 tells the story of the murder of Santiago Nasar by the Vicario twins in a non-linear manner.
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No One Writes to the Colonel: The novella is the story of an impoverished and retired colonel who is a veteran of the Thousand Days’ War. The novella sees him still hoping to receive the pension he was promised some 15 years earlier.
Garcia Marquez had once said the novella was inspired by his grandfather, who was also a colonel and never received the pension he was promised.
Memories of My Melancholy Whores: The novella that was originally published in Spanish in 2004. It sees a nonagenarian journalist seeking sex with a young prostitute, who is selling her virginity to help her family. However, instead of just engaging in a sexual activity, for the first time in life, he discovers love.
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