Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a famous Colombian writer. Also known as a publisher, journalist, and politician. One of the most prominent representatives of the literary movement, known as magical realism. In 1982 he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Writer childhood
Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born in 1927. He was born in the town of Aracataca, in Colombia. It is located in the department of Magdalena.
His father was a pharmacist. When the boy was two years old, his parents moved to Sucre. At the same time, Gabriel Garcia himself remained to live in Aracatac. His upbringing was engaged in maternal grandfather and grandmother. Each of them was a brilliant storyteller, thanks to them, the future writer became acquainted with numerous folk traditions, as well as linguistic features. In his work, they were of great importance.
In 1936, grandfather died, 9-year-old Gabriel Garcia Marquez moved to his parents. His father at that time owned a pharmacy in Sucre.
Marquez education
The hero of our article received primary education at a Jesuit college in the town of Sipakira. He moved there when he was 13 years old. This is a small village located just 30 kilometers from the capital Bogota.
In 1946, his parents insisted that he enroll in law at the National University of Bogota. At the university, he met his future wife named Mercedes. Interesting fact: she was also the daughter of a pharmacist.
In 1950, the future writer dropped out to become a journalist and writer. As the author himself later admitted, Virginia Wolf, William Faulkner, Franz Kafka and Ernest Hemingway had the greatest influence on him .
Work as a journalist
Gabriel Garcia began his journalistic career in the newspaper of the town of Barranquilla. Soon he became an active member of the creative group of writers and a journalist of this locality. There he was inspired to become a writer in the future.
In 1954, Marquez moved to the capital. In Bogota, he began to actively publish small articles on various topics and film reviews.
In 1956, the hero of our article goes to Europe. He settles in Paris, writes reports and articles for Colombian newspapers. But at the same time, it is not possible to earn big money, therefore he experiences certain financial difficulties.
Having become famous, Marquez admits that at that time he had to collect old newspapers and bottles because several santims were given for them. The food, at times, was lacking so much that the hero of our article borrowed the remains of the bones from the butcher to cook himself a stew.
Marquez in the USSR
In 1957, Marquez visited the USSR. He came to the Soviet Union at a festival of youth and students. An interesting fact is that he did not have a special invitation. In Leipzig, he managed to get along with a group of Colombian artists from the folk art ensemble. It helped that he sang well, danced and even played drums and guitar.
He wrote about his trip to the Soviet Union in the essay "USSR: 22.4 million square kilometers without a single Coca-Cola advertisement!" In 1957, the writer moved to Venezuela and settled in Caracas.
In 1958, he briefly came to Colombia to marry a Mercedes Barcha. Already together they return to Venezuela. In 1959, they born the first-born, who is called Rodrigo. In the future, he will become a filmmaker. He will receive an award at the Cannes International Film Festival and film one of the episodes of the black comedy "Four Rooms".
In 1961, the family moved to Mexico. Three years later, they have another son, Gonzalo. He became a graphic designer.
First publications
In parallel with the work of a journalist, Marquez begins to write. In 1961 he published his novel "Nobody Writes to Colonel." It remains unnoticed, readers did not appreciate it. The circulation of the work is 2 thousand copies. Manages to sell less than half.
Marquez dedicates his first work to the 75-year-old veteran of the Millennium War in Colombia. After the death of his son, he lives in poverty with his wife on the outskirts of the city. His whole life lies in waiting for a letter from the capital - he should be assigned a pension as a war veteran. But the officials are silent. The only ones who support him are the friends of his son. He was killed for distributing political leaflets; his associates are also clandestinely conducting opposition activities.
In 1966, Marquez released the novel "The Bad Hour."
"One Hundred Years of Solitude"
World wide popularity Marquez brings the novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude." Gabriel Garcia publishes it in 1967. For him, he received many awards. By all accounts, this is a key work, thanks to which the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. His Nobel lecture was called "The Loneliness of Latin America."
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a work whose main events take place in the fictional town of Macondo. But at the same time they are directly related to the history of all of Colombia.
At the center of the story is the Buendia family. For several generations, various members of this kind have ruled the city. Some lead him to development, others turn into cruel dictators. A civil war is raging in the country, which has been going on for several decades. The city flourishes when a banana company comes into it. But soon the workers staged a demonstration, which the National Army shoots. The bodies of the dead are dumped into the sea.
After that, rain falls on the city, which does not stop for five years. The last Buendia is born, who will live in an abandoned and deserted Macondo. The novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel GarcĂa Márquez ends with the fact that the city and houses of BuendĂa wipe the tornado off the face of the earth.
Marquez novels
Among his prose works, novels must be distinguished. In 1975, he publishes Autumn of the Patriarch, which tells about the life of a Latin American dictator, which is a collective image of all tyrants.
After 10 years, another of his novels is released entitled "Love during Cholera." It is about a girl named Fermina Dasa who marries a doctor Urbino, passionate about the fight against cholera. Interestingly, in Russia, the novel was also released under the title "Love during the Plague."
In 1989, Marquez released the novel "The General in his Maze" about the last days of the life of the fighter for the independence of the Spanish colonies, Simon Bolivar. The author’s last novel was the work “On Love and Other Demons”. All the books of Gabriel Garcia Marquez were successful with readers. They also appeared in large numbers in Russia.
Illness and death
In 2000, under the name of GarcĂa Márquez, the poem "The Doll" appears, which confirms the rumors about the deadly disease of the Nobel laureate. True, it soon became clear that the real author of this work is Mexican ventriloquist Johnny Welch. Later, both acknowledge the fact of error. However, still on the Internet you can find excerpts from this poem, signed by the name of the hero of our article.
In fact, a cancerous tumor in the lungs was discovered by the writer back in 1989. Most likely, the reason was his addiction to cigarettes. During work, he could smoke three packs a day. In 1992, a successful operation was performed, thanks to which the development of the disease was stopped.
In 1999, doctors diagnosed him with lymphoma. After the most complicated operations in the USA and Mexico, he underwent a long rehabilitation course.
In 2014, the writer was hospitalized with a pulmonary infection. April 17, he died at the 88th year of life. The cause of death is renal failure.