Gabriel García Márquez, one of the main authors of the so-called magical realism in Latin American literature, is a writer, journalist, editor, activist and politician. Born in Colombia, is considered one of the most important authors of the 20th century, recognition materialized in the 1972 receipt of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and, in 1982, the Nobel Prize for Literature. Author of a vast work, published from short stories, novels and non-fiction texts. His most acclaimed works are the novels One hundred years of Solitude and Love in times of cholera.
Read too: José Saramago – Portuguese author winner of the Nobel Prize and Camões Prize
Biography of Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José García Márquez was born on March 6, 1927, in the Colombian city of Aracataca. He was the eldest of 11 siblings, but he lived a period of childhood away from his parents' home, when, from 5 to 9 years old, he was raised by his maternal grandparents.
After the death of his grandfather, in 1936, Gabriel, or Gabo, as he was called by his friends, returned to live with his parents in the city of Sucre, where, at the age of 10, he wrote humorous verses. Through a scholarship he won, he began, when he was 13, studying at the Liceu Nacional de Zipaquirá. After completing his studies at this institution, young Gabriel moved to Bogotá, the capital of his country, to study law at the National University. During this period, he began his work as a journalist at Jornal
El Universal.
In the early 1940s, Gabriel García Márquez joined the Grupo de Barranquilla, a literary group of friends whose leader was Ramón Vinyes, owner of a bookstore with a large collection of works from Spanish, Italian, French and English literature, which enabled the author of One hundred years of Solitude read the classics.
In 1955, García Márquez published his first book, The Flight (The Devil's Burial), the year he also won first prize in the Association of Writers and Artists competition. As a journalist, he served as the newspaper's international correspondent the spectator in Geneva and Rome, as well as spending time in Paris, Poland, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.
In March 1958, he married Mercedes Barchay and they had two children: Rodrigo (1959) and Gonzalo (1962). director of the newly created Cuban news agencyLatin press. In 1960 he spent six months in Cuba and the following year he was sent to New York. Later he went to live in Mexico, where he wrote most of his work and where passed away on April 17, 2014.
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Literary Characteristics of Gabriel García Márquez
The fictional works of Gabriel García Márquez are characterized by present elements of the literary current rrealism mmagic, that is, aspects magical or fantastic that distance themselves from rational reality. They contribute to the construction of a plot that breaks with the pragmatic reality:
absence of logical and rational sense;
absurd situations that contradict natural laws;
events that cannot be explained by reason;
actions that generate estrangement in readers;
presence of a tone of mystery throughout the plot;
language more metaphorical and allegorical.
See too: Fantastic tale – short narrative with unlikely elements
Works by Gabriel García Márquez
The Flock (The Devil's Burial) (1955);
Report of a castaway (1955);
no one writes to the colonel (1961);
Big Mom's Funerals (1962);
tuesday nap (1962);
Bad time: the poison of dawn (1962);
One hundred years of Solitude (1967);
The last voyage of the ghost ship (1968);
A very old man with huge wings (1968);
The incredible and sad story of Cândida Eréndira and her heartless grandmother (1972);
blue dog eyes (1972);
The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975);
Maria of pleasures (1979);
Chronicle of an announced death (1981);
Caribbean Texts (1948-1952) - Journalistic Work - Volume 1 (1981);
Andean Texts (1954-1955) - Journalistic Work - Volume 2 (1982);
guava smell (1982);
from Europe and America - (1955-1960) - Journalistic Work - Volume 3 (1983);
Political Reports (1974-1995) - Journalistic Work - Volume 4 (1984);
love in times of cholera (1985);
Mrs Forbes' Happy Summer (1986);
Miguel Litín Clandestino's Adventure in Chile (1986);
the general in his labyrinth (1989);
Chronicles (1961-1984) - Journalistic Work - Volume 5 (1991);
Among friends (1990);
twelve pilgrim tales (1992);
of love and other demons (1994);
news of a kidnapping (1996);
how to tell a tale (1998);
live to tell (2002);
Memories of my sad bitches (2004);
I didn't come to make a speech (2010).
love in times of cholera
Published in 1985, the romancelove in times of cholera narrates the love story that spans more than 53 years, between the telegraphist, violinist and poet Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. The unusual thing about this plot is the fact that, throughout all this time, they had little physical contact, maintaining a dialogue almost always through correspondence.
Florentino Ariza, a postal worker, went to deliver a letter to the home of Lorenzo Daza, father of a young woman named Fermina, to whom Florentino is immediately attracted. From that moment on, he starts to court her through very romantic letters, which awakens the young woman's passion for the postman. However, the girl's father, upon discovering who the daughter's suitor was, is indignant, after all, he could not accept a postal courier as his son-in-law. To avoid this union, Lorenzo sends his daughter to the home of a relative who lives far away, as well as threatening Florentino.
When Fermina returns to her father's house, some time later, she no longer gives vent to Florentino's advances, who, not understanding the change in the behavior of his loved one, he begins to brood over the sufferings of a love not matched.
Another fact changes the direction of the narrative: the suspicion that Fermina contracted cholera. In this moment of illness, the girl receives constant visits from Dr. Juvenal Urbino. This young doctor falls in love with his patient, who at first shows no interest in him, but later surrenders to his advances. Married, Juvenal and Fermina have several children. Florentino remains single and still devoted to his love for Fermina.
Many years pass, and despite being married, Fermina sometimes thinks about what it would be like if she had married Florentino. This, in turn, gets involved with other women, but without getting deeply involved. This work by Gabriel García Márquez, which was adapted for film in 2007, is a classic of unrequited love.
The fictional work was based on the true story of the parents of Gabriel García Márquez. The author's father, Gabriel Elígio Garciá, who was a telegraphist, violinist and poet, as well as the character of Love in times of cholera, he fell in love with the young Luiza Márquez. The romance between the two, however, faced resistance from the girl's father, Colonel Nicolas, who tried to prevent his daughter's marriage by sending her to the interior of the country.
To keep his love, Gabriel rode, with the help from telegrapher friends, a communication network that reached Luiza wherever she was. García Márquez, therefore, pays homage to the unusual story of his parents in this novel, which, in 2007, was adapted for movie screens.
Gabriel García Márquez Awards
- ESSO Novel Prize (1961);
- Doctor Honoris Causa at Columbia University, New York (1971);
- Medal of the French Legion in Paris (1981);
- Águila Azteca Award, in Mexico (1982);
- Nobel Prize for Literature (1982);
- Forty years award from the Bogotá Journalistic Circle (1985);
- Honorary member of the Instituto Caro y Cuervo, Bogotá (1993);
- Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Cadiz (1994)
Also access: Julio Cortázar – Argentine author who also had marks of magical realism
Quotes by Gabriel García Márquez
“We are all hostages to our prejudices”.
“Whoever does not have God, let him have superstitions”.
"A writer only writes a single book, although that book appears in many volumes, with different titles."
"You can't imagine how heavy a dead man is."
“Loneliness, for me, is the opposite of solidarity”.
"I think the inability to love is what drives them to seek the solace of power."
“Better arriving on time than being invited”.
“I would say that machismo, both in men and in women, is nothing more than the usurpation of the rights of others”.
“I don't believe in a third alternative: I believe in many”.
"Latin America does not want, nor has any reason to want to, to be a mass of maneuver, without a will of its own".
Image credit
[1] Jose Lara / commons
By Leandro Guimarães
Literature teacher
