| Celebrating Hispanic
Heritage Month
The
Life and Works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Resources at the SJRCC
Libraries
"Born in 1928, Garcia Marquez spent the first eight years
of his life in the small Colombian village of Aracataca. His grandmother
cultivated his imagination with fantastic stories of Colombian history
and myth. Her influence, combined with the superstitions and myths
of the townspeople, provided the writer with a rich background from
which he created his fiction. Upon returning to Aracataca some years
later, Garcia Marquez found the town suffering from many years of
economic and social decline. A sense of nostalgia for his first
home spurred his sense of history and his desire to preserve the
great myths and stories of his childhood.
Garcia Marquez attended the University of Bogota. In 1948 it closed
down due to civil warfare, and he transferred to the University
of Cartegena and entered the journalism field. He eventually left
school to pursue this career full time, publishing short pieces
of fiction in addition to news stories. His first novella, La hojarasca,
was published in 1955. It was translated into English in 1972 as
the title piece in Leaf Storm and Other Stories, which included
the translation of "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World."
Meanwhile, Garcia Marquez's journalism had become increasingly political.
After writing a series of articles exposing the carrying of contraband
cargo by the Colombian navy, he moved to Europe to avoid the wrath
of the government.
Most of Garcia Marquez's short stories were written in the late
1940s and early 1950s. Many of these were collected and published
in 1972 under such titles as Ojos de perro azul (Eyes of a Blue
Dog), and La incredible y triste historia de la candida Erendira
y de su abuela desalmada (The Incredible and Sad Story of Poor Erendira
and Her Heartless Grandmother). Critics generally considered these
works unconventional because of their use of such experimental techniques
as multiple narrators, shifting points of view, and fantastic events.
Another collection, Los funerales de la Mama Grande (The Funeral
of Big Mama), found an enthusiastic audience who admired its use
of archetypal, mythical characters who function in timeless, often
nameless, places.
Garcia Marquez remains best known, however, for his many novels.
He achieved world wide fame for his 1967 masterpiece Cien anos de
soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude), which tells the history
of the fictional village of Macondo, based on the real history of
Aracataca. After living in Paris, and then returning to Colombia,
Garcia Marquez settled in Mexico, where he now resides. He is widely
considered Colombia's foremost writer. In 1982 he was awarded the
Nobel Prize for literature, an indication of his worldwide reputation."
"Gabriel Garcia Marquez." LitFinder
Contemporary Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Literature
Resources from Gale. Web. 31 Aug. 2010.
Each month the library
features a topic or person. Check
out past features. |